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POPSCatholic Martyrdom Catholicism, interesting ideas. I wonder what they would have done with Jesus' body parts if they could've found him. Also interesting, that Romans were told to convert to Catholicism or be beheaded. This seems to have gone full circle.
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POPSPope Points to Saints who Conquered 'Hell on Earth' of Nazi Camps 5 Comments So, why does the wealth of the Vatican need the protection of a secular state? The Catholic Church has always been in love with power Ironic........Pope during ww2 turned a blind eye to the horrors of nazi germany and holocaust. I swear I remember reading from multiple source including his own autobiography that the current pope was in Hitlers youth brigade and luftwaffe (Air Force) as an assistant something or other. Info...that is true
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POPSPope Points to Saints who Conquered 'Hell on Earth' of Nazi Camps
"The Nazi concentration camp – noted Pope Benedict - as every death camp, can be considered an extreme symbol of evil, of the hell that comes to earth when man forgets God, and when He is replaced, usurping from Him the right to decide what is good and what is evil, to give life or to take life. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not confined to the death camp. It is rather the culmination of an extensive and widespread reality of often nebulous boundaries. " This reality is precisely the antithesis that became clear at the end of the second millennium, "the opposition between atheistic humanism and Christian humanism, between holiness and nihilism”. "On the one hand - continued the pope - there are philosophies and ideologies, but also on an increasing scale ways of thinking and acting, which extol the freedom of man as the only principle, as an alternative to God, and thus transform man into a god, whose system behaviour is of an arbitrary nature. On the other hand, we note th
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POPSTeenage bombers are rescued from Taleban suicide training camps The Army believes that between 1,200 to 1,500 boys as young as 11 who were trained in Swat to become suicide bombers were recruited after the Pakistani Government signed a peace deal with the Taleban in February, handing over control of the valley to the militants. The agreement broke down after the Taleban started advancing on Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, which led to a military offensive that has all but driven the militants from the region. The boys were rescued after the Taleban were forced to abandon their camps. Many are still missing, however, having been sold to militants in other areas.
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POPSCan We Leave Now? When a girl gets educated here and then becomes a mother, she will be much less likely to let her son become a militant or insurgent,” he added. “And she will have fewer children. When a girl learns how to read and write, one of the first things she does is teach her own mother. The girls will bring home meat and veggies, wrapped in newspapers, and the mother will ask the girl to read the newspaper to her and the mothers will learn about politics and about women who are exploited. It is no accident, Mortenson noted, that since 2007, the Taliban and its allies have bombed, burned or shut down more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and 350 schools in Pakistan, of which about 80 percent are schools for girls."
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POPSPolycarp: Bishop of Smyrna Polycarp was sentenced to be burned. As he waited for the fire to be lighted, he prayed: Lord God Almighty, Father of your blessed and beloved child Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and hosts and all creation, and of the whole race of the upright who live in your presence: I bless you that you have thought me worthy of this day and hour, to be numbered among the martyrs and share in the cup of Christ, for resurrection to eternal life, for soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit. Among them may I be accepted before you today, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as you, the faithful and true God, have prepared and foreshown and brought about. For this reason and for all things I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved child, through whom be glory to you, with him and the Holy Spirit, n
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POPSBahai Non-Involvement In Politics Dr. Ali-Murad Davudi’s essay is at once chastening, a cautionary note. Yet it is a loving embrace of a nascent faith, an emerging global religion, the light of which we can as yet not fully observe, but a light that nevertheless is bathing the whole of humanity within God’s loving grace, in which the diversity of humanity will reach its zenith once unity is achieved through God’s loving grace. His apparent martyrdom at first glance for me left a pit in my stomach and terribly saddened my heart and soul. Reading this left me bittersweet. Bitter because I am human and I see his martyrdom as grossly unjust. However, the sweet nectar is that Mr. Dr. Ali-Murad Davudi’s spirit reaches through these words to touch our hearts. The effect is at once profound and humbling. Let his words be studied by all seekers of the light of God of whatever faith. And, if you are of any faith in our one Creator, please say a prayer for Dr. Ali-Murad Davudi, a scholar, a gentle
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POPSRich on Palin Frank Rich on Sarah Palin and the fringe that now controls the GOP. Some of the nationalist fervor, the fear and the scapegoating are reminiscent of prior troubled times. May our present time's more level heads prevail.
