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With hindsight, we can see that the real battle in the Church of England has been with her founding principles. She was founded in the Protestant Revolution on an essentially liberal principle: that the circumstances and situation in the current culture determine the identity and mission of the church. She was now, and always has been the Church of ENGLAND. Therefore, the circumstances, personalities and cultural factors determine which way she will go. As society became increasingly secular, liberal and antipathetic to a Catholic worldview, the Catholic tendency in the Church of England could not survive. From the first discussions...

I spent last weekend learning about Sacred Art. Got this in an email from one of the wonderful people I met there.

Growing up in New Albany, Ind., during the 1950s, I never heard the term “domestic church,” but I knew what it meant. I knew it because my parents and my friends’ parents made their homes domestic churches, even before that phrase from our Catholic tradition was retrieved during the Second Vatican Council. I guess you could say that my childhood friends and neighbors were at home in church and in church at home. But what did it mean in practical terms that we experienced the family as a domestic church? For one thing, it meant that nearly every Catholic family...

People who disagree with same-sex marriage and birth-control use have been met with accusations of bigotry. Are some Christians being unfairly shamed out of the public sphere? Is evangelical Christian morality still viable in American public life? This is the question lurking in recent debates over religious-liberty issues, from the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision to the Christian bakers who object to baking cakes for gay weddings. In discussions of these cases, objections to same-sex marriage and contraception are described as a retreat from “secular society.” And in some cases, evangelicals actually have retreated: Since the Boy Scouts of America...

Proverb 17 (NKJV) The LORD Tests Hearts 01 Better is a dry morsel with quietness, 00 Than a house full of feasting with strife. 02 A wise servant will rule over a son who causes shame, 00 And will share an inheritance among the brothers. 03 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, 00 But the LORD tests the hearts. 04 An evildoer gives heed to false lips; 00 A liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue. 05 He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker; 00 He who is glad at calamity will not...

The UN’s Committee on Human Rights has condemned Ireland’s ban on abortion as “unacceptable cruelty,” and demanded liberalization of the law. Following testimony by several pro-abortion organizations, the UN committee pressed Irish justice minister Frances Fitzgerald to defend the country’s law, with one member claiming, inaccurately, that under existing international law, legal access to abortion is “an absolute right.”

Generally speaking, the Israelites of Christ’s time were frugal eaters. Frankly until about 100 years ago, frugality in eating was more imposed than chosen. The food was more scarce and less convenient than today. It’s availability was seasonable, and all the elements needed to be made from scratch, including hauling in the water from wells etc.Bread was the essential, basic food. So basic was it that in Hebrew “to eat bread” and “to have a meal” in the same thing. Bread was treated with great respect and many rules existed to preserve that reverence. Any crumbs of over the size...

There is no shortage of heresies these days. If you want to adopt some blasphemous, perverted, fun house mirror reflection of Christianity, you will find a veritable buffet of options. You can sift through all the variants and build your own little pet version of the Faith. It’s Ice Cream Social Christianity: make your own sundae! (Or Sunday, as it were.) And, of all the heretical choices, probably the most common — and possibly the most damaging — is what I’ve come to call the Nice Doctrine. The propagators of the Nice Doctrine can be seen and heard from anytime...

After 7 7 7: Heaven's Answer?! Thank you for participating in 7 7 7: An Urgent Call to Prayer. The following picture was taken on Day 8 of 7 7 7 by a woman who prayer-walked the White House, Capitol, and the Supreme Court, using our prayers as a guide. Since the rainbow was given as a sign of God's covenant to Noah underscoring that never again would the world be destroyed by a flood, could it be that God has sent it as a sign that He has heard our prayers, will forgive our sin, and heal our land?...

The assault on religious liberty lost today as the Senate failed to achieve the 60 votes necessary to advance this bill. While the outcome is welcome, the fact that a majority of Senators, almost all Democrats, are still bent on eviscerating the religious liberty rights of Americans is very disturbing. It seems they will stop at nothing to trample on our First Amendment freedoms. The vote is being widely misreported by the media as a vote on contraception. It was not. The issue is abortion, not contraception. All four of the procedures that plaintiffs for Hobby Lobby cited in their...

A network of evangelical Christian clubs is expanding to Portland-area public schools this year, and a coalition of residents is already rising against them. The Good News Club has sparked fierce debate online since we published the story a week ago. This week, we're following up with a series of three Q&As. The first featured Katherine Stewart, a journalist and author whose condemning book about the Good News Club sparked resistance to the club among Portlanders. The second offered John Luck, the program manager at Child Evangelism Fellowship who oversees the network of clubs, a chance to answer some challenging...

