You are living under grace whether you know it or not. I swear to you if you choose grace, you are living within miracles; solutions arrive from beyond any tool like reason. Building America from scratch required those inspired solutions, those grace notes, those invasions of the divine. Which come through the individual acting within his home place, not the collectivist bullies in Davos, Brussels or USAID. Nor some AI genius program.
Rebuilding….. the best words of this article!!!!!!!!! Thank you Elizabeth!
There is a lot of insight here. In Canada I was a member of the Presbyterian Church for decades, but in the past ten years it has gone of the rails (like the United Church already) and become overly political. The mainstreams are gone, gone, gone. I now go to a very modern and technically Wesleyan which is very conservative in theology very non political and its growing like mad. Most people dont want politics with their scripture. Not to mention that Marxism is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity.
I was brought up in the Presbyterian Church (USA), then switched to Cumberland Presbyterian. Have left them (roughly 10 years ago as well) for more Bible teaching/structure churches. I go to one on Sunday’s, and to a Calvary church on Wednesday’s. I see positive signs ahead for them both !
It depends. Our reformed Presbyterian church is specifically Bible-based and God’s Word is the top priority. Of course, it’s a small congregation. However, we are seeing an uptick in attendance with several young families joining. It’s a good thing.
Yeah as long as the church is focused on scriptures and the message and avoids the Current Thing, its OK. The last straw for me for the mainline Canadian Presby church was attending a service a couple of years ago where they got this gay black kid up at the alter to do some performing arts calisthenics routine in the middle of the service and I though WTF is this? Coupling that the political positions the Church was taking on all manner of climate change and social justice issues I said fuck this.
Same. I tried out a small Lutheran congregation for a few months; it ended abruptly when the pastor, his eyes strangely black instead of blue, began his racism/homopobia rant. I pointedly walked right out of there and never went back. The Orthodox Church is good but demands a very committed lifestyle that I'm not prepared to live by.
Indeed. I should probably state for record I have nothing against gay black kids in the performing arts, I just don't want to see it in church. Most people don't want politics with their scripture.
How wonderful to hear of a group of Presbyterians who are not "woke"! I am not a young person and I've lived in different places in this country, but any Presbyterian church I ever visited was simply a place to show off one's wardrobe and jewelry once a week, and gaze through fancy windows. May God bless your church family!
I think second thessalonians chapter two verse three is for the institutional church today. I've been reading the Bible for 18 years now and I never found. Catholic ism baptism, pentecostalism, presbyterian, lutheran. And whatever name or label you wanna put on the Outside of the building, it's not in the Bible child of God is your identity.
I hadn’t known you were a fellow trad reformed/ Presbyterian. But my affinity & admiration just found something of an explanation. Always very thoughtful posts. Predicating all on the first things of Christ.
PS. The Heidelberg Catechism is pretty great, too.
I grew up Pentecostal but left the tenets of the faith due to a long hard study of it all. As Elizabeth states, 92% believe in a soul and when we study this concept, we can see this is real — yet religion twists it.
This twisting was the reason why I left the faith and it’s what I discuss in depth in my work. For example, the rapture and the Antichrist are not a biblical inspirations but a political interpretation: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/meet-the-priest-who-invented-the
Overall, as long as one journeys in their faith and calls out when wrong doing appears — even if in their faith — they’re walking the right path
Some people say they are opposed to religion because it requires blind faith. It does not! It requires logic coupled with a resolve to do no harm to anyone. Look at all of the sullen people next time you go into a crowded mall. Smile and nod when you make eye contact. Try a small word of kindness or even of honest humour with the cashiers. You will instantly realize that you have for at least a second or two made someone else's day better. This is what Christian Principle is all about.
I totally agree with you! I live in Mississippi in U.S., which is solidly Bible belt country. Your last 2 sentences - this is exactly how Mississippians live. I'm grew up in CA but have family in Mississippi where my mom is from. Folks here are very much about living Jesus' teachings of loving your neighbor and helping them when they need it. People here are very polite and courteous, always willing to offer a helping hand, especially to us old folks. They are happy, cheerful, have a terrific, mischievous sense of humor and laugh at themselves. It's a wonderful place to live because of this. Family is #1 here, it's a very loving place. When I go to the grocery store, I have conversations with folks I don't know and it always ends up with us laughing and feeling connected. Most Southerners never met a stranger and it goes a long way towards feeling connected to others and feeling Jesus's love. Great comment, thank you!
I am also in Canada, born into an evangelical protestant family but increasingly felt abandoned by my church as *they* changed. In 2020, my husband and i were chrismated and baptized into the Orthodox church. We are building a mission church from scratch here in Grande Prairie AB, our priest is coming for Pascha in April, and moving permanently here at the end of June.
I was reading the On CC coffee and Covid that America, North America
Was having a resurgence in religious faith and spiritual life, these last few years and they’re turning to the orthodox church Compared to traditional Churches Located here in the United States Protestant and Catholicism Methodist, etc.
I think this taboo of talking about politics or religion during family gatherings is a long-standing pyops against the people that live in the United States
We should talk about politics and religion at any place and time if it comes up, they’ve created this false divide amongst people who run with it when they don’t really have a position that they can defend
They can’t defend it because it’s either lazy and would rather talk about gossip per se or sports instead of things that matter to our lives like politics and religion all over the Mediterranean every café they’re talking about politics and religion
But in America, it is taboo thanks to the tiny hats .
By the way, most of the protesters at Georgetown are tiny hats in my opinion I mean Gaza already destroyed why didn’t they talk about it before the destruction. With the passion and magnitude? It’s all tiny hats, to make a new rules and sympathy. It’s just basically an antifa operation BLM it’s freaking ridiculous.