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POPSJihadist Group Hizb-Ut-Tahrir America Host Conference in Chicago July 19
Presumably that includes here in the U.S., like at the mall or the corner pub. Further, HT preaches the establishment of Sharia (Islamic) law and the eradication of both the U.S. Constitution and our legal system. The duty of the State is to implement Islam as a whole and to deem its implementation upon the non-Muslim as an invitation to Islam for them, because Shari’ah is ordained upon mankind; thus the State implements it upon every country that comes under its authority with the aim of conveying the Da’awah to it, because the secret behind the Islamic conquests is to carry the Da’awah to Islam. -- The Concept of Hizb ut Tahrir, page 30 As for the useful idiots who believe the cavalier exhortation that Jihad is a spiritual battle within oneself, HT helpfully clears that matter up quite succinctly. ...supplication is an action that achieves a spiritual value and Jihad is a physical action that achieves a spiritual value.
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POPSBeheshti’s Ghost The mosque was crowded and hot; a restless buzz filled the air. Young girls in green headscarves and chador-clad women with green wristbands were murmuring Mir Hossein Mousavi’s name. He was rumored to be on his way to make a speech here. The service started at 6 p.m. I perched myself on a ledge on the balcony corner next to the window, overlooking the podium in the men’s section below. A muezzin launched into a long prayer, followed with a eulogy in praise of Beheshti. It was getting hotter by the moment as more people pressed in. A woman next to me whispered, “Is Mousavi really coming?” I smiled reassuringly at her, though by now " an hour had passed " I began to suspect the shadowy opposition leader was a no-show. The muezzin droned on. I was getting fed up and ready to leave. Thankfully, just then it came " a roar of cheering from outside."
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POPSIranian authorities scramble to negate Neda Soltan 'martyrdom' The world really needs to extend a hand to help these people. Let's NOT let this get to the point of all these government executions evolving to genocide, before the international community steps in and tells this dictatorship to cease attacking its own people. Action is needed now, not just from the US, but all the international powers.
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POPSThe Shot Twittered Around The World The implications of this massacre are yet to be seen. I can only parallel in my mind to America's own history to the "Shot heard 'round the world". Could this be the shot twittered around the world. The seminal moment for liberty in Iran?
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POPSIranian reformers press on; Moussavi "ready for martyrdom" "I am ready for martyrdom" vows Moussavi. Obama: “Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion. “Martin Luther King once said: ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ ” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.” Well said! Direct US involvement would ruin the resistance by branding it American - backed. Obama does well to stand back and let Iranians decide their own fate.
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POPS"No priest, no evil one/Can keep us/From feeling like Hitler’s children." "Clergy were put on government salary, hence subjected to state authority. “The parsons will be made to dig their own graves,” Hitler cackled. “They will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes.” Following the Jacobin example, the Nazis replaced the traditional Christian calendar. The new year began on January 30 with the Day of the Seizure of Power. Each November the streets of central Munich were dedicated to a Nazi Passion play depicting Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch. The martyrdom of Horst Wessel and his “old fighters” replaced Jesus and the apostles. Plays and official histories were rewritten to glorify pagan Aryans bravely fighting against Christianizing foreign armies. Anticipating some feminist pseudo history, witches became martyrs to the bloodthirsty oppression of Christianity."
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POPSGitmo Detainees to Work as Wal-Mart Greeters The "Gitmo to Greet Mo'" program bypasses maximum-security federal penitentiaries located all over the United States and instead pays for jihadists' food and housing and provides them work. The thinking is that terrorists will not want to blow up America if they get to experience first-hand how nice and welcoming Americans are. However, this scenario will create a whole new set of terrorists: old ladies who lost their jobs to terrorists.
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POPSAllowing Guilty Pleas Without Trial Would be the Ultimate Obstruction of Justice Obama administration wants to allow Guantanamo prisoners to plead guilty without a trial. Which will prevent details of their torture from becoming public during the course of the trial, a direct violation of standard criminal protocol. It also would solve the thorny problem of introducing ‘signed’ confessions that were obtained by the use of torture. The 9/11 Commission knows it cannot with any clear conscience use these as evidence. The author states a very compelling case against the government for obstructing justice. As always, the government is changing the rules in the name of political expediency. And in this case to prevent exposing the governments lack of real evidence for its version of 9/11.
