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By Genevieve Pollock NEW YORK, DEC. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Today in New York City, a Catholic health center for women officially opened with a waiting list of patients eager for its particular approach to reproductive care and family planning. Doctor Anne Mielnik, the director of "Gianna -- The Catholic Health Care Center for Women," explained to ZENIT that her clinic is only one piece of the last pro-life bastion in the city. The center is owned by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, the last of its kind in a city that once numbered 15 Catholic hospitals. Mielnik stated that the Sisters...

Evangelical Alliance Ireland has controversially suggested that Christians should support a Bill that would extend the rights and privileges of marriage to homosexual couples who register their partnerships. The suggestion has drawn fire from other evangelical groups. The Irish Government’s Civil Partnership Bill would grant welfare and tax benefits on a par with marriage to homosexual and heterosexual cohabiting couples who enter a civil partnership. Evangelical Alliance Ireland’s General Director, Sean Mullan, claimed in a statement: “The Government is seeking to legislate for greater justice and fairness for co-habiting couples, both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. As Christians we should support...

http://nobeliefs.com/gifts.htm after looking at this. it's a reminder of how evil militant atheists can be.

Today's feast day is more than Pope Pius IX's 1854 infallible proclamation, as important as that Dogma was and is. Today's feast day, which issues not only from the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus but its echo at the Grotto in Lourdes four years later, demonstrates that the Virgin Mary, with all Her wonderful titles, wants to be known by that name. And the reason is not so much that she was conceived without sin, but that through her humility before God She continued without sin until the day She was assumed into Heaven. It is for this reason Her prayer...

The Roman Catholic bishops need more time. That is the recent word from Sen. Ben Nelson — news reports noted that before he introduces his amendment to restrict women’s access to coverage under health care reform, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs more time to review it. Why is it that the bishops are more concerned with restricting millions of American women from making health care decisions that are best for them and their families than they are with ensuring that millions of Americans — women, men, children, immigrants, the poor, the middle class — get much-needed health insurance?...

Amendment precludes use of federal dollars for elective abortion coverage Bishops want Stupak-style House amendment included in Senate bill Oppose making people pay for other people’s abortions WASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops have voiced support for the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment to the Senate health reform bill and have asked voters to back it. The bishops took the position in a Dec. 7 letter to all U.S. senators, after Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Robert Casey (D-PA) proposed an amendment to prevent the health reform bill from using federal funds to pay for health plans that include elective abortions. The ban...

For two decades, the Religious Right has reveled in the successes of their crusade to erode the wall separating church and state. Since America's sharp Left turn in 2008, they have not been so quick to gloat. Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said, "I'm not grieving over Barack Obama's victory, but over the loss of things that I've fought for, for 35 years," particularly concerning abortion rights and advancement of the so-called homosexual agenda. The Religious Right itself seems to be taking a soul-searching sabbatical, to get back in touch with its deeper mission: to live...

Vatican City, Dec 7, 2009 / 11:42 am (CNA).- In a meeting with a group of Brazilian bishops on Saturday, the Holy Father warned of the dangers of Marxist liberation theology and noted its grave consequences for ecclesial communities. During the ad limina visit, the Pope recalled that “last August marked 25 years since the Instruction “Libertatis nuntius” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on certain aspects of liberation theology. The document "highlights the danger involved in the uncritical absorption, by certain theologians, of theses and methodologies that come from Marxism." The Pope warned that the “more...

Mainline Protestant churches seem to have weathered the past decade better than many people have assumed, but the future is raising serious challenges to continued stability, said a Christian pollster. George Barna analyzed data for The Barna Group's latest report examining mainline denominations. Weekend attendance at mainline churches has remained relatively stable, ranging from 89 to 100, over the past decade but the report suggests that they may be "on the precipice of a period of decline." Mainline bodies – which the research group identifies as American Baptist Churches in the USA; The Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

Editor's Note: Originally written in 1927, Ronald Knox's The Belief of Catholics remains a fresh, engaging, and timely work of apologetics. Part of the reason is that Knox was a brilliant stylist. Another is that he had a gift for going to the heart of a matter. In this excerpt he considers the growing skepticism and faddish denial of dogma of his time, and in so doing sheds light on problems that continue to perplex Christians today. It appears, then, that the two processes are going on side by side, the decline of Church membership and the decline of dogma;...

