Posted on 06/21/2007 6:57:50 AM PDT by DBCJR
Doubts continue to swirl over Fred Thompson's faith ... Thompson shot back that he's not only a Christian, but a member of the fundamentalist Churches of Christ.
...Professor Mark Elrod of Harding University said he doubts Thompson is "filling out an attendance card at a Church of Christ on Sundays." ...he hasn't been able to find any information regarding the former senator's actual membership... "In our tradition," Elrod said, "that's called 'being out of fellowship' or a 'lapsed member.'"
... WND has learned Thompson was baptized into Christ in the early 1950s at the First Street Church of Christ in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.
His mother, Ruth Thompson, regularly attends the Brentwood Church of Christ near Nashville... Fred Thompson is known to worship there when he visits his mother.
In 1997, Thompson spoke at a fund-raising event at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. – another college affiliated with the Churches of Christ – where he was presented with a Bible. He and his parents have set up academic scholarships in their names there.
...
According to a spokesman for Focus on the Family, Dobson had not not meant to disparage Thompson and was simply "attempting to highlight that to the best of his knowledge, Sen. Thompson hadn't clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him."
Dobson told reporter Dan Gilgoff he had never met Thompson ...
Thompson and his first wife, Sara Lindsey, divorced in 1985. The Church of Christ frowns on divorce, and believes only "fornication," or sexual infidelity, can be grounds for divorce and remarriage.
In 2002, Thompson and second wife, Jeri Kehn, were married in the liberal United Church of Christ, not the ultra-conservative Churches of Christ to which Thompson claims to belong.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
This is not going to work. Fred’s first marriage was at age 17. No church, of which I am aware, would not concede that a marriage contracted at such an early age and under the particular circumstances there does not involve a strong possibility that the element of consent was absent, which would make it subject to annulment (i.e.- the marriage did not exist at all).
I believe strongly in the indissolubility of marriage, but I am not in the least bothered by Fred Thompson’s divorce and remarriage. Even less than Reagan’s, which was contracted between two people in their late 20s as opposed to a couple of teenagers facing a pregnancy.
I am not surprised that he does not attend (or rarely). What bugs church people is these politicians pretend when they need votes that “I’m just like you”. Did anyone really believe Thompson was into that? I will vote for him for his positions on things I care about.
I assume it was latae sententiae, or did they smack him into tomorrow?
This is an old article that has been posted repeatedly.
If you read the original — not the one from WND — you’d see that it was written in a playful tone, not critical whatsoever of Thompson.
Rudy is not real catholic. He is pro-choice.
I'm too lazy to go look for the other thread, it's way down the roster by now, but here were the main points covered:
1. The perfesser is a screaming liberal whose "favorite politician" is Jimmy Carter. That in and of itself disqualifies anything the man has to say.
2. Since CofC congregations are largely independent, there are plenty that never "fill out a card". There are also many faithful members who, for whatever reason, never serve in the church offices listed.
3. Where somebody gets married has little or nothing to do with his religious beliefs . . . especially if he's a man. Marriages are almost always organized by the bride and her family, and usually held in her family's church. Some folks wind up getting married in a church simply because the sanctuary is big enough to hold the guests. And people change over time . . . my husband and I were married in an Episcopal church because that was my family's church. He was a Methodist at the time, later became Episcopalian, and then we both became Catholic. Anybody who said "they must be Episcopalian because they got married there" would be wrong, and doubly wrong in my husband's case.
Rudy Giuliani is an excommunicated former Catholic
Like the Christian Scientists!
About Fred, though, in general most of these guys lead secular lives. Romney sure didn't take Mormon teachings very seriously until he decided to run for president.
As a Catholic regarding church attendance, a pretty clear standard is attending Mass on Sundays and other days of obligation. To miss one Sunday is a serious sin. For evangelicals, going to church is a much more nebulous thing. They're not celebrating any sacrament, they're just gettin' their prayer on.
The Church does not recognize divorce and considers Donna Hanover to be his wife.
He is therefore living in sin with a woman not his wife as far as the Church is concerned.
You assume correctly.
I didn't sugget that he was. However, I think Tom Tancredo is a real Evangelical Presbyterian. He is pro-life.
I think the Breck Girl is United Methodist, but I may have him confused with another Marxist (Hitlery perhaps).
Where’s the “Not This Sh*t Again” graphic?
I really don’t care how active Fred is in his church, and if the Bible-thumpers can’t deal with it, I don’t know what to tell them anymore. I do know this:
-Fred is pro-life, albeit with a Federalist stance
-Fred is against embryonic stem-cell research
-Fred doesn’t believe in gay marriage, although he feels that on the state level, civil unions are OK if that particular state feels that they want it (which BTW is the status quo now)
If that’s not good enough, I don’t know what is.
Unfortunately, that is more common that it should be but it is not doctrinal. Evangelicals proclaim not only consistent corporate worship but also a dedication to a specific local church. That dedication is demonstrated, for example, through the attendance of corporate worship (Sunday meeting), tithes/offerings and service. Again, unfortunately, there are many evangelical communities where this is not practiced.
Has Rudy officially been excommunicated or are we just assuming he has been (which would be likely based on things he’s done...)
In the Catholic Church the means of excommunication can be either by law by a person.
Excommunications by law can be either automatic or judicial.
Giuliani is excommunicated automatically by law - no official paperwork or pronouncement is needed.
By supporting the legality and the funding of abortion and by living openly in sin with a woman not his wife he is automatically excommunicated.
No official paperwork or notice is required.
Read post 38.
Not to mention his position on abortion . . . and all the other public beliefs he holds that are contrary to Church teachings.
He's a "Catholic of Convenience" - he just wants as many Catholic votes as he can flim-flam out of the inattentive and ignorant.
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