Posted on 02/20/2012 10:59:24 AM PST by tobyhill
There has been much chatter in recent days about the reinjection of religious matters into the presidential campaign, with a focus on the increasingly bitter debate over Catholics and contraception. But Rick Santorum has just opened up a new and dangerous front in the culture wars.
We are now being asked to debate which of the Christians running for president is really a Christian. I am referring here not to questions about Mitt Romney, whose Mormonism according to many evangelicals is not the right theological stuff, but to questions about President Barack Obama.
In the past, the strategy on the right was to intimate that Obama was a closet Muslim (he is not.) It was too crass even for our crassest politicians to come out and utter this falsehood, so, when asked about Obama’s faith, the strategy was to say, “If the president says he’s a Christian, he’s a Christian.”
(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...
>> “Who is Ishtar?” <<
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Ishtar (Isis, Semiramis, mother of god, queen of heaven, etc) is the false ‘goddess’ to whom people that worship ‘Mary’ are really praying.
I must object. While Obama's secularized gloss on the teachings of Christ is well outside the bounds of even a generously interpreted Christian understanding and Sen. Santorum is right to call him on it, and Jesus did indeed come to save our souls, He actually came to save us as whole persons. Christ said "I am the Resurrection", not "I am the transmigration of souls". He assumed our entire nature -- body, soul, mind, will and energies -- to redeem our entire nature -- body, soul, mind, will and energies. Our true self is our whole self. The idea that the soul bereft of the body is our true self is not Christian, but gnostic or neo-Platonic.
Just because Obama falls off the royal road on one side, do not fall off on the other in hastening away from his error.
What was that line from The Omen?
“I come to you in the name of the one that is descended from heaven.”
Ishtar: It’s not just a crappy movie!
Just the ‘RATS. Thanks for asking.
Ishtar: It’s not just a crappy movie!
Pleas allow me to add that I don’t know what BHO really believes. I only can make conclusions based on his actions, the policies he supports, the policy suggestions that he rejects, the people he associates with, those he invites to the White House frequently, those people he declines to meet with and those people he speaks against.
BHO advocates taking money from some citizens and “spreading the wealth around” as he famously was video taped saying to Joe the Plumber. That is overt coveting and theft. That is not a Christian value. But even many Catholic priests believe in doing the same in the name of “social justice.”
If Jesus would ask BHO the same question that he asked in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20:15, we already know from his many speeches that BHO’s answer would be “no” while Our Lord’s answer would be yes:
“Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with my own?”
It is not for me to judge BHO. But what is evident about whatever “faith” he has is that it is more in harmony with socialist values than with Christian ones. And even a Christian should know that socialism is based on lies, coveting and theft. They should also know from the words of Our Savior in Revelation chapter 22 that no liar or thief has eternal life.
I see our bodies as something that can tie us to wanting to stay on this planet and not to be taken up by Jesus. I thin our souls go to Him first an then he resurrects us in body as well. But He will take us too Himself, no matter what, as long as we accept his saving sacrifice.
I made the distinction in relation to those who declare, where in seriousness or jest, I’m in no way able to determine or “to judge” which, that say they do not want to give of the physical pleasures of this life that they experience in these physical bodies. Thus I make the distinction, as a means to explain the need to give up the pleasures of this existence for that of being with Jesus and His Father. I hope this explains why I made my statement.
The Law, specifically the 10 commandments, are a mirror to show how we miss the mark.
We all miss the mark. But the left acts and believes in diametric opposition to all 10. Start from 10 and work backwards, taking the exact opposite of every one of them,
and you’ll see it pretty much lines up with the leftist worldview.
As a communicant of the Patriarchate of Antioch (where the disciples were first called Christians) I will claim dibs on the name of Christian. Let me suggest that your scorn of the doctrines of the Holy Ecumenical Councils and the practices established by the Apostles, and your lack of charity in accusing all traditional Christians, whether Orthodox, Latin, Coptic, Armenian or Assyrian of being “pagans” makes your own Christianity suspect. Most of us allow the name “Christian” even to those we regard to be heretics, but you arrogantly claim other Christians are “pagans” because we do not adhere to your own confession’s tradition (and yes, you have one).
If unceasing prayer is to be the standard, then I suppose only accomplished hesychasts are “Real Christians”. But even they face east when they pray the Hours, Vespers, Compline, and Orthros or offer the Divine Liturgy.
Excellent and accurate post.
This has to get out to the medias.
Excellent and accurate post.
This has to get out to the medias.
Be careful. Our bodies are, or should be, temples of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle Paul tells us. It is ‘the flesh’, as the Apostles and Fathers used that word when not equating it with the body, meaning our passions, our bodily urges not transformed by grace, that tie us to this world, which is passing away, not our bodies per se. Which, of course, is what you intended as your reply points out. Still, there is too much gnosticism loose among Christians in these latter days, so one wants to be careful.
Scripture alone tells us who is and who isn’t a Christian, and what kind of character they should exhibit to show their Christianity. Obama’s liberation theology and Marxism is not Christianity. It is a way of playing on the ignorance of people who don’t understand their Christianity. It is a way of using government to plunder the property of others.
If Rick is bold he can simply quote the many racist things that Reverand Wright said in his church in the presence of Obama. Obama listened to this Anti American, racist, socialist bigot for 20 years.
Obama claims to not have heard these things. Rick could simply say if you sat there for 20 years and did not hear it, you are either too dumb to be president or you are a liar.
Following God’s word is hardly reducable to a ‘tradition.’
Who cares what dieection you face when following pagan, non-scriptural practices? East is as good as any, huh?
What happens when your idols (icons, statues) are not east of you?
>> “It’s not just a crappy movie!” <<
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No, she’s also a crappy substitute for praying to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.
I guess Stephen Prothero thinks he should decide. Santorum said he believes Obama when Obama says he is a Christian.
Actually I found this on the internet.
Ishtar
by Micha F. Lindemans
Ishtar was the ancient Sumero-Babylonian goddess of love and fertility. She is often described as the daughter of Anu, the god of the air. In most of the myths concerning her, she is described as an evil, heartless, women who destroyed her mates and lovers. Her greatest lover was the farm god Tammuz, who is similar to the Greek Adonis. After he died she went into the underworld to retrieve him but her efforts were vain and she returned to the living world alone.
Later, in the great epic of Gilgamesh, she tried to make Gilgamesh her husband, but he refused her and reminded her of her former lovers, whom she mercilessly killed or left injured. She reported this to her father, Anu, and he gave her the mystical bull of heaven to avenge herself. Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu stopped and killed the mighty creature and threw its headless body at her feet. They also insulted her, and she responded by sending disease to kill Gilgamesh’s best friend Enkidu. She is one of Aphrodite’s counterparts.
Thank you.
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