[SendShaqtoIraq]

what an idiot. if you are “without Jesus” you are NOT Christian

[allendale]

That’s what Marx did. He made the tenets of Christianity acceptable to non believers. Ironically Communism acquired all the tenets of religion. Symbols such as the hammer and sickle, icons and saints ( Lenin (who in a crude way can be compared to St. Paul, Stalin, Mao, and hordes of minor luminaries) epic tales such as the Russian revolution, the Great March, distinctive orders such as the Jesuits ( KGB, Comintern), and fervent followers that have an emotional commitment and belief that rivals that of any religious fundamentalist. Of course the Pope is right. Communism was rotten and fundamentally evil at its core.

[GreyFriar]

Mark, thank you for posting this. Allen - Excellent point.

SendShaq: Obviously you miss his point that many think that one can be a Christian without Jesus. It may be obvious, but in today’s world, it is NOT. Be slower to call the Pope or any other Christian, an “idiot” for teaching the truth to those who either do not know or do not believe.

there is a person where I work who is an atheist (quiet, not ‘evangelical’) who believes that the morality of society comes from within individual people; he does not accept that it is only because of Judeo-Christian morality that allows this country and Western society to exist. He does not see a correlation between the break down of current society as resulting from the constant attacks on Judeo-Christian faith and beliefs. And for the type of work he does, his inability to see this disconnect is astonishing to me.

[ravenwolf]

I go to church every Sunday, twice unless there is a football game on, i do my duty.

I make sure i have my no smoking signs where they can be seen.

If i see some one smoking i say to them :don,t you know them cigarettes will kill you: or don,t you know that you will go to hell for using tobacco?

I heard a preacher say one time that you were supposed to stop and give people a hand if they needed it, but anyone knows that if they were going to church and living right they would not be in the position to need any help.

What in the world does the Gospel have to do with it any way?
“take the Gospel!”

[melsec]

Thank-you Mark!

[Biggirl]

Thank-you Mark and God Bless!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It’s important to note that for the most part, socialism is a *parody* of Christianity. The easiest way to imagine this is if the Bible was rewritten to make man, not God, the center of the book, both old and new testaments.

Of course, this idea is full of holes, but socialist theorists got around the problem by rewriting any Biblical elements as needed to justify their beliefs.

This began in earnest with the “historical criticism” of the “higher critics”, from the 17th to the 20th Centuries. It was loaded with assumptions not based in facts, but opinions. For example, “Hebrews did not eat unclean animals like pork because of diseases like trichinosis.”

The idea that science displaces God also figures prominently in socialist theory, which used to be called “scientific socialism”.

This makes it especially ludicrous, as they try to justify the atheist use of Biblical doctrines in socialist faith based theories.

A favorite of these justifies radical, anti-human environmentalism. In the Bible, Adam and Eve are booted out of the Garden of Eden for eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Socialism rewrites this as a goal of socialism to return mankind to Eden (which they call the State of Nature), by renouncing the ideas of good and evil. In short, if a person becomes amoral, he is moving back to nature.

And this concept has all sorts of weird and perverse permutations, from the utterly genocidal, wiping out of most of humanity, to ideas like personal amorality or immorality “free love” as being good. To radical environmentalism, ala Al Gore.

Why do democrats abhor energy production? Simple, because it is “not natural”. Religious idiots.

In any event, the one thing that socialists cannot tolerate in their “faith” is God, in any significant way. They can be called “atheist Christians”, in that they want all the good stuff; but they are so arrogant they think themselves like God, or a substitute for God.

[Salvation]

[BipolarBob]

How about Christians without the demigoddess Mary as Queen of Heaven? Or a Church without graven images? Or a Church without infant baptisms? Jesus we need, the others need to be discarded as unBiblical.

[markomalley]

Today's Mass reflects a recurring theme of Francis' daily fervorini:

He talks about being a "Christian" without Christ. He has frequently examined the Church that does not first and foremost point people toward Christ, calling it a "pitiful NGO" in those circumstances. For example:

• 3/14/13: "Building: to build the Church. There is talk of stones: stones have consistency, but [the stones spoken of are] living stones, stones anointed by the Holy Spirit. Build up the Church, the Bride of Christ, the cornerstone of which is the same Lord."
  
  … In the end, "we can walk as much we want, we can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, nothing will avail. We will become a pitiful NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of Christ. When one does not walk, one stalls…When one does not build on solid rocks, what happens? What happens is what happens to children on the beach when they make sandcastles: everything collapses, it is without consistency. …When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.
  
