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And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of...

The Washington Post gave audience to Ruth Everhart who said that the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, offended her. Why? Well her reason for being offended started off as a claim that the virgin part about Mary was offensive because rape victims could no longer obtain virgin status. But then, if you read further into her statements, the offended lashes out at the church and the "patriarchs" for, as she alleged, making "vaginas inherently dirty" and says that attempting to protect ones virginity until marriage won't work and was what she called, "the idol of sexual purity." This woman...

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.December 18, 2016 This year the Left’s annual War on Christmas has taken a bizarre turn with a Washington Post op-ed claiming that the Virgin Mary’s purity is offensive to victims of rape. In an article titled, “Our culture of purity celebrates the Virgin Mary. As a rape victim, that hurts me,” Ruth Everhart explains that especially in the Advent lead-up to Christmas, Mary becomes a problem for many Christians because of her pristine purity. Mary “set an impossibly high bar,” Everhart writes. “Now the rest of us are stuck trying to be both a virgin and...

A town in eastern France has been ordered to remove a statue of the Virgin Mary to comply with a national ban on religious symbols in public, the local mayor said Saturday. An administrative court ordered the commune of Publier, in the Haute-Savoie region, to remove the religious image, which has stood in a public park since 2011.

French Town Told Park's Virgin Mary Statue Must Go The Virgin Mary, Jesus and Joseph are widely represented in European public art. A French town has been told it must take down its statue of the Virgin Mary to comply with a national ban on religious symbols in public spaces, the town's mayor said on Saturday. A court has given the town of Publier, in eastern France, three months to remove the work. If it fails to do so, it will be fined €100 (£80; $105) a day. Mayor Gaston Lacroix said he will try to relocate the marble statue...

The totally reconstructed, brand-new Estonian National Museum opened on September 28 with a blasphemous attack on Mary, the Mother of God. Here’s what’s happening, according to several news outlets: “Visitors at Estonian National Museum [are] offered to kick Virgin Mary’s image” - - and it’s definitely true. I’ve verified it. “The National Museum which opened in Estonia in the presence of President Toomas Hendrik Ilves last week, is offering its visitors to kick one of the exhibits, an interactive image of Virgin Mary, causing the picture to fall into pieces.” [my emphasis] The display is “a depiction of Virgin Mary...

One civilization's trash is another civilization's treasure. A ship in Israel's Caesarea Harbor was filled with bronze statues headed for recycling when it sank about 1,600 years ago. Now, thanks to a chance discovery by a pair of divers, archaeologists have salvaged a haul of statuary fragments, figurines and coins from the seafloor. The coins found in the wreckage date to the mid-300s A.D. Some show Constantine, who ruled the Western Roman Empire from A.D. 312-324, and who unified the Eastern and Western Roman Empire in A.D. 324; he ruled both until his death in A.D. 337. Other coins show...

Perpetual virginity 3/9/2016 Question: I am a lifelong and devout Catholic and have always considered Mary to be ever virgin. But recently, I read in my Bible that Joseph had no relations with Mary “before” she bore a son (Mt 1:25). Now, I wonder if our belief does not contradict the Bible.— Eugene DeClue, Festus, Missouri Answer: The Greek word “heos,” which your citation renders “before,” is more accurately translated “until,” which can be ambiguous without a wider context of time. It is true, in English, the usual sense of “until” is that I am doing or not doing something...

The municipality of Selcuk, a town in western Turkey where Virgin Mary is believed to have spent her last days, plans to erect a giant statue dedicated to her in the fashion of the notable statue in Brazil depicting her son. Virgin Mary House, a stone structure on the outskirts of Bulbul Mountain, is a popular spot among Christian pilgrims since its discovery in the 19th century. Looking to boost faith tourism revenues, Selcuk Mayor Zeynel Bakici said they would erect "a splendid statue" depicting the sacred figure, the same day he announced they were seeking to host an international...

"The satanists all had blood on their hands" OKLAHOMA CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - On Christmas Eve, the Oklahoma satanists who planned to pour blood on a staute of the Blessed Virgin in front of St. Joseph's Old Cathedral were met with a counter-protest: a group of Catholics with Rosaries and Gregorian chant bearing a statue of Our Lady on a litre (pictured above). Many of the Catholics represented the traditional Catholic international group Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). The leader of the Satanic Church of Ahriman, Adam Daniels, a registered sex offender who has used the alias "Adam Smith," obtained a...