Odd. I grew up in an American family where we talked about religion and politics. Then again, my grandfather was a pastor, and we lived inside the beltway. I always just assumed this is what American people did: go to church and talk politics. I don't know quite when it changed. My guess it was after the psy-op known as 9-11 and the "new atheist" movement which is all rather stupid and tired now, if you ask me. I still love Jesus and upholding basic American principles like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I just call myself a traditional American.
It’s been going on for about 50 years you must be very old
The church I belong to back in the 2000s teens, you couldn’t say nothing during the gathering after the church service without getting frowned upon, some people listen however
I disagree and feel that one on the reasons for the demise of the church is its avoidance of politics as it relates to the true Christian way of life. For what is truth if it merely becomes malleable for the purpose of man. No doubt a driving force for this lack of dogma is the enticement of losing tax breaks given with the catch that political talk violates the lie of separation of church and state. Rare is the edifice that can deny “free” money no matter the cost.
The evidence is against you. In Canada all the mainline churches are in major decline and correlates perfectly with their increase in political activism of the past 25 years. And the evangelical scripture based churches are growing. Correlation isn't causation, BUT....
Especially since Papa Smurf himself said achieving his Utopian communist vision would require the destruction of religion. Along with the nation and the family, of course.
I think they deserve worse—Capitol punishment . They—in their betrayal of trust—essentially have taken an innocent’s life because the child will never be the same.
Agreed. I was a therapist for many years and worked with numerous clients who had been raped when children. It never goes away, it's always a dark place for those children, long after they are not children any more.
Conglomerates and hemp: the former to fashion millstones, the latter to fashion rope.
Instructions: Loop the rope ‘round the stones’ centre holes then ‘round some too-deserving necks and cast the medallioned miscreants into the sea. (It “would be better for them” according to an unassailable source.)
Back in 1975 when I was in college, Gideons were handing out small Bibles on campus. I accepted one and carried it in my purse for the next 25 yrs, when I passed it on to someone who seemed to really need it. That Bible got me through a very scary time when I travelled to Russia in 1977 and had an appendicitis attack. I had to go to hospital for surgery and have my appendicitis removed. It was terrifying because Russia was still communist then, all the citizens were scared of their govt and the terrifying KGB and no one spoke English in the hospital. I read my Bible a lot every day, especially Psalms 23 "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." It went a long way towards helping me to not be so scared. I've always been grateful to the Gideons for distributing those Bibles, I'm sure many others have been grateful, too. In my hour of need, my Gideon Bible got me through.
As each day goes by it becomes more clear the Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were talking about and the Scriptures about the last days become more understandable.
Thank you very, very much for using founding fathers” only sick people use the word “ founders”. They are misandrists. They hate men and cannot stand to see the word, father when tough shit they were all men.
Some idiot woman started telling me about Betsy Ross and I said “”what did she do besides so some stars on a cloth ?!?? “ well what did she do?””
She couldn’t answer because she did shit
And if you look up the most famous woman from that time, Abigail Adams, she wrote a letter to her husband that included “ remember the ladies” of course they have that information in every single article that they have a wrote about her because she did nothing else interesting in her life.
Women were not involved as was better that’s why things worked then
I would tend to expand on that scope just a little. For all accounts and purposes, Satan is the ultimate misanthropist, who will indiscriminately murder men, women, children, young and old alike. Giving some credit where credit is due, Eve was called "The mother of all living, And Sarah (Abraham's wife) was called a mother of many nations, Deborah, judged Israel (Judges 4:4) If the Abigail Adams letter you are referring to is the same one where she expressed that "all men can be tyrants" (which I've found equally true of women) then her presumption is that women are not as capable of the same, however simple statistics on violence can demonstrate a 50/50 mix of just what has been recorded in recent years.
" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. " (Genesis 1:27) The sweet attraction of the sexes was part of our design knowing that:
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)
Conversely, we know that if it isn't good, where it comes from and always should consider the source. It is no surprise that evil ideas get well financed, and good sound doctrine is cast aside by those who think they know better than God. Fredric Bastiat had something to say about that in his treatise on "The Law".
For some, just being a good person, and believing in a soul isn't good enough. You have to believe in their version of the soul, state, or god, otherwise be condemned.
Just being a good person, and believing in a soul isn't good enough. It’s your personal relationship with God. Only you can know that. It’s between you and God. His spirit will convict you because he loves you. No one in your life will ever love you more.
When God knocks on your heart’s door no one can answer but you.
I hope and pray good things for you and your loved ones. Please pass on how God loves all of us.
Where do you get that from? Any normal healthy human looking on a child should be able to see the pure innocence and know this is to be nurtured not abused. Some of the Coastal tribes in B.C. would take a pedophile out to where the Japan current takes them out to sea and leave them there with no food, water or paddles. They didn't need Christianity to tell them this was just.
I once was having a conversation with a person who claimed to be "born again". I asked him a theoretical question. Here it is.
Let's say you have a man living in the Amazon rain forest who has never heard of Jesus Christ. He is a pillar of his tribe He sees his children and indeed all of the the other children are properly fed and looked after. His is a respected voice in his village. This man is in every way honorable. When this man dies is he condemned to Hell for not being Christian? His answer was "Absolutely". This in a nutshell is why I have no tolerance for self styled righteous Christians. They are no more Christian than a viper.
Thank you!!! Similarly, recently I asked my born again friend who insists that Israel’s decimation of Gaza and the ensuing genocide is all justified, How exactly is the extreme violence - murder of women and children - “Christian”?