Mary Kay Henry Washington D.C., Dec 7, 2009 / 05:44 pm (CNA).- On Monday, Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, media director for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops spoke with CNA, clarifying the role of Service Employees Union executive and gay rights activist Mary Kay Henry with the bishops' conference.Sr. Walsh noted that in the past, Mary Kay Henry was chosen by the unions to take part in a dialogue with the USCCB but left in 2006.She was not appointed by the bishops, Sr. Walsh explained.Last Friday it was discovered that Henry is listed on the USCCB website as...

With an international conference of philosophers, scientists, and artists, all aimed at putting God back at the center of a culture that denies him. And meanwhile, Benedict XVI teaches that God reveals himself not to the learned, but to the "little ones" ROME, December 7, 2009 – Halfway through the season of Advent, an international event is being held in Rome that has at its center that God "who has come, who is coming, and who is to come." The event is organized by the Italian bishops' conference, more precisely by the committee for the cultural project headed by Cardinal...

Please do not attempt to wake me up from what seemed like a dream from the very first day. Do not try and wrestle away my simplistic and unsophisticated faith which suggests that Jesus is the way to a place called heaven. I have heard all the new voices and all the new and fresh theologies that call us like sirens to rise above the ancient ideas, and I am a spectator to the ever changing and ever increasing nebulous and intangible faith that is being taught in today’s newer spiritual classroom. When I became a Christian I experienced one...

Parents, often without even realizing it, have been teaching their children the following things about Santa Claus: SANTA IS OMNISCIENT He knows how children behave throughout the year. The familiar song says, "He knows if we've been good or bad." Also he knows exactly what children want for Christmas even if the child does not have an opportunity to tell him personally. SANTA IS OMNIPOTENT No storm is too great to hinder Santa from performing his annual miracle of delivering gifts throughout the world. He also defies the laws of nature by flying and by coming down the narrowest (and...

Washington - The Supreme Court agreed today to hear an appeal from a Christian student group in San Francisco which refused to admit gays and lesbians and decide whether the group's right to religious liberty and freedom of association can trump a university's ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation. The case, to be heard next year, could set new rules for campus groups across the nation. The University of California's Hastings College of Law says its officially recognized student groups must be open to all of its students. The law school also has a general non-discrimination policy which applies...

Monday December 7, 2009 Spanish King Faces Excommunication if He Assents to Abortion Bill Royal assent could plunge Spain into Constitutional Crisis By Hilary WhiteDecember 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Spanish press is highlighting the dilemma faced by Juan Carlos, king of Spain, a Catholic, who may be called upon to sign into law a bill that, if passed, would further liberalize abortion. On November 25th, Spain's Catholic bishops warned that those politicians who vote in favor of the law will have excommunicated themselves, having put themselves in an "objective state of sin." The bishops wrote that "while the...

Victory Declaration – Pastors Vow That IRS Will Not Control Them In that my first article ever written for Freedom’s Phoenix did not appear until September 28, 2007, the Victory Declaration which appears below was never released to Freedom’s Phoenix when it was circulated to the media in February of 2006. Therefore we are making it available to FP readers on this occasion. It is an update of the Redress of the 1983 Chicago Declaration that appeared on December 5, 2009 in FP. VICTORY DECLARATION Unregistered Baptist Fellowship Meeting February 21, 2006 Victory Baptist Church Okeechobee, Florida PREAMBLE “Forasmuch as...

Psalm 33:22 Let Thy Mercy, O LORD, be upon us, According as we Hope in Thee.

