Posted on 05/30/2003 9:55:54 PM PDT by Hugenot
NewsMax.com's religion editor, Fr. Mike Reilly, sees a disturbing trend in the latest news from the European Union.
Zenit News is reporting on the new Constitution for the European Union and the news is not good.
"Drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, which, nourished first by the civilizations of Greece and Rome, characterized by spiritual impulse always present in its heritage and later by the philosophical currents of the Enlightenment, has embedded within the life of society its perception of the central role of the human person and his inviolable and inalienable rights, and of respect for law. ..."
Do you get the sense that there's something missing from the preamble? What "spiritual impulse" are they referring to? Could it be the Irish druids, who worshipped trees? Or perhaps the Norse gods like Thor and Loki? Maybe they mean ancient German legends about Siegfried coming from Valhalla.
Are these the "spiritual impulses" that united Europe, or rather was it something called Christendom?
"It borders on the ridiculous that the Preamble should make nominal reference to the Hellenistic and Roman component and jump directly to the 'philosophers of the Enlightenment,' omitting the Christian reference without which the Enlightenment is incomprehensible," Josep Miro i Ardevol, president of the Convention of Christians for Europe, said in a statement.
In an interview on Vatican Radio, Cardinal Roberto Tucci, a member of the executive council of the radio, said that "It was not a question of adherence [to Christianity], but of recognizing the historical fact of the enormous influence that Christian culture has had on European culture."
"The most unifying factor of Europe, which has been Christian culture, is missing" in the Preamble, he said.
The draft continues, "Conscious that Europe is a continent that has brought forth civilization; that its inhabitants, arriving in successive waves since the first ages of mankind, have gradually developed the values underlying humanism: equality of persons, freedom, respect for reason. ..."
Where do they think these values come from? What other civilizations espouse these values? The fact is that it was Christian culture which civilized and united tribal barbarians into what was left of the declining Roman Empire, which would eventually become modern Europe. That is why every modern tyrant has seen the need to attack and suppress Christianity.
This does not bode well for Europeans who treasure freedom. If our rights come from men, then men can take them away. Our founding fathers were wise enough to acknowledge that "man was endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights. ..."
Sadly, the leaders of Europe lack that insight.
How then do you explain the culture of the Byzantines, which was entirely Christian? The truth is the decadence and decay of the west in Europe had begun long before the establishment of Christianity as the state religion. Furthermore, what we know of pagans and the prechristian era is available to us only because the early church kept learning and law alive in the face of repeated incursions by barbarian (ie pagan) hordes whose only use for books was as kindling.
Those in Europe, and here on this board, whose single creative faculty is to denegrate and misrepresent our priceless Christian hertiage resemble, more than anything else, those 4th & 5th century (pagan) Romans who had so lost faith in their own history and culture that they allowed it to whither and die.
Christ Jesus is alive today in the life and souls of BILLIONS. Today! Christ is the watershed event of human history. Modern Europe misreads its own history and in doing so jeopardizes its own future.
That's not going to happen in America.
Here's an idea, why don't you crawl back into your mommy's womb and leave life to those w/ the courage to confront it.
There is nothing tired about Christianity, there are just more people falling asleep and falling prey to the "strong delusion" that is already transpiring. For the Christian, observing all these things, times are just heating up and getting exciting.
Agreed. The world has never seen a force like the vast American middle class rooted in liberty and wholesome Christianity.
Those who choose to disregard our powerful patrimony resemble nothing so much as the petulant chidren of rich parents intent on squandering the wealth built up by generations of their forebearers. They cannot create, they have only enough imagination to deconstruct.
Happily, out here in the fields of America, a potent spirit breates still and regenerates itself through hard work and creative energy. All of the world marvels at our accomplishments and yearns to be a part of it.
And all are welcome because our God is the God of love.
America has never been stronger. That secular nihilist Vietnam trash are fading away. The kids don't buy their crap anymore, they saw the Towers come down, they saw young men and women their age fight and die for them. They see an honest man sitting in the Oval Office. A man who actually worships God, and understands His blessing to us. They can't be cowered by threats and lies. They want to be inspired and happy.
George W. Bush is forcing Americas vermin into the light of day. They don't survive there, Americans reject their mantra. It's coming together.
We
This is Minnesota, home of the Socialist Ice people. Folks are seeing the Democrats for what they are ... bagmen and mobsters. The old lies and tactics are empty and transparent. Democrats have no plan of growth and prosperity. Across the board.
As we slowly defund the kickback and patronage theft ... they will have nothing to offer at all.
This is the best that I have:
"religion" = to be bound again, from "re" - again, and "ligo" - to bind. (from the Greek, I'm told)
"Religion" has always meant "doing" stuff, whether rituals, offerings, or showing submission to some hierarchy.
Christianity is the acceptance of God doing something for us in the person of Himself becoming a man, Jesus Christ, living amongst us, and dying in our place under the curse of our sin so that he is justified in redeemning us for His own forever.
Hence, "Christianity," or "the party of Christ" is not a really reigion at all.
The mojo of the Muslim world is reeling and careening right now. Every lie they've believed, every sacrifice they've made, every despot they've endured has been revealed as a fraud.
The Muslim oppressed have been fed a story about Americas corrupt and soulless heart. Americans are weak, we are venal and we are powerful through our crimes as a group ... but as individuals, the faith and purity of the Muslim man gave him strength and power and dominance over the American man.
That little delusion was blown of the water. America IS strong, her sons and daughters are the most lethal warriors in human history, and the most feared and admired military force and entrenched strongman in the Muslim World was obliterated in three weeks.
The oppressed Arab people were enduring their lives by believing a lie. The fraud is revealed.
That level of self-denial and acceptance of injury cannot sustain itself in the absence of force or fraud. When the walls come tumblin' down ... get out of the way.
We worship a God who came to earth as Christ his son and offered eternal life by DYING FOR US.
The Islamist element worships a God who offers eternal life to those who KILL AND DIE FOR HIM.
Nuff said. Columbo is not needed.
Heads on pikes on the Washington Mall.
When the proscribed lists come out, I want Ted Turner's ranches.
You must be unfamiliar with the situation in the 3rd world. See Jenkins, The Next Christendom
Exactly! What a wordy, incomprehensible mess.
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