She answered that Israel must prevail because Jesus will come again there - and therefore the Jews and Israel are sacred and so barbarically destroying their enemies, the Palestinians who apparently are pure evil, is justified.🤷♀️
I repeated to her that it’s impossible for me to see this as “Christian”. Didn’t Jesus preach kindness and mercy???
It is astounding that ‘Christians’ support Israel in their slaughter and genocide. There is such a profound cognitive dissonance in it that I think their brains get locked in response and all they can parrot is Whataboutisms…oh but what about October 7…whaddabout the Second Coming? What we do see is how politics usurps religion and vice versa.
BTW. The investigations of Ha’aretz and B’Selem have proven the IDF killed their own in the hundreds and that the Netanyahu coterie knew it was coming and stood down.
To address the return of Jesus in eschatological terms I would pose a question,
if God so loves the WORLD and is immanent, omniscient, omnipresent then why would he confine himself to such a limited operation both in geography,event and time? Why would God reveal pieces of an impossible jigsaw blindfold the players and give them knives and scissors as well? One could only conclude there’s something deeply flawed in all of this, either of our understanding of God or in the manipulation of events to reinforce an ideological position.
Your Zionist Christian friend has been deceived and is giving you a false interpretation of Scripture. The political state of Israel has nothing to do with true Christianity, or even Biblical Judaism (not Rabbinic Judaism) as practiced by Abraham and the OT prophets, who were often persecuted and killed by the Jews.
Yes, Jesus told us to pray for those who persecute us and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus also wept over Jerusalem and how the Jews rejected him and demanded that the Romans crucify him. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me." Matthew 23:37
This argument is void and is addressed by Scripture itself. Presently almost everyone in the world (almost 9 billion people) have access to the Bible and/or have heard of Jesus Christ, but how many believe and follow? Very, very few. It's not about access, but the condition of man's heart and whether he/she diligently seeks the truth. I pray one day you find it.
This is atheistic posturing in an attempt to look superior to the evangelical who is a schmuck in your mind. It's manipulative & contemptible because nothing the man could've said would have satisfied you. In order to be true to his faith he must stick to what Jesus said "I am the way. Noone can come to the father except through me". So you need to give him credit for sticking to the teachings of his religion rather than trying to appease you in the faint hope you decide to soften your antipathy towards his religion.
The truth is noone fully understands the mind & heart of God who is the ultimate judge of the hearts & deeds of men. As you are aware of the gospel message & who Jesus is, to continue to reject God places you in a perilous position. You have an advantage the hypothetical Amazonian saint doesn't - you have been exposed to this idea of humanity needing a savior. You will be judged too one day & more harshly than the Amazonian.
Also your hypothesis is flawed - noone is righteous. Noone is capable of being good enough all by himself or herself. So its impossible for such a person to exist. Look at your own self for proof - try being perfect for 24 hours.
I don't really care if I am judged by a superior being. I also realize I am not perfect. Nobody is. I will die knowing I have always tried to be a good person not by your standards but by my own. What gives the heads of churches the right to think they are Holy? What gives you the right to think that you are right? The truth is none of us know the truth. The close mindedness of organized religion has caused more suffering in this world than enough. How many people have been murdered in the name of God? Most churches are just a way for charlatans to make money. Still, I wish you peace and happiness.
That person has not read and properly understood Roman's 2:12-29. Basically, those who have never been exposed to the laws of God, if they still live by the law, then they have salvation because they have a good heart. My personal belief is also that young children and mentally disabled people have salvation, since they are not able to fully understand the concepts of laws and salvation. They are innocents.
Which was the reason I posed him the question. To me the answer is obvious even though I was raised atheist and matured to draw my own conclusions which are definitely not atheist. Still, I have never been to a church although I have debated with many ministers of all denominations. Most of them are locked into their beliefs with no ability of critical thinking. in short most of them have blind spots regarding their own views of Christianity. Personally I believe the theoretical man in the rain forest is more deserving of a good afterlife than many of these so called men of God. Personally, I will go on my way independent of other's personal beliefs in the belief that the only proper way to live is attempting to be at peace with everyone you meet and willingly doing nobody any harm. Your view was very refreshing and enlightening. I wish you peace and happiness.
That's one of those horrible positions that people take. I often visit illustrations of The Inferno. Next time I will see if I can locate "sanctimony" within the hierarchy.
I have never lived a life that depends on another to keep me accountable to God.
I feel it too, Elizabeth.
The change.
I'm just a silly storyteller/cartoonist of a man, delightfully married to my sweetheart of 35 years, with 13 beautiful children (all boys but 9) and we just got our 30th grandchild for Christmas (she's PERFECT).
We have been homeless three times in the last 18 years, with at least 8 children and an aged father-in-law to care for during each experience...
...and God provided miracles.
MANY miracles.
Every day.
Still does.
Every day.
We didn't take welfare.
We worked as a family, and everyone looked...up.
Don't be afraid, anyone who reads this, to love God and Jesus, openly.
Find out what your purpose is, and stick to it like a tick on a dog.
Do good, because good can be done.
Love good, beCAUSE it is good.
Never be afraid to DO good.
I promise that by doing what is right, you'll empower and inspire someone else to do the same.
I am a grateful recovering alcoholic whose life was literally saved by the spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is an actual miracle that I am here today, alive, and able to tell my story.
25 years ago I was given a death sentence by one of the few doctors I visited in those days- if I did not stop drinking I would be dead inside of 3 months. Through God's grace I was able to choose life and went that day into a detox unit at the hospital where I first encountered AA.
I remember my first prayer when I woke up in the hospital, was simply "God help me, I can't go on like this." The good people of AA who had brought a meeting to the detox sat with me and told me that I didn't have to drink again, that although I was powerless over alcohol, my Higher Power would see me through and help me. This is what happened to me and millions of others.