Home. What a powerful yet comforting word, that is, if it represents concern, understanding, and the Lord’s kindness. Sadly, some homes are but houses, and some are hardly that. Those shells speak of abuse and sadness, loneliness, and shame. The same with the Big House — planet Earth.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (YBH.ME) – During the premier broadcast tonight of Robin Williams’ new HBO special, the franticly quick-witted comic referred to Pope Benedict XVI as a Nazi. The show, entitled “Weapons of Self Destruction,” was filmed in Washington, D.C. in November. The remark came at around the 1:12 mark of the ninety minute performance. Mr. Williams was doing a bit about the selection of a new Pope after Pope John Paul II died in 2005 and flatly referred to the current Pope as a Nazi. Mr. Williams went on to talk about pedophilia within the church and likened the Pope’s...

Six area churches in the Wolf River Region have voted in recent weeks to sever ties with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Two other churches have votes coming up, said the Rev. John Justman, bishop of the East-Central Synod of the ELCA in Appleton. All eight of the churches are in either Waupaca or Oconto counties. Justman said he thinks several of the churches will eventually leave the ELCA. “It makes me sad — they’re all special, and they’ve been good partners,” he said. “And if they do leave, we will wish them well. There’ll be sad feelings, not...

A friend wrote me about a school principal, a religious sister, speaking to a parent and requesting school funds. The gentleman was described as an "ultra-Catholic." My friend asked me: "What is that, do you know?" Evidently, the "non-ultra" principal thought it all right to siphon needed cash from the "ultra" parent. No strings were attached. Once the funds were donated, the non-ultra establishment would go its non-ultra way. The ultra was good for his cash, if he still had any. His ideas were, well, ultra. Clearly, I cannot resist taking a stab at defining what a modern ultra-Catholic...

Reporting from Los Angeles and Riverside - The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Saturday elected the first openly gay bishop since the national church lifted a ban that kept gays out of its highest ordained ministry, a move that deepened divisions between liberals and conservatives in the faith. Clergy and lay leaders, meeting in Riverside for their annual convention, chose the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, 55, who has been in a committed relationship with another woman since 1988, from a field of six candidates. She is a canon, or senior assistant, to the Diocese of Maryland bishops. Glasspool's...

The Notre Dame commencement scandal was of such crucial significance to the Church and the renewal of Catholic higher education that it dominated much of the summer. But as students complete their first full month of studies and my colleagues at the Cardinal Newman Society wrap up the second edition of our Catholic college guide, it's a relief to focus attention on the very best of Catholic higher education. But the reality is that the crisis in Catholic higher education is far from over. Generally, but certainly not always, families seeking a Catholic education outside the colleges identified in The...

First Presidency Christmas Devotional - Video The annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional was held Sunday, December 6, in the Conference Center. The devotional featured the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square. Members of the First Presidency were the speakers.

It is alarming to realize the nonchalance on the part of many concerning abortion. But it is not new. A popular newsmagazine quoted one medical opinion: “Abortion is finding its place as a perfectly acceptable and valid health measure. We no longer think of it as a crime.”

After he hit his head on the ground in a pole vaulting accident last year, they sawed off a third of his skull to relieve the pressure on his swelling brain. They told his family that all hope was lost. But Chase's family lives near Wichita, where a farm kid named Emil Kapaun was ordained a priest 69 years ago. The Kears prayed thousands of prayers to the soul of Father Kapaun, asking him to bend the ear of God. They chanted his name like a mantra. And Chase woke up. And he arose and walked. His baffled doctors said...

The answer seems too simple: other alleged divine writings are not from God because they are not among the 66 books of the Bible and, in fact, they contradict the Bible...

1983 Chicago Declaration by 100 Church Leaders Resubmitted Because of a computer glitch the Chicago Declaration of 1983 that was revived and submitted on December 5 (2009) did not hold its numbering and paragraphs which made it difficult to read. Due to the good graces of the Editors of Freedom’s Phoenix we are resubmitting it for the benefit of those readers who are interested in circulating the article. Again we give thanks to a loving God of the Holy Bible and our wise Founding Fathers who gave us the inalienable right of Freedom of the press along with the others...

