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Matt Barber, one of the founding members of the #NeverTrump faction, has said he's glad he attended the gathering of evangelical leaders in New York City last week to meet with Donald Trump. The founder and editor of BarbWire.com was an early and enthusiastic supporter of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Republican presidential primary. But he recently wrote about his experience in The Big Apple for his website, noting the experience has moved him away from #NeverTrump to #MaybeTrump: For better or worse, this election has come down to two people: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Anyone who...

Backing from retired pope at event to mark his 65th year as a priest may help Francis gain favour among church conservativesBenedict XVI has endorsed Pope Francis’s ministry in an unprecedented Vatican ceremony featuring a reigning pontiff honouring a retired one on the 65th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. The ceremony in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace served in part to show continuity from Benedict to Francis amid continued nostalgia from some conservatives for the former’s tradition-minded papacy. Francis had invited the entire Vatican Curia, or bureaucracy, to celebrate Benedict’s anniversary, and prelates turned out in...

The Vatican has issued a statement denying an Italian media report that Pope Francis has taken control of a foundation established by Pope Benedict XVI to promote theological studies. The Joseph Ratzinger- Benedict XVI Foundation was set up in 2010, and organize conferences and provide scholarships for theologians. The foundation was endowed by the funds generated by royalties from the many published works of Benedict XVI. However, the Vatican press office pointed out, from its inception the foundation was designed to be controlled by the Roman Pontiff, so that when Benedict XVI resigned and Pope Francis succeeded him, the control...

Moscow, June 27, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church reminds the Constantinople Patriarchate about incomparability of democracy traditions with taking decisions at the Council. The discussion started with the words of the Constantinople archbishop who made it clear that all decisions taken by the inter-Orthodox Council on Crete would be compulsory for all Orthodox Churches, including those who did not participate in it. "You come from a democracy. Everyone can vote. Now some people choose not to vote. Does that mean you don't live in a democracy?" Archbishop Job of Telmessos said resuming the results of the session on Friday...

“Then Daniel spoke to the king, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, inasmuch as I was found innocent before Him; and also toward you, O king, I have committed no crime.’ Then the king was very pleased and gave orders for Daniel to be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. The king then gave orders, and they brought those men who had...

"Someone may well say, 'You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.' You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?" (James 2:18-20). Even demonic faith is better than dead faith! In recent years there has been an alarming rise in the number of professing Christians who believe that there's no necessary relationship between what they believe and what they do. They say...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible John The Gospels) (John 1) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify...

What Does It Mean When Scripture Says That God Hardens Certain Human Hearts? Msgr. Charles Pope • June 27, 2016 • One of the more difficult biblical concepts to understand is that of God hardening the hearts and minds of certain people. The most memorable case is that of Pharaoh: before sending Moses to him, God said that He would “harden Pharaoh’s heart” (Ex 4:21). And there are other instances in which biblical texts speak of God hardening the hearts of sinners, even from among his own people.What are we to make of texts like these, which explicitly or...

The name was terrible, but the “K Disease” was not a lethal virus. It was actually the clever invention of Professor Giovanni Borromeo and a religious of the Hospital of the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, to save the lives of dozens of Jews persecuted by the Nazis during World War II.When the SS entered the Fatebenefratelli hospital located on the Tiber Island in Rome, medical personnel and religious explained to the Germans that behind the doors of two special wards, there were patients suffering from this terrible K Disease, some of whom were terminally ill. The...

The hands of those who should know better are good at doing evil: the ruler and the judge ask for bribes; The people in power merely mention their deepest desires, and the ruler and judge make sure they happen. The best of them is as painful to deal with as a briar, the most honest of them like a hedge heavy with thorns. . . . Therefore, ~ look to the LORD ~ hope is in the True God who will save ~ God will hear. (Micah 7:3-4; 7)

Pope Francis says gays — and all the other people the church has marginalized, such as the poor and the exploited — deserve an apology. Francis was asked Sunday en route home from Armenia if he agreed with one of his top advisers, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who told a conference in Dublin in the days after the deadly Orlando gay club attack that the church owes an apology to gays for having marginalized them. Francis responded with a variation of his famous "Who am I to judge?" comment and a repetition of church teaching that gays must not be...

June 28, 2016 Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr Reading 1 Am 3:1-8; 4:11-12 Hear this word, O children of Israel, that the LORD pronounces over you,over the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt: You alone have I favored, more than all the families of the earth;Therefore I will punish youfor all your crimes. Do two walk togetherunless they have agreed?Does a lion roar in the forestwhen it has no prey?Does a young lion cry out from its denunless it has seized something?Is a bird brought to earth by a snarewhen there is no...

Monday’s The View opened by discussing this morning’s Supreme Court decision to rule against Texas abortion clinic safety regulations. The panel praised the decision as a victory for women’s rights to “privacy” while co-host Joy Behar said that the pro-lifers were “just chipping away” at Roe V. Wade. Whoopi Goldberg said she was “thrilled” about the ruling before strangely claiming she was “pro-life;” even claiming that all of the ladies on the show were “pro-life,” they just happened to be for “a woman’s right to choose.” Say what? The Supreme Court’s decision was celebrated by most of the panelists on...

Job 5:9 He Doeth Great Things, and Unsearchable, And Marvelous Things Without Number.

"What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself" (James 2:14-17). Dead faith is hypocritical, shallow, and useless. Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men in...

“Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him; and his sleep fled from him. Then the king arose with the dawn, at the break of day, and went in haste to the lions’ den. And when he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice. The king spoke and said to Daniel, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?’ Then Daniel spoke to the king, ‘O king, live...

Kleinjung: Too much beer … Holy Father, I wanted to ask you a question. Today you spoke of the gifts of the shared Churches, of the gifts shared by the Churches together. Seeing that you will go in I believe four months to Lund for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the reformation, I think perhaps this is also the right moment for us not only to remember the wounds on both sides but also to recognize the gifts of the reformation. Perhaps also – this is a heretical question – perhaps to annul or withdraw the excommunication of...

ROME — Leaders of gay Catholic groups on Monday praised Pope Francis for saying that all Christians and the Roman Catholic Church owed an apology to gays for previous mistreatment, even as the groups called on the church to take more concrete steps to repudiate past teachings and condemn anti-gay violence. Streaking across the sky on Sunday night in his papal airliner, returning from a visit to Armenia, Francis also visibly winced, momentarily overcome with emotion, when a journalist, Cindy Wooden, mentioned the recent attack at an Orlando gay nightclub and noted that Christians are sometimes blamed for stigmatizing homosexuals....

Official Documents of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church Back Encyclical of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church ΕλληνικάEnglishрусскийfrançais ENCYCLICAL OF THE HOLY AND GREAT COUNCIL OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH Crete 2016 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit With a hymn of thanksgiving, we praise and worship God in Trinity, who has enabled us to gather together during the days of the feast of Pentecost here on the island of Crete, which has been sanctified by St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, and his...

Pope Francis, who is “building bridges to build peace” around the world, has naturally reached out to embrace Sunni Muslims. Last month, for the first time after years of Vatican silence, Pope Francis summoned to his private library in Rome grand imam Ahmed El-Tayeb of Cairo’s Al-Ahzar Mosque Institute. Absent a press release before this event, the Pope was quoted as saying, “this meeting is the message” – leading all to dwell on the meaning and purpose of their 25 minutes together. Christians, especially Egyptian Coptic Christians, have observed the Catholic pope give the “sign of peace” to the grand...