Getting back to the Catholic Church- there are many of us alcoholics who call ourselves "recovering Catholics" as well. I can't tell you how many AA meetings I go to where the person speaking starts out saying "I was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools all my life." That was me too.
The Catholic Church is an evil institution and I think it was even back in the 1950s when I was growing up and my mom made us go to Catholic schools and of course church. I well remember the horny priests chasing around the altar boys and flirting with the girls. We all knew which priests had "hand problems." But worst of all was their version of "faith and religion."
Catholicism then and now is all about FEAR. That's what they taught us- to be afraid of everything. They actually were the ones who instituted THOUGHT CRIMES. If we happened to be thinking about bad things and we got hit by a car, we would go to hell!
Or how about the Pagan Babies? Anyone remember that scam? At Halloween when other kids were collecting money for "UNICEF" we were collecting money in cans for the little African babies who had not been baptized and who would spend their lives in limbo unless we could muster up enough priests to go over there and convert their families.
No wonder I loved alcohol so much - it took away the fear that had been pounded into me by those Catholic monsters.
It has been a long, wonderful and miraculous recovery for which I thank God and the incredible people of AA. We have a saying: religion is for people who don't want to go to hell; spirituality is for people who've been there.
To me the greatest spiritual "work" today is Alcoholics Anonymous. Every day that I go to a meeting I see miracles in the flesh- people like me who were on death's door not too long ago, now living full and happy lives.
One other thing- during the Scamdemic it was the Catholic priests who locked us out of our meeting places. They were glad to get rid of the AA "drunks" who had been using their basements and rooms for meetings. It was just the excuse they needed and they never let us back. We had to find other places to carry the message.
So I am delighted that Elizabeth has laid it all out about these phony "religions" and their Satanic overlords. If I hadn't experienced all that I did, I would never have believed it.
While I don't see myself as a Christian (never having set foot in a church service in my life) I have been a strong believer in Christian Principle since my teens. Any intelligent rational person surely must be able to see that Christian Principles are the keystones of our society. I noticed starting with the government of Turdeau senior a covert movement to destroy these keystones. For over fifty years they have chipped away at these keystones until now they are on the verge of collapse. None of these basic stones have ever been replaced with anything substantial. We are now at the point where if we don't do some restorative work the whole structure is about to come raining down. There is hope in the realization that the Communists in the old Soviet Union did everything to bring it down in their areas of influence. Today Russia is one of the most staunchly Christian countries in the world. I think this is why the West is doing everything they can to destroy them. They will not succeed. I have seen the look in the eyes of the truly devout. They cannot be defeated.
Oh my goodness. You have nailed it - you’ve clarified and put into words the vague sense nudging me (and so many others) to see something that is hard to bear. I will read again and share and discuss this and return to the comments later, after church.
Yesterday was Gather 25, a 24-hour worldwide Christian event. The videos from around the world are amazing. The church is growing, the young are flocking to THE Church, and I am incredibly hopeful. BTW, not all Lutheran churches are alike. There are different groups, called Synods, and the largest, known as ELCA, is the one you despise. The others are conservative, some more so than others, but are apolitical. We hate the evil being done in "our" name.
I cannot bring myself to even read about the Pope's health condition, because, I do not care. Raised a Catholic as well as a Democrat, I do not recognize the values of either of those entities anymore.
In an average chase movie entitled "The International" there is one genuinely great line of dialogue: "The difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense."
The Chicago Communist cartel that pumped up Obama are the ones who stoke the fires of this evil. Bill Ayers, David Axelrod, Rham Emanuel and Valarie Jarrett are the hands that run PuppetObaama. Barrack Hussein Obama never had a single original thought in his life. Obama does what he is told...or else. The old Weatherman Bill Ayers ("I'm guilty as hell and free as a bird.") is the ring leader. Ayers said early-on that 25,000,000 people would need to be killed to make Communism in the United States a reality. Ayers did not say the slaughter would be mostly children. Barack Obama is a simple tool of ambition and emulation that Chicago Communists used to bring industrialized death to the Americas.
Excellent, profound, and true! Thank you,Elizabeth.
There is a Deep State and a Deep Catholic Church, headed by Bergoglio aka social justice Pope Frankie.The funding of this horrific human trafficking under the guise of compassion is finally exposed- a miracle!
You are living under grace whether you know it or not. I swear to you if you choose grace, you are living within miracles; solutions arrive from beyond any tool like reason. Building America from scratch required those inspired solutions, those grace notes, those invasions of the divine. Which come through the individual acting within his home place, not the collectivist bullies in Davos, Brussels or USAID. Nor some AI genius program.
Rebuilding….. the best words of this article!!!!!!!!! Thank you Elizabeth!
Yes!
Hallelujah!
Thanks be to God.
There is a lot of insight here. In Canada I was a member of the Presbyterian Church for decades, but in the past ten years it has gone of the rails (like the United Church already) and become overly political. The mainstreams are gone, gone, gone. I now go to a very modern and technically Wesleyan which is very conservative in theology very non political and its growing like mad. Most people dont want politics with their scripture. Not to mention that Marxism is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity.
I was brought up in the Presbyterian Church (USA), then switched to Cumberland Presbyterian. Have left them (roughly 10 years ago as well) for more Bible teaching/structure churches. I go to one on Sunday’s, and to a Calvary church on Wednesday’s. I see positive signs ahead for them both !
It depends. Our reformed Presbyterian church is specifically Bible-based and God’s Word is the top priority. Of course, it’s a small congregation. However, we are seeing an uptick in attendance with several young families joining. It’s a good thing.
