Free Republic

Mankind is an interesting creation. When he gets to the point where he has everything he could possibly want, he begins taking the things he has for granted. After he takes things for granted, he pursues more, with his appetite never fully satisfied...... ....If man disregards God, he feels that he is in control, and if he is in control, then he feels that he is the writer and creator of the laws, and eventually begins playing God. When a person holds power and has no fear of God, or being held accountable to Him, then he feels that he...

At this particular moment in time, people’s hearts are growing in darker strains, and people are taking more and more liberties, while making decisions without any fear of being held accountable to God. This is the fulfillment of prophecy.

Will there be an end of the world? Will the earth blow up the way many speculate? Will approximately 6.6 billion people on earth be destroyed in a very small time frame due to nuclear warfare, neutron bombs, dirty bombs, or something worse? The answer to this question depends on who you put your faith in.

O'Reilly has written a dustjacket blurb for Bishop Spong's new book: "The Sins of Scripture challenges Christians to look beyond the myths of their faith into the heart of the matter." I also got an email from a Spong-promoting outfit that says O'Reilly will have Spong on his show. Here's the Publishers Weekly review on amazon: Spong, a retired Episcopal bishop and prominent spokesperson for liberal Christianity, focuses this book on "terrible texts" which have been used to justify such "sins" as overbreeding, degradation of the environment, sexism, child abuse and anti-Semitism. These biblical texts, according to Spong, are not...

VATICAN CITY -- If you're not among the millions who have already read "The Da Vinci Code," an Italian cardinal has a plea for you: Don't read it and don't buy it. Genoa Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who previously was a high-ranking official of the Vatican's office on doctrinal orthodoxy, told Vatican Radio on Tuesday that the runaway success of the Dan Brown novel is proof of "anti-Catholic" prejudice. Allegations in the novel that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and has descendants have outraged many Christians and have been dismissed by historians and theologians.

VATICAN CITY - The cardinal leading the Vatican's charge against The Da Vinci Code urged Catholics today to shun it like rotten food and branded the bestseller "a sack full of lies" insulting the Christian faith.

The Roman Catholic Church in Italy has spoken out against what it says are "shameful and unfounded lies" in the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, broke the church's official silence on the controversial book. Its story about the Church suppressing the "truth" that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene has convinced many fans. But the cardinal's spokesman denied reports that the clergyman was asked by the Vatican to hit back at the book. Carlo Arcolao told the BBC's News website that it had been the cardinal's own decision to make a public...

Despite all of this literature continuously being cranked out and the significance of the issue, in the public at large there is a serious lack of formal and broad education regarding religion and mythology, and most individuals are highly uninformed in this area. Concerning the issue of Christianity, for example, the majority of people are taught in most schools and churches that Jesus Christ was an actual historical figure and that the only controversy regarding him is that some people accept him as the Son of God and the Messiah, while others do not. However, whereas this is the raging...

Vatican appoints official Da Vinci Code debunker Michelle Pauli Tuesday March 15, 2005 Guardian Unlimited With sales of over 18m copies in 44 languages, topping bestseller charts all over the world and earning its author more than £140m, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is a global phenomenon. And now it has become the first book ever to have an archbishop dedicated to debunking its contents. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa and a possible successor to the Pope, has been appointed by the Vatican to rebut what the Catholic church calls the "shameful and unfounded errors" contained within...

Let me put something out there to ponder regarding Jesus Christ - WHO WAS HE? - He was born of the virgin Maya, who was considered the "Queen of Heaven. He was of royal descent. He crushed a serpent's head. - He performed miracles and wonders, healed the sick, fed 500 men from a "small basket of cakes," and walked on water. - He abolished idolatry, was a "sower of the word," and preached "the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness." - He taught chastity, temperance, tolerance, compassion, love, and the equality of all. - He was transfigured on a...

"[Satan] will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the [Catholic] Church. . . . It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content." --Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 1948 The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises....

Yearning for the Latin Mass by Kevin Starr Courtesy of the San Francisco "Examiner" (Copyright SF Examiner 1978) A goodly number of pseudo-reformist movements these days consists of powerful elites telling the majority of people what to do. Elites grab control of an agency, an institution, a political body, then proceed to legislate without regard to majority opinion. Take the matter of the Latin Mass. A recent Gallup poll shows 64 percent of American Catholics prefer the return of the Latin Mass. Sixty-four percent! That's a solid majority, for sure! Among Catholics with a college education, the figure jumps to...

BOSTON — Boston Catholics grieving the loss off 65 diocesan churches are even more downhearted to learn that their former places of worship are being sold as luxury condominiums. The Archdiocese of Boston (search ) last month announced it would sell off some of its churches in order to balance the budget. Bernie McFarland and his father bought St. Peter and Paul's Church, one of the most venerable in Boston, to turn it into high-priced condos. "We retained as much of the interior as we could to make a beautiful living space," said McFarland. With the original plaster work, stained...

Greece's Orthodox church, buffeted by sex and corruption scandals, met in emergency session on Friday amid lurid claims that have included one newspaper publishing photographs of a 91-year-old bishop naked in bed with a nubile young woman. Scrambling to resolve the worst crisis in the church's modern history, the embattled spiritual leader, Archbishop Christodoulos, convened the rare meeting as allegations of skulduggery, sexual improprieties, trial rigging, drug and antiquities smuggling engulfed the institution. "I humbly ask for forgiveness from the people and the clerics who, for the most, honour... the cassock they wear," he said addressing the 102-member Holy Synod,...

Michaela Beard, 19, would be a freshman in her second semester at the University of San Diego, had she not left the school in disgust after the fall semester of 2004. This young woman from Bakersfield enrolled at the school with the belief that she was embarking on a four-year journey that would make her a stronger, better informed Catholic. She learned within the first week of her stay there, before classes had even officially begun, that this belief was far from the truth. "When I visited the school," she says, "it was on a visiting day and it...

This has been a pretty bad week for the Roman Catholic Church as two more priests charged with sex abuse crimes and child rape were convicted. We Catholics are used to the drill by now. They walk in with their hands at their sides and they walk out in handcuffs. We’re used to the muffled weeping of the people in the cheap seats. We’re used to the victim’s gut-wrenching sobs on the stand. The priestly “perp walk” is just another day at the office. Trying to put the pieces together of the worst scandal in the history of the modern...

For Toledo police, it was a rare assignment: Search an abandoned house on the edge of a cornfield in western Lucas County where people reportedly took part in ritual abuse ceremonies. The detectives combed the bedrooms, kitchen, and even the dark basement for evidence of cult gatherings. The search of the decrepit, wood structure last year was a sign the investigation of the Rev. Gerald Robinson was moving beyond a murder case.

During the height of the U.S. homosexual priest sex abuse scandal several years ago, Catholic News Service writer John Thavis revealed the largely unknown fact that in 1961 Pope John XXIII had approved in writing a ban on homosexual ordinations to the priesthood. Thavis said he was told the ban contained in this 1961 document is still in effect. The document was entiltled "Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders", published by the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for Religious. At the time of its publication, the document was referred to by the Sacred Congregation...

This has been a pretty bad week for the Roman Catholic Church as two more priests charged with sex abuse crimes and child rape were convicted. We Catholics are used to the drill by now. They walk in with their hands at their sides and they walk out in handcuffs. We’re used to the muffled weeping of the people in the cheap seats. We’re used to the victim’s gut-wrenching sobs on the stand. The priestly “perp walk” is just another day at the office. Trying to put the pieces together of the worst scandal in the history of the modern...