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POPSThe Religious Right Didn't Kill George Tiller <blockquote>But if the reactions to the death of Tiller mean anything, the "Christian Taliban," as conservative religious figures are often called, isn't living up to its namesake. If "Christianists" were anything like actual religious fascists they would applaud Tiller's murder as a "heroic martyrdom operation" and suborn further mayhem.</blockquote> <blockquote>I hold no brief for the religious right, and its views on homosexuality in particular offend (and affect) me personally. But it's precisely because of my identity that I consider comparisons between so-called Christianists (who seek to limit my rights via the ballot box) and Islamic fundamentalists (who seek to limit my rights via decapitation) to be fatuous.</blockquote>
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POPSFrontline: "From Jesus To Christ: The First Christians"
The entire documentary is viewable at the site. HOUR 1 examines how Judaism and the Roman empire shaped Jesus' life. Jesus was an ordinary Jewish resident of his time, but new archaeological findings show that Jesus was probably not the humble village peasant often portrayed Nazareth, where he grew up, was about four miles from the cosmopolitan urban center of Sepphoris, one of the Roman provincial cities HOUR 2 explores the period after the crucifixion of Jesus and traces the beginnings of the Jesus Movement, in those early years before it was called Christianity HOUR 3 follows the story of the first attempts to write the life of Jesus--the Gospels: The Gospels were products of social and religious reconstruction in the period after the war, ranging from roughly 70 to after 100 C.E. The program looks at how these stories were passed down before they were written. HOUR 4 chronicles how the Christian movement - as it became separate from Judaism-would face new challenges
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POPS A True Martyr Like the most worthy saint, Jan Palach lived a simple life. As a boy, his father nurtured in him a keen love of history, which he went on to study at Prague's Charles University. He was known as a quiet student, strong-willed, bookish, rather serious. The turning point in Palach's life was the August 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces to suppress the political and cultural liberalization known as the Prague Spring. The invasion had a radicalizing impact on Palach. What he found hardest to bear was not the occupation and attack on freedom itself, but the reaction of his countrymen. In the months following the invasion, the raw passion of opposition and defiance became resignation, accommodation and lethargy. Alexander Dubcek, the Czechoslovak leader who was instrumental in the reform movement's "socialism with a human face," signed the Moscow Protocols, which were ultimately an expression of loyalty to the Soviet Union.
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POPS Taliban's "Suicide Nurseries" ~ Hundreds Brainwashed Ghazi moved to the neighbouring district of Tank in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), to save his second teenage son from the influence of his fellow tribesman and local warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who he blames for Haneef’s recruitment and death. But hundreds more children are still undergoing brainwashing at dozens of ‘suicide nurseries’ run by the ethnic Pashtun Taliban commander. Mehsud, in his 30s, has emerged as the most dangerous Taliban commander in Pakistan in recent years. He heads Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group for around a dozen Taliban outfits and has close links with Al Qaeda. The notorious commander is believed to have been behind several dozen suicide bombings across the country, including the one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in late 2007.
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POPS9/11 Plotters Proud of their Accomplishment In what can only send a chill of refutation to many within the so-called 9/11 "truth" movement, the five 9/11 plotters held at Gitmo have admitted to their crime and express "pride" in what they call their "accomplishment." While 9/11 "truthers" will busy themselves with trying to explain away these confessions, sensible people will be left with horror at the arrogance and callousness of the admitted murderers.
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POPSItalian Parliament in Rome: Italy stands with Israel against Hamas
"The change of attitude is great: the terrorist and religious nature of Hamas and the democratic, civilized nature of Israel are seen face to face for what they really are at least by the European elite at large, dead and wounded notwithstanding, and there rises an identification with Israel against a regime that uses human shields and promises slaughter of Jews in its charter. What happens today, at least in Italy, is the defeat and fall of the leftist ideologies: ideology that has allowed justification of all the most violent crimes and most disgusting verbal attacks. If Arafat launched the terrorist Intifada, if he promoted the martyrdom of children in public speeches, the ideologists were ready to justify him with the issues of occupation, the Palestinian misery and loss of any hope. Not so with Hamas. History, in Italy, has brought to a profound crisis the ideology of revolution and the justification of any cruel attack against a so-called unjust imperialist order."
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POPSThe Greatest Story Never Told: Modern Christian Martyrdom I'm not Catholic, just Christian. I decided to look this up because my faith comes under constant ridicule - called into question daily. Persecution does not require that I be physically beaten or killed. Verbal abuse seems to be rampant, not only on Clipmarks, but in general. How soon before verbal attacks progress to physical attacks? It's happening all over the world already.
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