Yeah as long as the church is focused on scriptures and the message and avoids the Current Thing, its OK. The last straw for me for the mainline Canadian Presby church was attending a service a couple of years ago where they got this gay black kid up at the alter to do some performing arts calisthenics routine in the middle of the service and I though WTF is this? Coupling that the political positions the Church was taking on all manner of climate change and social justice issues I said fuck this.
Same. I tried out a small Lutheran congregation for a few months; it ended abruptly when the pastor, his eyes strangely black instead of blue, began his racism/homopobia rant. I pointedly walked right out of there and never went back. The Orthodox Church is good but demands a very committed lifestyle that I'm not prepared to live by.
Indeed. I should probably state for record I have nothing against gay black kids in the performing arts, I just don't want to see it in church. Most people don't want politics with their scripture.
How wonderful to hear of a group of Presbyterians who are not "woke"! I am not a young person and I've lived in different places in this country, but any Presbyterian church I ever visited was simply a place to show off one's wardrobe and jewelry once a week, and gaze through fancy windows. May God bless your church family!
I think second thessalonians chapter two verse three is for the institutional church today. I've been reading the Bible for 18 years now and I never found. Catholic ism baptism, pentecostalism, presbyterian, lutheran. And whatever name or label you wanna put on the Outside of the building, it's not in the Bible child of God is your identity.
Good to hear and good for you ALtab!
Hi 🙋🏻♀️ ALtab!
You also wrote your fave was Romans.
I hadn’t known you were a fellow trad reformed/ Presbyterian. But my affinity & admiration just found something of an explanation. Always very thoughtful posts. Predicating all on the first things of Christ.
PS. The Heidelberg Catechism is pretty great, too.
I grew up Pentecostal but left the tenets of the faith due to a long hard study of it all. As Elizabeth states, 92% believe in a soul and when we study this concept, we can see this is real — yet religion twists it.
This twisting was the reason why I left the faith and it’s what I discuss in depth in my work. For example, the rapture and the Antichrist are not a biblical inspirations but a political interpretation: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/meet-the-priest-who-invented-the
Overall, as long as one journeys in their faith and calls out when wrong doing appears — even if in their faith — they’re walking the right path
Some people say they are opposed to religion because it requires blind faith. It does not! It requires logic coupled with a resolve to do no harm to anyone. Look at all of the sullen people next time you go into a crowded mall. Smile and nod when you make eye contact. Try a small word of kindness or even of honest humour with the cashiers. You will instantly realize that you have for at least a second or two made someone else's day better. This is what Christian Principle is all about.
I totally agree with you! I live in Mississippi in U.S., which is solidly Bible belt country. Your last 2 sentences - this is exactly how Mississippians live. I'm grew up in CA but have family in Mississippi where my mom is from. Folks here are very much about living Jesus' teachings of loving your neighbor and helping them when they need it. People here are very polite and courteous, always willing to offer a helping hand, especially to us old folks. They are happy, cheerful, have a terrific, mischievous sense of humor and laugh at themselves. It's a wonderful place to live because of this. Family is #1 here, it's a very loving place. When I go to the grocery store, I have conversations with folks I don't know and it always ends up with us laughing and feeling connected. Most Southerners never met a stranger and it goes a long way towards feeling connected to others and feeling Jesus's love. Great comment, thank you!
I am also in Canada, born into an evangelical protestant family but increasingly felt abandoned by my church as *they* changed. In 2020, my husband and i were chrismated and baptized into the Orthodox church. We are building a mission church from scratch here in Grande Prairie AB, our priest is coming for Pascha in April, and moving permanently here at the end of June.
Wow
I was reading the On CC coffee and Covid that America, North America
Was having a resurgence in religious faith and spiritual life, these last few years and they’re turning to the orthodox church Compared to traditional Churches Located here in the United States Protestant and Catholicism Methodist, etc.
I have turned to The Orthodox Church. Steeped in 2000 year traditions that have changed little over time, and incredibly beautiful.
I think this taboo of talking about politics or religion during family gatherings is a long-standing pyops against the people that live in the United States
We should talk about politics and religion at any place and time if it comes up, they’ve created this false divide amongst people who run with it when they don’t really have a position that they can defend
They can’t defend it because it’s either lazy and would rather talk about gossip per se or sports instead of things that matter to our lives like politics and religion all over the Mediterranean every café they’re talking about politics and religion
But in America, it is taboo thanks to the tiny hats .
By the way, most of the protesters at Georgetown are tiny hats in my opinion I mean Gaza already destroyed why didn’t they talk about it before the destruction. With the passion and magnitude? It’s all tiny hats, to make a new rules and sympathy. It’s just basically an antifa operation BLM it’s freaking ridiculous.
Odd. I grew up in an American family where we talked about religion and politics. Then again, my grandfather was a pastor, and we lived inside the beltway. I always just assumed this is what American people did: go to church and talk politics. I don't know quite when it changed. My guess it was after the psy-op known as 9-11 and the "new atheist" movement which is all rather stupid and tired now, if you ask me. I still love Jesus and upholding basic American principles like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I just call myself a traditional American.
It’s been going on for about 50 years you must be very old
The church I belong to back in the 2000s teens, you couldn’t say nothing during the gathering after the church service without getting frowned upon, some people listen however
LOL. I'm an old soul but not old. Maybe it just depends on which church you went to or family you come from.
I disagree and feel that one on the reasons for the demise of the church is its avoidance of politics as it relates to the true Christian way of life. For what is truth if it merely becomes malleable for the purpose of man. No doubt a driving force for this lack of dogma is the enticement of losing tax breaks given with the catch that political talk violates the lie of separation of church and state. Rare is the edifice that can deny “free” money no matter the cost.
