Saturday, May 24, 2008
JEWS BURN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The burning of hundreds of New Testaments by yeshiva students in Or Yehuda last week was regrettable and unplanned, the city's deputy mayor, the man who spurred the students to act, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon of Shas used the opportunity of speaking to the Post, which publishes a monthly Christian Edition, to apologize to Christians worldwide, saying he hoped the incident would not inflame tensions between Jews and Christians.
Following the publication of the story on Tuesday, however, many messianic Jewish and other Christian groups expressed grave concern over the increasingly violent nature of anti-missionary activity in Israel....
Aharon then told the Post that he was very sorry for the book burning and that it was not planned, and that he was aware that the incident may have caused damage to relations between Christians and Jews. The deputy mayor said he had organized, together with "three or four" yeshiva students from the city's Michtav M'Eliahu Yeshiva to go to apartments in the city's Neveh Rabin neighborhood, which has many Ethiopian immigrants, and round up packages given to them several days earlier by messianic Jews. The packages contained a New Testament and several pamphlets, which Aharon said "encouraged on to go against Judaism."
Read it here
YIKES !
A reader sent in a link to this homosexual indoctrination film. It features students and teachers in elementary school being told that the homosexual lifestyle is ok. Some of these children do not look old enough to know what sex is, let alone what homosexual sex is. America's youth are being robbed of their innocence by public education in order to serve the GLBTQ agenda.
Friday, May 23, 2008
WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
Chapter 10 is titled "The Religions of Scotland: Did Presbyterianism Have Crypto-Jewish Origins?" Hirschman and Yates write:
This book began with a provocatie idea: Scotland is, or was, Jewish. The previous chapters have explored the Jewish ancestry and culture of some of Scotland's leading families and much of her population. We now present an equally unlikely thesis, which we nonetheless believe is correct: that the origins of the Protestant Reformation and especially the particular form it took in Scotland - Presbyterianism - also lie in Judaic influences. Both authors of this investigation were not only told growing up that we were of Scottish origin, but we were also raised in the Protestant faith. Just as we subsequently discovered that our "Scottish" roots were not Celtic, but Sephardic and French Jewish, so also were we led to question the traditional origins of Scottish Protestantism.(p. 192)
...Scotland began as a pagan country, Druidic, worshiping nature and the sun. And then, around 560 C.E. St. Columba (Columcille, born around 521, died 597) arrived from Ireland, established the first Christian monastery at Iona and began converting the surrounding countryside to Christianity. Ostensibly, the entire land was then won over to Roman Catholicism and remained loyal to that form of Christianity until John Knox and other reformers led Scotland to Protestantism in the 1560s.
...Donald Meek, professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Aberdeen, has suggested that the great bulk of what we think we know about the Celtic church is a romantic construction, the creation of poets like the eighteenth century "Ossian" and, more recently, of "feel-good" Celticists" and New Age enthusiasts....
Moreover, the term "Celtic" lay dormant from antiquity until it was revived by the Humanist George Buchanan, the tutor to Mary Queen of Scots and later to her son, the future James I of England...the label itself is a misconception, and recent critics have even withdrawn the use of the word "church" from the phrase "Celtic church" on the grounds that it implies a hierarchy and organization that never existed....
As for the underlying paganism that both Judaism and Christianity fought, forms of nature worship such as the Green Man fertility cult can be found in castles and kirks across Scotland. (p. 193)
The Celtic church had its own priests and religious practices, which...corresponded more closely to Judaic customs and beliefs than to the Roman rite. Culdean priests continued to officiate in Scotland at most churches well into the 1200s. (p. 194)
The authors provide a list of known bishops and archbishops of St. Andrews Cathedral. Among them are Chuldee/Celtic religious leaders. Some, the authors claim, are Hebrew and Crypto-Jewish families (p. 195).