A new unauthorized biography of "America's pastor" Rick Warren uncovers a marriage with an unconventional beginning and a time of depression that later gave Warren the strength to become who he is today. Jeffery L. Sheler, religion correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, delves into the world of Warren in his latest book, Prophet of Purpose: The Life of Rick Warren. The book portrays the affable yet confident megachurch pastor who calls presidents and billionaires his friends in a much more vulnerable light. In a live Web discussion with Christianity Today editor-in-chief David Neff on Wednesday, Sheler talked about...

Deuteronomy 33:26,27 There is None like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who Rideth upon the Heaven in thy Help, And in His Excellency on the Sky. The Eternal God is thy Refuge, and Underneath are the Everlasting Arms: And He shall Thrust Out the Enemy from before thee; and shall Say, Destroy them.

The LowdownCelebrating Nikolaus in Germany Published: 4 Dec 09 10:13 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20091204-15915.html Each December 6, German children celebrate Nikolaus. Why does the Santa look-alike come so early and why do all the children place their shoes outside their front doors on the evening before? The Local has the lowdown. Is Nikolaus the same as Santa Claus? Though they have similar outfits, Nikolaus is not to be confused with Santa Claus, who Germans call the Weihnachtsmann, or Father Christmas. They are two different people. In fact, many religious families try to focus more on Nikolaus earlier in December to insure that...

A Campaign of IntimidationCOLLEEN CARROLL CAMPBELLSt. Louis Catholics heading into the Cathedral Basilica for Mass last Sunday got a taste of what their counterparts in California experienced last fall: protests intended to shame churchgoers for their church's opposition to gay marriage. Archbishop Robert Carlson Like the gay-rights activists who heckled and chanted outside Catholic, evangelical and Mormon houses of worship after California voters approved Proposition 8, those who demonstrated outside the Cathedral last weekend were incensed about the role that religious leaders played in defeating another state's push for same-sex marriage. The target of activist ire in this case...

Abstract Many theories, most famously Max Weber’s essay on the “Protestant ethic,” have hypothesized that Protestantism should have favored economic development. With their considerable religious heterogeneity and stability of denominational affiliations until the 19th century, the German Lands of the Holy Roman Empire present an ideal testing ground for this hypothesis. Using population figures in a dataset comprising 272 cities in the years 1300–1900, I find no effects of Protestantism on economic growth. The finding is robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls, and does not appear to depend on data selection or small sample size. In addition,...

NOTE the post's date and then realize that the persecution continues as I type; however, Muslims respond by stating all this is bogus. Some have to read Muslim prayers in order to survive. Others have to proclaim aloud that they have converted from Christianity to Islam in order not to be slain. Still others have to read from the Koran and say they agree with what they read.

BREAKING: Diocese of Los Angeles Elects Non-Celibate Lesbian As Suffragan Bishop

Gay, Catholic and fed up with his church's efforts to quash the same-sex marriage movement, Phil Attey has come up with a controversial strategy: outing gay priests who speak out against homosexuality. (snip) He said he will out only gay priests and bishops who speak out against homosexuality. In the case of priests not publicly opposed to gay marriage but still in the closet, he said his goal is not to threaten them but to encourage them to "come out for the next generation and stand up against the anti-gay stance of the church." Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry,...

Joanna Krupa came under fire this week after unveiling a provocative new PETA ad — in which she wears only a cross — deemed "totally inappropriate" and exploitative by the Catholic League. The outrage is exactly what the Dancing with the Stars alum expected and wanted, she tells TVGuide.com, because controversy is "the only way" to alert others to a cause. "Sometimes I am ashamed of being a human being because of what we created and how we hurt the defenseless and less fortunate," Krupa says. "That is shocking and despicable to me. All I've done is to raise awareness...

PROVO, Utah -- Significant misperceptions shape the LDS church's image and standing in America, said a church apostle Friday. Speaking during Women's Conference at Brigham Young University, Elder L. Tom Perry of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Quorum of the Twelve, asked more than 16,000 women gathered in the BYU Marriott Center to dedicate themselves to strengthening the image of the church. SNIP Offering the conference's closing general address, Elder Perry said that church leaders have been looking at the church's image to better understand how the organization approaches its missionary efforts. "We have employed some professional...