Oh yes ! I so agree with your very first sentence here ! (can't speak for the tax break component part).
(this reply was for Entangled Web)
The evidence is against you. In Canada all the mainline churches are in major decline and correlates perfectly with their increase in political activism of the past 25 years. And the evangelical scripture based churches are growing. Correlation isn't causation, BUT....
Especially since Papa Smurf himself said achieving his Utopian communist vision would require the destruction of religion. Along with the nation and the family, of course.
He really was a hateful see-you-next-Tuesday.
All priests and pastors who commit pedophilia should be criminally charged, convicted, and jailed. No exceptions.
I think they deserve worse—Capitol punishment . They—in their betrayal of trust—essentially have taken an innocent’s life because the child will never be the same.
Agreed. I was a therapist for many years and worked with numerous clients who had been raped when children. It never goes away, it's always a dark place for those children, long after they are not children any more.
re: pedophiles. I can hear the voice of my beloved, old-school father saying, "castrate!"
Conglomerates and hemp: the former to fashion millstones, the latter to fashion rope.
Instructions: Loop the rope ‘round the stones’ centre holes then ‘round some too-deserving necks and cast the medallioned miscreants into the sea. (It “would be better for them” according to an unassailable source.)
In this world, it is very easy to become so jaded that all faith environments are avoided/rejected.
As a Gideon, we distribute/hand out Bibles with no sales-pitch. We believe that the “Word” goes out and “hits the mark.”
If asked, where do we recommend a newcomer start reading? Many of us recommend the Gospel of John.
This website, provides a synopsis of most of the books in the Bible:
Gospel of John, part 1 and Gospel of John, part 2
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G-2e9mMf7E8
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RUfh_wOsauk
Just takes a few minutes, no arm twisting
Blessings
Back in 1975 when I was in college, Gideons were handing out small Bibles on campus. I accepted one and carried it in my purse for the next 25 yrs, when I passed it on to someone who seemed to really need it. That Bible got me through a very scary time when I travelled to Russia in 1977 and had an appendicitis attack. I had to go to hospital for surgery and have my appendicitis removed. It was terrifying because Russia was still communist then, all the citizens were scared of their govt and the terrifying KGB and no one spoke English in the hospital. I read my Bible a lot every day, especially Psalms 23 "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." It went a long way towards helping me to not be so scared. I've always been grateful to the Gideons for distributing those Bibles, I'm sure many others have been grateful, too. In my hour of need, my Gideon Bible got me through.
In ‘95, when I became a Gideon, they reported that the average Gideon testament or Bible would be read by 17 people. Thanks for your note.
Praise God!
My favorite is Romans…..it includes everything.
Thank you! I will listen to this; it’s just what I have been looking for!
Praise God!
https://x.com/Laurel700/article/1839003765078212704
As each day goes by it becomes more clear the Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were talking about and the Scriptures about the last days become more understandable.
Thank you very, very much for using founding fathers” only sick people use the word “ founders”. They are misandrists. They hate men and cannot stand to see the word, father when tough shit they were all men.
Some idiot woman started telling me about Betsy Ross and I said “”what did she do besides so some stars on a cloth ?!?? “ well what did she do?””
She couldn’t answer because she did shit
And if you look up the most famous woman from that time, Abigail Adams, she wrote a letter to her husband that included “ remember the ladies” of course they have that information in every single article that they have a wrote about her because she did nothing else interesting in her life.
Women were not involved as was better that’s why things worked then
DUH we all know it
I would tend to expand on that scope just a little. For all accounts and purposes, Satan is the ultimate misanthropist, who will indiscriminately murder men, women, children, young and old alike. Giving some credit where credit is due, Eve was called "The mother of all living, And Sarah (Abraham's wife) was called a mother of many nations, Deborah, judged Israel (Judges 4:4) If the Abigail Adams letter you are referring to is the same one where she expressed that "all men can be tyrants" (which I've found equally true of women) then her presumption is that women are not as capable of the same, however simple statistics on violence can demonstrate a 50/50 mix of just what has been recorded in recent years.
" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. " (Genesis 1:27) The sweet attraction of the sexes was part of our design knowing that:
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)
Conversely, we know that if it isn't good, where it comes from and always should consider the source. It is no surprise that evil ideas get well financed, and good sound doctrine is cast aside by those who think they know better than God. Fredric Bastiat had something to say about that in his treatise on "The Law".
"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body." ~ C. S. Lewis
For some, just being a good person, and believing in a soul isn't good enough. You have to believe in their version of the soul, state, or god, otherwise be condemned.
Just being a good person, and believing in a soul isn't good enough. It’s your personal relationship with God. Only you can know that. It’s between you and God. His spirit will convict you because he loves you. No one in your life will ever love you more.
When God knocks on your heart’s door no one can answer but you.
I hope and pray good things for you and your loved ones. Please pass on how God loves all of us.
Plus, you have to have rules because people definitely have to be specifically told” do not rape children”
Where do you get that from? Any normal healthy human looking on a child should be able to see the pure innocence and know this is to be nurtured not abused. Some of the Coastal tribes in B.C. would take a pedophile out to where the Japan current takes them out to sea and leave them there with no food, water or paddles. They didn't need Christianity to tell them this was just.
Well, people certainly have to be told now don’t they?!?
Only the weak minded. Decency and love should come naturally to all normal people
I think her comment was sarcasm.
I once was having a conversation with a person who claimed to be "born again". I asked him a theoretical question. Here it is.
