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One of the more misunderstood of the deadly sins is sloth. In the wider culture sloth is often equated simply with laziness.But sloth has a lot more subtleties than simple laziness. In fact, sloth can sometimes manifest as workaholism and other frantic worldly activities and busyness.This is because sloth is most fundamentally defined as a “sorrow or aversion to the good things that God offers” such as a moral life, and deeper spiritual fruitfulness etc. There are some who find such things unappealing, and instead of joyfully accepting these gifts, they are sorrowful toward them or averse. One way to...

According to Cenk Uygur, co-host of the Young Turks and a self-described fervent agnostic, “We have a lunatic on the court.” He is speaking of Justice Antonin Scalia who stated in an interview with New York magazine that he believes in the existence of the devil. In the words of Uygur, that is “cuckoo for cocoa puffs.” Really?

(CNN) - As the Supreme Court begins its new term Monday, the devil is not on the docket – but the Evil One apparently is on the mind of Justice Antonin Scalia.New York magazine has published a fascinating new interview with Scalia in which the outspoken jurist tackled a number of topics. But none seemed to surprise Scalia's interviewer, Jennifer Senior, more than his views on Satan.The interview was conducted on September 26, the 27th anniversary of Scalia's swearing-in as a justice on the high court. He is one of a record six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court.After Scalia...

One of the key elements in any contest is to understand the tactics of your opponent and to recognize the subtleties of the strategy or moves they may employ. In the spiritual battle of life we need to develop some sophistication in recognizing, naming, and understanding the subtleties of common tactics of the Devil.A 2011 book by Fr. Louis Cameli, The Devil You Don’t Know is of great assistance in this matter. Having read it recently, I think it would be of value to reflect on four broad categories of the Devil’s tactics that Fr. Cameli analyzes.While the four...

Pope Francis sends a kiss to someone in the crowd at the May 8, 2013 general audience in St. Peter's Square. Credit: Stephen Driscoll/CNA. Vatican City, May 14, 2013 / 08:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Christians who buy into Satan’s temptation to live selfishly get swindled, while those who live life as a “gift” to others are immersed in love and the Church community, Pope Francis said. “And, we must say, with Satan the payback is rotten. He always rips us off, always!” the Pope emphasized as he contrasted the kind of selfish living that the devil promotes with the...

Is The Whole World Deceived? If you were the devil and wanted to deceive the entire world, how would you approach such a challenge? One brilliant strategy would be to convince people that you're not really there—that you don't even exist. And the best way to do that would be to get them to believe that the only source of information that reveals who you are, along with your motives and methods, is little more than a collection of fables that have nothing to do with their lives. We have seen exactly that. Starting several centuries ago, and prompted by...

The video at the bottom of this post is of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. It is a fascinating excerpt from a longer video he did, where he analyzes the diabolical (anything of or relating to the Devil), from several different perspectives. In the excerpt I present, he identifies three characteristics of the diabolical by examining the story of the Gerasene demoniac, depicted in the synoptic gospels. Here is the story as Luke presents it:They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from...

History and The Bible executive producers, husband and wife Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, just addressed the Obama-Satan controversy. “History channel has the highest respect for President Obama,” the network said in a statement. “The series was produced with an international and diverse cast of respected actors. It’s unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. History’s The Bible is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history.”

There's a swirl that the devil character in "The Bible" TV show is a thinly veiled President Obama ... and Mark Burnett tells TMZ, it's all the devil's doing ...THE REAL DEVIL. Burnett -- a deeply religious man -- tells TMZ ... he believes there is a devil on earth. Burnett says the devil has stirred the pot and created a false likeness between Obama and the TV devil. Why, you ask, would the real devil care about a TV show? Fact is ... the show is HUGELY popular and is having a big impact on viewers. Burnett notes the...

Sunday evening's episode of the History Channel's hit series 'The Bible' threw up an awkward coincidence when viewers noticed that Satan bore a remarkable resemblance to President Obama. Twitter exploded into life during the airing of the latest edition of the Mark Burnett-produced series with most noting the striking similarities between the 44th President and the devil played by actor Mehdi Ouzaani. The show has been a surprise hit in the ratings, with the religious mini-series attracting 13.1 million viewers on Wednesday - topping television leviathan American Idol's 12.8 million viewers on Wednesday.

President Hugo Chavez Has Died

Does a shadowy group of obscenely wealthy elitists control the world? Do men and women with enormous amounts of money really run the world from behind the scenes? The answer might surprise you. Most of us tend to think of money as a convenient way to conduct transactions, but the truth is that it also represents power and control. And today we live in a neo-fuedalist system in which the super rich pull all the strings. When I am talking about the ultra-wealthy, I am not just talking about people that have a few million dollars. As you will see...

As most of you know, there has been a rather vivid discussion recently in the blogosphere on the subject of hell. As one who has written rather substantially, on the topic of hell, and our need to recover a more biblical notion regarding judgment and hell, I pray that you will tolerate me adding my own voice to the recent discussions.Those who read this blog regularly, will know that I have spoken on the topic of Hell on any number of occasions. For example:The Hell of It ——–Hell Has to Be——Will Many Be Saved? ——–Sinner Please Don’t Let this Harvest...

PLANT CITY | A Tampa Bay area mother confessed to drowning her baby in her apartment's bathtub, saying he has the devil, according to an affidavit released by police. Talae Thomas, 30, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of her 5-week-old son, Chase Harrison. She is being held without bail at the Hillsborough County Jail.

It is beyond reason. The inmates clearly have control of the asylum. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rant before the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week would better have been delivered in Stockholm. The famous Stockholm Syndrome was named for the way some hostages began to identify with their terrorist captors. It was offered as a psychological disorder. In New York, at the U.N., this psychological disorder is the new order of business. Ahmadinejad called for a new world order. Of what? A rule of a U.N. world body dominated -- or at least held hostage by -- the Terroristans that...

'Devil played with my head', says teacher accused of rape DUBAI // A Quran teacher told a policeman he raped a four-year-old boy because "the devil played with my head", a court heard today. Prosecutors told the Criminal Court that the Bangladeshi HM, 24, was employed to give lessons to the children of four families who share a villa in Al Hamriya. The Pakistani boy's father, 30-year-old ME, said the lessons took place in the villa's kitchen after Maghrib prayer for an hour every day except Thursdays and Fridays and that his son had been taking part in them for...

Satan and his plan of Evil, known as the Lucifer, the Devil, Belial, the old serpent, the great dragon, the god of this world, the father of unjustified people, and who is now "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience"

...Mike Huckabee...candidate for the Republican nomination—was being pressed by a reporter for the New York Times Magazine about the religion of his rival, Willard Mitt Romney, before the 2008 Iowa caucuses. The reporter prodded Huckabee with an all-important question...: Mormonism—cult or religion? ...The Times noted that he asked with an “innocent voice” the following question: “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” ...A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that while Mormons believe “all beings were created by God and are his spirit children,” Jesus Christ was the “only begotten in the...

The man convicted of running an Oakland Park brothel called the Boom Boom Room was sentenced to life in federal prison Monday. James "Red" Mozie, 35, was convicted of eight counts of child sex trafficking, one count of conspiring to commit child sex trafficking and one count of producing child pornography by taking cell phone photos of an under-age girl.

This speech was broadcast by legendary ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey on April 3, 1965: If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a...