He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth— the LORD God Almighty is his name. (Amos 4:13)

A northeast Iowa synod council is the first in the nation to defy the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s decision to allow clergy to be in committed same-gender relationships. A resolution passed last month by the council of the Northeastern Iowa Synod, based in Waverly, seeks to circumvent the controversial August decision by the ELCA’s churchwide assembly. The denomination currently requires that homosexual clergy remain celibate, and the council wants to maintain the existing regulations. If successful, the move could ultimately restrict how churches call pastors in the future because it sets a policy where none existed. The resolution was...

When secularists parade with the European Union flag they are unwittingly honouring the Immaculate Conception Belgium is a wonderful country but one can’t always tell that when in Brussels. This city is the least example of how wonderful the country as a whole is. I don’t think even the residents of Brussels want to be there. I walked across one of the many plazas scattered throughout this, one of the three capitals of the European Union, when I spied a shop festooned completely, in and out, with the European Union flag. The EU symbol is so ubiquitous throughout Europe that...

"Rich-ieee!" the gleaming Caribbean ex-addict sings my name as the worship music soars and pounds to start the service. We embrace and I can feel the crazy coming off of him. We stand back and I look wildly into his wild-eyed grin, yelping, "Yeah! God likes the crazy people!" And he yelps back, "Rich-ieee! Because we'll get crazy for him!"And I let out a cackling bipolar howl as the music blares. This man knows something about "crazy." He decided to get clean only after a drug deal got him thrown into the trunk of a car; driven into a field...

Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, 19, was cut through with a knife 46 times. He had been seated in an automobile in Oxford in November 2004.

For 27 years I have had the opportunity to visit vast and varied regions of the world because of my employment with an airline. I can travel virtually free anywhere my airline goes, and practically free on most other carriers because of generous reciprocal agreements. This perk has afforded me the opportunity to be an ambassador for my country and my "peculiar" state. No matter where in the world I go, when people ask me where I come from and I tell them Utah, the next words out of their mouths are almost always the same: "So you must be...

  As Catholics, it comes as no surprise to us that the human brain is hard-wired for religion. We believe in a God who created us in His image so that we would come to know and love Him. But for Enlightenment thinkers, who had committed themselves to the "liberation" of human thought from the shackles of religious dogma, the news would not have been welcome at all.   If political society, as Hobbes wrote, abhors a vacuum, the same is true of religious belief. One cannot destroy without creating something else in its place. The new society or...

The US Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has elected the first female bishop in its 114-year history but ended voting for the day with one of two openly gay candidates still vying for the second bishop's position. Reverend Diane M. Jardine Bruce, rector of St Clement's-By-The-Sea Episcopal Church in San Clemente, was elected at the diocese's annual convention to replace one of two retiring assistant bishops. Rev Bruce, who was elected in the convention's third ballot, is a former bank executive who has spent the past 12 years working as a priest in Orange County. Voting for the second spot...

A father killed his daughter. She was found in a house with a man other than her husband. The man involved in the twosome was beaten and then let go. He was beaten to show the youth of the community that he acted improperly. However, apparently the father slaying his daughter was not immoral, criminal or outrageous. The father got by with murder. The man got by with adultery. The woman got killed.

SALT LAKE CITY 3 December 2009 Since the launch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Mormon Messages channel on YouTube in August 2008, its influence has grown to reach millions. Situated among the endless variety of videos available on YouTube, the dozens of videos currently available on Mormon Messages have been viewed a total of 7.5 million times. During the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, the Church posted a Mormon Messages video showing random people on the streets of New York City sharing a variety of responses to one simple question: “What are you thankful for?”...

IRON MOUNTAIN - A regional chapter of Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Renewal) will be formed when Lutherans from across Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin, and northern Lower Michigan gather on Saturday. The Rev. Corinne Johnson, interim pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Escanaba, and a member of the Lutheran CORE Advisory Council, said the meeting will begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at 4 p.m. at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Iron Mountain. The chapter will be formed in the afternoon. There will be about 150 people at the event, 15 of them pastors, and two keynote speakers. "After the events...