Let's say you have a man living in the Amazon rain forest who has never heard of Jesus Christ. He is a pillar of his tribe He sees his children and indeed all of the the other children are properly fed and looked after. His is a respected voice in his village. This man is in every way honorable. When this man dies is he condemned to Hell for not being Christian? His answer was "Absolutely". This in a nutshell is why I have no tolerance for self styled righteous Christians. They are no more Christian than a viper.
Thank you!!! Similarly, recently I asked my born again friend who insists that Israel’s decimation of Gaza and the ensuing genocide is all justified, How exactly is the extreme violence - murder of women and children - “Christian”?
She answered that Israel must prevail because Jesus will come again there - and therefore the Jews and Israel are sacred and so barbarically destroying their enemies, the Palestinians who apparently are pure evil, is justified.🤷♀️
I repeated to her that it’s impossible for me to see this as “Christian”. Didn’t Jesus preach kindness and mercy???
It is astounding that ‘Christians’ support Israel in their slaughter and genocide. There is such a profound cognitive dissonance in it that I think their brains get locked in response and all they can parrot is Whataboutisms…oh but what about October 7…whaddabout the Second Coming? What we do see is how politics usurps religion and vice versa.
BTW. The investigations of Ha’aretz and B’Selem have proven the IDF killed their own in the hundreds and that the Netanyahu coterie knew it was coming and stood down.
To address the return of Jesus in eschatological terms I would pose a question,
if God so loves the WORLD and is immanent, omniscient, omnipresent then why would he confine himself to such a limited operation both in geography,event and time? Why would God reveal pieces of an impossible jigsaw blindfold the players and give them knives and scissors as well? One could only conclude there’s something deeply flawed in all of this, either of our understanding of God or in the manipulation of events to reinforce an ideological position.
Your Zionist Christian friend has been deceived and is giving you a false interpretation of Scripture. The political state of Israel has nothing to do with true Christianity, or even Biblical Judaism (not Rabbinic Judaism) as practiced by Abraham and the OT prophets, who were often persecuted and killed by the Jews.
Suffer the little children.... That means all children no exceptions.
Yes, Jesus told us to pray for those who persecute us and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus also wept over Jerusalem and how the Jews rejected him and demanded that the Romans crucify him. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me." Matthew 23:37
This argument is void and is addressed by Scripture itself. Presently almost everyone in the world (almost 9 billion people) have access to the Bible and/or have heard of Jesus Christ, but how many believe and follow? Very, very few. It's not about access, but the condition of man's heart and whether he/she diligently seeks the truth. I pray one day you find it.
This is atheistic posturing in an attempt to look superior to the evangelical who is a schmuck in your mind. It's manipulative & contemptible because nothing the man could've said would have satisfied you. In order to be true to his faith he must stick to what Jesus said "I am the way. Noone can come to the father except through me". So you need to give him credit for sticking to the teachings of his religion rather than trying to appease you in the faint hope you decide to soften your antipathy towards his religion.
The truth is noone fully understands the mind & heart of God who is the ultimate judge of the hearts & deeds of men. As you are aware of the gospel message & who Jesus is, to continue to reject God places you in a perilous position. You have an advantage the hypothetical Amazonian saint doesn't - you have been exposed to this idea of humanity needing a savior. You will be judged too one day & more harshly than the Amazonian.
Also your hypothesis is flawed - noone is righteous. Noone is capable of being good enough all by himself or herself. So its impossible for such a person to exist. Look at your own self for proof - try being perfect for 24 hours.
I don't really care if I am judged by a superior being. I also realize I am not perfect. Nobody is. I will die knowing I have always tried to be a good person not by your standards but by my own. What gives the heads of churches the right to think they are Holy? What gives you the right to think that you are right? The truth is none of us know the truth. The close mindedness of organized religion has caused more suffering in this world than enough. How many people have been murdered in the name of God? Most churches are just a way for charlatans to make money. Still, I wish you peace and happiness.
That person has not read and properly understood Roman's 2:12-29. Basically, those who have never been exposed to the laws of God, if they still live by the law, then they have salvation because they have a good heart. My personal belief is also that young children and mentally disabled people have salvation, since they are not able to fully understand the concepts of laws and salvation. They are innocents.
I couldn't agree with you more. Anyone who has ever spent time around a handicapped person can see they are the purest form of love.
💯
Which was the reason I posed him the question. To me the answer is obvious even though I was raised atheist and matured to draw my own conclusions which are definitely not atheist. Still, I have never been to a church although I have debated with many ministers of all denominations. Most of them are locked into their beliefs with no ability of critical thinking. in short most of them have blind spots regarding their own views of Christianity. Personally I believe the theoretical man in the rain forest is more deserving of a good afterlife than many of these so called men of God. Personally, I will go on my way independent of other's personal beliefs in the belief that the only proper way to live is attempting to be at peace with everyone you meet and willingly doing nobody any harm. Your view was very refreshing and enlightening. I wish you peace and happiness.
Correct, You're either in THEIR club or you are are an enemy. Live and let live went out the window somewhere along the line
That's one of those horrible positions that people take. I often visit illustrations of The Inferno. Next time I will see if I can locate "sanctimony" within the hierarchy.
Thank you for this article.
I have never lived a life that depends on another to keep me accountable to God.
I feel it too, Elizabeth.
The change.
I'm just a silly storyteller/cartoonist of a man, delightfully married to my sweetheart of 35 years, with 13 beautiful children (all boys but 9) and we just got our 30th grandchild for Christmas (she's PERFECT).
We have been homeless three times in the last 18 years, with at least 8 children and an aged father-in-law to care for during each experience...
...and God provided miracles.
MANY miracles.
Every day.
Still does.
Every day.
We didn't take welfare.
We worked as a family, and everyone looked...up.
Don't be afraid, anyone who reads this, to love God and Jesus, openly.