WASHINGTON — Tensions between Girl Scouts’ messaging and Catholic teaching have led to a national boycott of Girl Scout cookies, the ousting of Girl Scouts from parishes, and a significant drop in Catholic membership in the Girl Scouts. Now a panel of U.S. bishops has released the results of a two-year investigation into Girl Scouts’ problematic messaging, ties to Planned Parenthood, and continued advocacy of so-called reproductive rights by the organization’s international affiliate, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). Their findings indicate that the concerns continue to persist, regarding the problematic connections between the Girl Scouts...

A recent poll suggests that a majority of Americans believe Jesus would have backed universal healthcare. According to a YouGov survey released earlier in July, 55 percent of respondents believe that Christ would have endorsed the issue. Despite this majority, a slight minority of American Protestants believed that the Jesus they knew would have supported universal healthcare. Only 48 percent of Protestants suggested this, in contrast to the 57 percent of Catholics who argued that their religion's founder would have backed it. Aside from Jesus, 46 percent of Protestants and 55 percent of Catholics themselves backed the policy. In addition...

A group supporting the North Carolina Pastors Network demanded the state's governor defend the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state despite lawsuits from same-sex couples at the local and national level at a rally on Tuesday. Leaders from the group of about 30 people who gathered on the steps of the old Capitol building, are sending North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory a petition asking him to use his executive powers to defend the amendment that was approved by 61 percent of voters in 2012, The Associated Press reported. In a recent column for The Christian Post, Rev....

Proverb 16 (NKJV) Wisdom Is Better Than Gold 01 The preparations of the heart belong to man, 00 But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. 02 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, 00 But the LORD weighs the spirits. 03 Commit your works to the LORD, 00 And your thoughts will be established. 04 The LORD has made all for Himself, 00 Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom. 05 Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; 00 Though they join forces, none will go...

I begin with a piece, spotted by Fr Tim Finigan and reported in his indispensable blog The Hermeneutic of Continuity, which had been published in Sandro Magister’s blog—not his English one, Chiesa, but his Italian language blog for L’Espresso, Settimo Cielo.A few days ago, Magister told the story of a parish priest in the Italian diocese of Novara, Fr Tarcisio Vicario, who recently discussed the question of Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. This is how he explained the Church’s teaching on the matter: “For the Church, which acts in the name of the Son of God, marriage...

Being on the wrong side of what nature teaches leads to social ruin and historical failureFrancis Cardinal George, in his most recent column in Catholic New World, reflects on the nature of religious freedom in the United States, and masterfully connects a number of important, related points in doing so: In this country, we do not fear being killed for our faith. What, then, are we afraid of? We are afraid that the institutions that perform the works of mercy that have been integral to the church’s mission for centuries will be forced to become, effectively, government institutions, given permission...

Many conservative Catholics are experiencing a range of negative feelings about Pope Francis. When a headline screams that he stated that 2% of Catholic clergy are pedophiles, that he “promises to solve the celibacy problem” that he doesn’t want to convert Evangelicals or that he doesn’t judge a homosexual who “searches for the Lord and has goodwill” they experience confusion, anger, resentment, bewilderment and fear. Some have given up on Pope Francis. Others say he is “the false prophet” who will accompany the anti Christ in the end times. Others don’t like his dress sense, grumble about his media gaffes...

SYDNEY, Australia – A judge in southeastern Australia has been partially suspended after he declared that the culture’s acceptance of homosexuality will lead to a normalization of incest. According to a report last week from The Sydney Morning Herald, Garry Neilson is a district court judge in Sydney, Australia. In a recent sexual assault case, Neilson suggested that an adult male may not have been in the wrong for having sexual relations with his younger teenage sister over 30 years ago. The 58-year-old man, known for legal reasons as “MRM,” has admitted to raping his sister in the mid-1970s when...

Proverb 15 (NKJV) A Soft Answer Turns Away Wrath 01 A soft answer turns away wrath, 00 But a harsh word stirs up anger. 02 The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, 00 But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. 03 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, 00 Keeping watch on the evil and the good. 04 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, 00 But perverseness in it breaks the spirit. 05 A fool despises his father's instruction, 00 But he who receives correction is prudent. 06 In the house of the...