  
• 5/18/13: The Church is not a political movement, or a well-organized structure: it is not that. We are not an NGO, and when the Church becomes an NGO it loses its salt, it has no taste, it's just an empty organization. And this - be clever! Because the devil deceives us, because there is the danger of hyper - efficiency. One thing is to preach Jesus, effectiveness, being efficient is another thing: no, that's another value. The value of the Church, basically, is to live the Gospel and give witness to our faith. To be the 'salt of the earth, light of the world’, is called to make present in society the yeast of the Kingdom of God and do it first with our witness, our witness of fraternal love, solidarity, sharing. When you hear some say that solidarity is not a value, it is a primary attitude that needs to be done away with... there’s something wrong! Today people are only concerned with worldly efficacy. The moments of crisis, such as the one we are experiencing – as you mentioned before, "we are in a world of lies", no? Lies, it is a crisis - this time of crisis, but ... let's be careful, ok? It is not only an economic crisis, it is a cultural crisis. It is a human crisis: what is in crisis is mankind! And what can be destroyed, is mankind! Mankind, the image of God! For this is a deep crisis. In this time of crisis we cannot worry only about ourselves, close in on ourselves in loneliness, discouragement, in a sense of helplessness before our problems. Please do not close in on yourselves! That is a danger. But ... we lock ourselves up inside our parish, among our friends, in our movement, with people who think the same as we do ... But, what is happening? When the Church becomes closed in on itself, it gets sick. Think of a closed room, a room locked for a year, when you go, there is a smell of damp, all these things here, that's not right. A Church that is closed in on itself is just the same, it is a sick Church.
  
  “The Church must go out from herself. Where? Towards the existential outskirts”, even if that means risking accidents along the way, in the outward journey. To those who worry about what can happen to the Pope responds : “I prefer a thousand times a Church damaged by an accident, than a sick Church closed in on itself”. Faith- he added - is an encounter with Jesus, and we must do the same, help others to encounter Jesus.
  
  
• 6/11/13: "Everything is grace. Everything. And what are the signs of when an apostle lives this gratuity? There are so many, but I will underline only two: First, poverty. The proclamation of the Gospel must follow the path of poverty. The testimony of this poverty: I have no wealth, my wealth is the gift I received, God: this gratuity is our wealth! And this poverty saves us from becoming managers, entrepreneurs ... The works of the Church must be brought forward, and some are a little complex, but with a heart of poverty, not with the heart of an investment broker or an entrepreneur…"
  
  Pope Francis continued, "The Church is not an NGO: it is something else, something more important, and this is the result of gratuity. Received and proclaimed". Poverty "is one of the signs of this gratuity." The other sign "is the ability of praise: when an apostle does not live this gratuity, he or she loses the ability to praise the Lord." Praising the Lord, in fact, "is essentially gratuitous, it is a gratuitous prayer: we do not ask, we only praise"
  
  "These two are the signs of an apostle who lives this gratuity: poverty and the ability to praise the Lord. And when we find the apostles who want to build a rich Church and a Church without the gratuitousness of praise, the Church becomes old, the Church becomes an NGO, the Church becomes lifeless. Today we ask the Lord for the grace to acknowledge this generosity: 'Freely you have received, freely give'. Recognizing this gratuity, this gift of God . Let us move forward in preaching of Gospel".
  
  
• 7/28/13: The Church is an institution, but when she makes herself a “centre”, she becomes merely functional, and slowly but surely turns into a kind of NGO. The Church then claims to have a light of her own, and she stops being that “mysterium lunae” of which the Church Fathers spoke. She becomes increasingly self-referential and loses her need to be missionary. From an “institution” she becomes a “enterprise”. She stops being a bride and ends up being an administrator; from being a servant, she becomes an “inspector”. Aparecida wanted a Church which is bride, mother and servant, a facilitator of faith and not an inspector of faith.

Today's exhortation is just a different twist on a common theme: the need for radical conversion (at both the individual and institutional levels) and the utter need to become completely dependent solely upon Christ.

[Iscool]

Even today, “if Jesus is not at the centre, there will be many other things,” so that “we meet many Christians without Christ, without Jesus:

A false theology from a false leader of a false religion...It is just mind boggling that this pope, this religion teaches you can be a Christian without Jesus Christ...

Does anyone know why that is??? It's obvious...In the Catholic religion you become a Christian by joining the Catholic fraternity, as long as someone sprinkled some water on you...

You are not a Christian if Jesus Christ is not your Savior, and you are not a Christian if you teach otherwise as your popes do...

[ravenwolf]

The Pope was at Mass so is obvious he was talking to Catholics.

The Pope emphasised that we must overcome the temptation to be “Christians without Jesus” or Christians that seek only devotions, without Jesus.

---

He did not say that we can be Christians with out Jesus, he just alluded to the fact that the temptation is there and that the people who are hearing the message must over come this temptation.

[CynicalBear]

I can’t even imagine that a true Christian assembly would have a leader that would even think to have to say something like this. Just the fact that he thinks it’s a consideration in Catholicism is rather telling it seems.