Hirschman and Yates propose a question:
Could it not be more than merely fortuitous that the Protestant Reformation sprang from those very countries to which Sephardim fled - France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, England and Scotland?...against Catholicism, should also be seen as a movement toward Judaism. (p. 200)
We propose that the Reformation, beyond being a movement
The authors delve into this theory in more detail including the banning of Catholicism from Scotland under Knox's leadership. They write:
Knox also urged the adoption ofMosaic law as the governing rule of Scotland. Under it, "certain crimes [including] murder, blasphemy, adultery, perjury and idolatry" would be punishable by death. He further proposed that Scotland create a universal system of education so that every individual in the population would be literate and able to read the scriptures; he also envisaged a universal charity system to care for the indigent, ill and disabled. All three of these concepts are rooted in Judaic tradition, not in Christianity. Knox described the resulting society as one in which events on Earth would mirror those in Heaven - a metaphor which Marshall attributed to St. Augustine, but which could just as easily, and more immediately, be derived from the Cabalistic tradition in France. In Knox's view, Scotland was "a new Israel dedicated to upholding God's law". (p. 203-204)
Those Mosaic laws discussed are the Noahide Laws that are being proposed for Western civilization today, and the prohibition against idolatry will not accommodate Jesus Christ. Regarding the claim that charity belongs to Judaism, not to Christianity, is not quite sustainable given the words Jesus spoke while on Earth. Charity has been a bedrock foundation of Christianity since its inception. I will concede it may have been brought over from Judaism given that Jesus Christ was Jewish in His human form.
The authors conclude the chapter with this:
So, can weprove that either John Calvin or John Knox were of Marrano descent? No. But we can sum up our case by pointing to the perponderance of the evidence, which suggests that their ancestors were Jewish and that they, themselves, were aware of this. If we are correct in this inference, then perhaps the ultimate irony is that the Spanish Inquisition - intended to crush Judaism and send Spain's Sephardim into ignominious exile - actually had the opposite effect. The displaced Jews, like so many tiny floating seeds from a milkweed pod, landed on fertile ground in Holland, France, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, and England, where they grew into the Protestant Reformation. (p. 2004)
It's rather a mind-boggling proposition!
Turn for a moment to the website of Barry Chamish where you can read:
Rabbi Antelman traces the means of the worldwide reach of this ugliness. By the 1770s, the Illuminatti was exposed and banned in Germany and then throughout Europe. Weishaupt made a strategic change that worked miracles for the international spread of his goals. He infiltrated agents into the Freemasonic lodges of England and Scotland, changing their highest tenets to his own, until every lodge in every nation accepted them. Thus, the Illuminatti now had two centers of activity, Germany and Britain. It was from Germany to London that the apostate Jews Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were sent to devise the rot of communism. Shortly after that task was done, the Rothschilds sent their agents John Jacob Astor and Jacob Schiff from Germany to America. They financed the robber barons like Rockefeller and Morgan, who in 1922, founded the Council On Foreign Relations, to overthrow the American constitution and switch the nation's diplomacy to Illuminattiism.
TENSIONS IN CROWN HEIGHTS
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Police are mobilizing a massive presence in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in the wake of increased tension between African American and Jewish communities.
Leaders from both communities have come together recently to preach cooperation among residents of the neighborhood where African Americans and Hassidic Jews live side by side. But recent violence has showed that religion and race don't always mix....
Since 1991, when riots broke out after a 7-year-old black boy was killed by a Hassidic driver, Crown Heights has been hurt off-and-on by periodic tension. In the past month, 20-year-old Andrew Charles, who is black, was beaten up, and the suspect is Jewish.
Then last week, 16-year-old Alon Sherman, who is Jewish, had his jaw broken while being allegedly robbed by two black teens. The attackers were arrested Thursday.
Read the story here.
Any thoughts on why the religion card is being played in this story? Why the race card is pitted against it? The reporting is sort of out of character, isn't it, given that this is a CBS news site? I don't get it.
THE EARTHQUAKE'S IMPACT
We hear stories of the destruction of the Chinese earthquake. A series of pictures taken by a photographer who was standing outside of a deserted Catholic monastery along with five just-married couples makes it real. At this website you can see the church as it looked before the quake struck, the couples in their wedding finery, and the rubble that remained when the quake ended. The pictures are striking.