Find out what your purpose is, and stick to it like a tick on a dog.
Do good, because good can be done.
Love good, beCAUSE it is good.
Never be afraid to DO good.
I promise that by doing what is right, you'll empower and inspire someone else to do the same.
That’s beautiful. Thank you.
I am a grateful recovering alcoholic whose life was literally saved by the spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is an actual miracle that I am here today, alive, and able to tell my story.
25 years ago I was given a death sentence by one of the few doctors I visited in those days- if I did not stop drinking I would be dead inside of 3 months. Through God's grace I was able to choose life and went that day into a detox unit at the hospital where I first encountered AA.
I remember my first prayer when I woke up in the hospital, was simply "God help me, I can't go on like this." The good people of AA who had brought a meeting to the detox sat with me and told me that I didn't have to drink again, that although I was powerless over alcohol, my Higher Power would see me through and help me. This is what happened to me and millions of others.
Getting back to the Catholic Church- there are many of us alcoholics who call ourselves "recovering Catholics" as well. I can't tell you how many AA meetings I go to where the person speaking starts out saying "I was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools all my life." That was me too.
The Catholic Church is an evil institution and I think it was even back in the 1950s when I was growing up and my mom made us go to Catholic schools and of course church. I well remember the horny priests chasing around the altar boys and flirting with the girls. We all knew which priests had "hand problems." But worst of all was their version of "faith and religion."
Catholicism then and now is all about FEAR. That's what they taught us- to be afraid of everything. They actually were the ones who instituted THOUGHT CRIMES. If we happened to be thinking about bad things and we got hit by a car, we would go to hell!
Or how about the Pagan Babies? Anyone remember that scam? At Halloween when other kids were collecting money for "UNICEF" we were collecting money in cans for the little African babies who had not been baptized and who would spend their lives in limbo unless we could muster up enough priests to go over there and convert their families.
No wonder I loved alcohol so much - it took away the fear that had been pounded into me by those Catholic monsters.
It has been a long, wonderful and miraculous recovery for which I thank God and the incredible people of AA. We have a saying: religion is for people who don't want to go to hell; spirituality is for people who've been there.
To me the greatest spiritual "work" today is Alcoholics Anonymous. Every day that I go to a meeting I see miracles in the flesh- people like me who were on death's door not too long ago, now living full and happy lives.
One other thing- during the Scamdemic it was the Catholic priests who locked us out of our meeting places. They were glad to get rid of the AA "drunks" who had been using their basements and rooms for meetings. It was just the excuse they needed and they never let us back. We had to find other places to carry the message.
So I am delighted that Elizabeth has laid it all out about these phony "religions" and their Satanic overlords. If I hadn't experienced all that I did, I would never have believed it.
May God bless Elizabeth and protect her.
Amen, Sober Sister!!! God Bless Alcoholics Anonymous!!! I believe it is definitely a miraculous and divinely inspired program!!
Saved my life too. Ever grateful!!🙏💜🙏
AA is better than any church I've ever been involved with, especially the Catholics.
There is everything that the churches lack- true fellowship, a moral code in the 12 Steps and the only "cure" for the horrors of alcoholism.
While I don't see myself as a Christian (never having set foot in a church service in my life) I have been a strong believer in Christian Principle since my teens. Any intelligent rational person surely must be able to see that Christian Principles are the keystones of our society. I noticed starting with the government of Turdeau senior a covert movement to destroy these keystones. For over fifty years they have chipped away at these keystones until now they are on the verge of collapse. None of these basic stones have ever been replaced with anything substantial. We are now at the point where if we don't do some restorative work the whole structure is about to come raining down. There is hope in the realization that the Communists in the old Soviet Union did everything to bring it down in their areas of influence. Today Russia is one of the most staunchly Christian countries in the world. I think this is why the West is doing everything they can to destroy them. They will not succeed. I have seen the look in the eyes of the truly devout. They cannot be defeated.
Oh my goodness. You have nailed it - you’ve clarified and put into words the vague sense nudging me (and so many others) to see something that is hard to bear. I will read again and share and discuss this and return to the comments later, after church.
Yesterday was Gather 25, a 24-hour worldwide Christian event. The videos from around the world are amazing. The church is growing, the young are flocking to THE Church, and I am incredibly hopeful. BTW, not all Lutheran churches are alike. There are different groups, called Synods, and the largest, known as ELCA, is the one you despise. The others are conservative, some more so than others, but are apolitical. We hate the evil being done in "our" name.
Sublime, Elizabeth. Thank you.
I cannot bring myself to even read about the Pope's health condition, because, I do not care. Raised a Catholic as well as a Democrat, I do not recognize the values of either of those entities anymore.
💯
In an average chase movie entitled "The International" there is one genuinely great line of dialogue: "The difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense."
The Chicago Communist cartel that pumped up Obama are the ones who stoke the fires of this evil. Bill Ayers, David Axelrod, Rham Emanuel and Valarie Jarrett are the hands that run PuppetObaama. Barrack Hussein Obama never had a single original thought in his life. Obama does what he is told...or else. The old Weatherman Bill Ayers ("I'm guilty as hell and free as a bird.") is the ring leader. Ayers said early-on that 25,000,000 people would need to be killed to make Communism in the United States a reality. Ayers did not say the slaughter would be mostly children. Barack Obama is a simple tool of ambition and emulation that Chicago Communists used to bring industrialized death to the Americas.
Well said my friend!
Excellent, profound, and true! Thank you,Elizabeth.
There is a Deep State and a Deep Catholic Church, headed by Bergoglio aka social justice Pope Frankie.The funding of this horrific human trafficking under the guise of compassion is finally exposed- a miracle!