MARIETTA, GA (CBS46) - What may seem like a foggy window at a catholic church in Marietta is drawing dozens of people from all over Georgia and even moving some to tears. Many believers say it’s the image of the Virgin Mary. We spoke to the Priest at Transfiguration Catholic Church who told us the silhouette is most noticeable during sunny days. He believes it isn’t damaged glass and he says it’s not a doctored image. "There are a lot of people that may think it's a stain or condensation. They ask if I drew it," says Father Bernardo Molina....

Washington D.C., Dec 23, 2015 / 06:02 pm (CNA).- Our Lady. Blessed Mother. Virgin Mary. Queen of Peace. Theotokos. Handmaid of the Lord. Mother Mary. These are just some of the titles used to describe the young woman to whom an angel appeared some 2,000 years ago with the message that she would conceive and bear the Savior of the World. Mary has very few recorded words in the New Testament, but her worldwide devotion spans across time, cultures and even religions. In a Nov. 8 feature for National Geographic, “How the Virgin Mary Became the World’s Most Powerful Woman,”...

A local Satanist will be protesting in front of a downtown Oklahoma City church on Christmas Eve. Adam Daniels said he plans to pour costume blood over a Virgin Mary statue that has been treated "with sulfur powder and ash," outside St. Joseph’s Old Cathedral, 307 NW 4. Prayers will also be said to the statue. The display will be confined to the sidewalk and will not block any church entrances, according to the permit obtained by Daniels. The permit also requires the group to clean up the display after the event and ensure no costume blood is left on...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Tim Graham. When Ted Turner was running CNN back in 1991, he banned the use of the word "foreign" on air. In a memo to employees, he made a threat to fine employees with a forced donation to UNICEF. To avoid offense, they were told they should use the word "international" instead because it "promotes a sense of unity." Today, this is Jeff Zucker's CNN, and unity be damned. Offending the audience is part of the ratings gambit. On Dec. 13, as many Christians celebrated the third Sunday of Advent and rejoiced over...

OKLAHOMA CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - A satanist is planning to protest the Mother of God's virginity by pouring fake blood on a Mary statue outside a church on Christmas Eve. The leader of the Satanic Church of Ahriman, Adam Daniels, a registered sex offender that has used the alias "Adam Smith," has titled the protest "The Virgin Birth Is a Lie," and says he wants to expose the "lies of the Catholic Church" by adding "another layer of corruption to Mary." He says the Virgin Birth of Jesus is a "fraud." Daniels obtained a permit to protest on the sidewalk outside...

Satan hates the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, he has been doing everything in his power to discourage devotion to her and instill hatred for her for two millennia. Have you ever noticed that it is Marian dogmas and devotions that stir the strongest reactions in those who reject the Church? Even some good Catholics are embarrassed by devotion to our Lady, and they feel we should not be too extreme in our veneration of her. Perhaps you, too, have wondered why the Church holds the Immaculate Virgin in such high regard. Perhaps you have wonder why God has chosen...

In my new book, Behold Your Mother: A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines, , I spend most of its pages in classic apologetic defense of Mary as Mother of God, defending her immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, assumption into heaven, her Queenship, and her role in GodÂ’s plan of salvation as Co-redemptrix and Mediatrix. But perhaps my most important contributions in the book may well be how I demonstrate each of these doctrines to be crucial for our spiritual lives and even our salvation.And I should note that this applies to all of the Marian doctrines. Not...

The Blessed Virgin Mary was thoroughly Jewish. Different cultures and ethnicities have often portrayed her, Jesus, and others from the Bible as being from their group. Since Christianity for many centuries was based largely in Europe, these important characters of salvation history have often been depicted as white Europeans. Which is fine! But other cultures have also depicted them according to their own appearances. Here are 13 beautiful non-white European depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Just before Christmas, Salon reposted a piece titled “Why rape is so intrinsic to religion,” which was authored by Valerie Tarico and appeared first on Alternet, a site Salon claims it is “proud to feature content from.” Many took to decrying the ridiculousness of the article. The Alternet version asks: Stories like the virgin birth lack freely given female consent. Why don’t they bother us more? Perhaps they “don’t … bother us more” because to view such stories, like Tarico does, as “rapey” is what’s really bothersome. To claim that Mary was raped is incorrect, especially considering that since Mary...

CLAREMONT (CBSLA.com) — A local church nativity scene depicts a homeless Virgin Mary at a bus stop with a newborn Baby Jesus swaddled in burlap. The theme for this year’s display at Claremont United Methodist Church on Foothill Boulevard is “Commercialism and the Oppressed.” Church leaders say the eyes of God are always watching and people should reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. “We want to draw attention to those people who are on the margins who Jesus would be standing with today,” said Pamela Bunce of Claremont United Methodist Church. The Southland church is known for its design...