BISHOP OPPOSING BISHOP - OR IN THIS CASE BISHOP OPPOSING POPE
Father Hans Kung, 80, a Swiss priest and professor at Tubingen university said it was a "tragedy" for the Catholic Church that Rome had failed to follow the path of liberalisation set out by the Vatican II council in 1965....
In an interview with La Repubblica...he said: "Rome continues to block every sort of renewal, and is blocking any ecumenical unification with the protestant and orthodox churches. This pope has made serious mistakes."
Read it here...
Thursday, May 22, 2008
"WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH" - "The Judaic Colony at Aberdeen"
On this topic Hirschman and Yates write:
We propose that Aberdeen's phenomenal growth as a trading center and financial capital was due to the fact that it was a Crypto-Jewish burgh. It is very likely thatall the dominant families in the city, from 1100 to the 1800s, were of Jewish descent, originating early on from southern France, then from England after the 1290 expulsion, and finally, 1492 onward, from the Iberian peninsula and shifting safe-havens of the Sephardic Diaspora. The DNA results from prominent Aberdeen families...already support this proposition...
Let us begin with the mysterious "St. Machar," to whom not one, but two, parishes were dedicated in the dawn of Aberdeen history...there is no written or archaeological record of a saint named Machar, at least no Roman Catholic St. Machar, ever setting foot in Aberdeen, or Scotland for that matter. What does exist, however, is a church in Old Aberdeen dedicated to a "St. Machar" around which prominent members of the citizenry have been buried since its founding...
The candidate we would like to examine is the Davidic-descended master teacher of the Jewish community in Provence in southern France whose title was, in fact, Machar...and who was active there during the appropriate timeframe. This spiritual leader, Machar, would have been the central figure to persons practicing Judaism in France in the time just before the migration by Jews to Britain with William the Conqueror in 1060 C.E. To dedicate a religious center to this man would be very much in keeping with contemporaneous Talmudic practice of naming religious sites after their founders. (pp. 152-155)
The authors claim that during construction at St. Nicholas Kirk in 1740 the grave of Sir Robert Davidson was opened. A small silk scullcap was found buried with him. Additionally they state that Fyvie Castle owned by the Gordons and Setons is a "virtual trove of Judaic, Cabalistic and Islamic imagery" (pp. 155-157)
They also claim that on the Charter of Abroath (1320) are depictions of William the Lyon (King of Scotland 1165-1214) and David I the Saint (King of Scotland 1124-1153). It contains also two entwined snakes (a Cabalistic symbol) and lacks Christian symbolism. (p. 158)
There are other examples of Jewish and Islamic symbolism presented in this chapter as well. Interestingly the name Hay is contained in one of the many name lists, and the authors claim that even today it is a common Jewish surname. (p. 166)
SHIFT HAPPENS
If the statistics in this YouTube are correct, they represent the stuff of nightmares for someone who was born before television was invented!
INDIANA JONES IS THE OTTO RAHN OF THE SILVER SCREEN
according to this account of his life. The article claims, among other things, that Otto Rahn was an open homosexual.
LORAIN PARISHES CLOSING, MERGING
LORAIN -- A lay cluster committee is recommending that five Catholic churches in Lorain be closed and merged into a parish housed at Holy Trinity Church on Elyria Avenue. The recommendation will be forwarded to Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon for evaluation.
The recommendation is for St. Stanislaus, St. Ladislaus, Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph Church be closed and merge with Holy Trinity Church as a new church with a new pastor, according to Robert Tayek, head of communications for the diocese.
A letter concerning the recommendation is expected to be read at Masses on Sunday at the affected churches.
''St. Mary's and St. Peter's will remain on their own, as their own parish and operations. The other five, technically, will be merged into one parish. Then it will become a new parish with a new pastor. They would merge into one to be housed at Holy Trinity,'' said Tayek.
Read more...
CARDINAL EGAN CREATES CONFUSION FOR HIS PRIESTS
The sudden reassignments of dozens of Catholic priests across the Archdiocese of New York is causing great confusion and anxiety for priests and parishes, with some questioning Cardinal Edward Egan's motivation for making the moves.
About 47 priests found out last week, mostly in phone calls from the archdiocese, that they would be reassigned around July 1. Some of the priests are in the middle of their parish terms and had no inkling they would be moved. At least a few found out from the pastors who would replace them.
"No one knew it was coming," said one pastor who was reassigned. "We haven't been given a reason, and many of us are terribly confused about what's taken place. It's kind of unprecedented, really."
The pastor, like several other priests interviewed, did not want to be identified because he was concerned about retribution.
Word of the reassignments has started to spread in recent days, and some parishioners and others are planning to protest the moves. The reassignments will not become official until the affected priests receive letters from Egan....
A common view expressed by priests, those affected by the moves and others, is that Egan is settling scores before his expected retirement. Egan reached the retirement age of 75 last year, but the pope has not yet accepted his retirement.
"What does it appear to be about?" said one pastor who is being reassigned. "Rewarding the priests he likes and punishing the priests he doesn't. It appears that way."
This pastor said several priests being reassigned in the middle of terms are looking into obtaining the services of canon lawyers to fight their transfers.
Read about it here.
TWO CARDINALS PROMOTING FIFTH MARIAN DOGMA
RANCHI, India, MAY 5, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Proclaiming Mary as the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity would benefit ecumenical and interreligious dialogue because it would help non-Catholics to understand many things about the Mother of God, says Cardinal Telesphore Toppo.
The archbishop of Ranchi and former president of the episcopal conference of India is one of the five cardinal co-sponsors of the 2005 International Symposium on Marian Co-redemption, held in Fatima, who are asking Benedict XVI to declare a fifth Marian dogma.
The petition urges the Pope to proclaim Mary "the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the co-redemptrix with Jesus the redeemer, mediatrix of all graces with Jesus the one mediator, and advocate with Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race."
In this interview with ZENIT, Cardinal Toppo discusses his views in favor of the proposed dogma.
Q: Previously this year, you and four other cardinals sent out a letter to the world's cardinals and bishops, inviting them to join in your petition for a new dogma of the spiritual motherhood of Mary. How did they respond?
Cardinal Toppo: Although the majority of cardinals and bishops sent their letters of support for the fifth Marian dogma directly to the Holy Father, we also received numerous copies of enthusiastic letters of support for this dogma from cardinals and bishops from all five continents. Many of the letters spoke of the need for the dogma and Our Lady's greatest possible intercession for the troubled situation for the world today, including the rampant war and terrorism, religious persecution, moral depravity, family breakdown and even natural disasters.
The general consensus of the letters from my brother cardinals and bishops is that now is the time for this fifth Marian dogma as a remedy for the unique difficulties facing the world. As she did in the Upper Room and in the early Church, Our Lady can intercede like no one else for a new release of the Holy Spirit to bring new grace, peace and protection for the Church and for the world.
Continue reading...
Isn't she already all of these things? Doesn't the Church beseech her to intercede for the Church and humanity already? Does she require this new Dogma before she will act on our behalf? Didn't she always point not to herself but to her Son? It almost seems like an insult to the Mother of God to proclaim this dogma at this particular time when women in the western world are clamoring for feminist theology. The Mother of God doesn't need a title to be empowered!
Another cardinal who promotes this dogma has spoken with Zenit:
KERALA, India, MAY 21, 2008 (Zenit.org).- An antidote to the challenges facing the Church and society today is the glorification of Mary through the proclamation of a fifth Marian dogma, says Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.
Cardinal Vithayathil, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, is one of the five cardinals who sent a letter in January inviting prelates worldwide to join them in petitioning Benedict XVI to declare a fifth Marian dogma they said would "proclaim the full Christian truth about Mary."
The text includes the petition that asks the Pope to proclaim Mary as "the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the co-redemptrix with Jesus the redeemer, mediatrix of all graces with Jesus the one mediator, and advocate with Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race."
Continue reading...
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
"WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH"
The second part of Hirschman and Yates' book addresses the Templars and the Cabala. The authors write:
The current claimant to the throne of Scotland and holder of the title of Prince of Albany, Michael Stewart, has written extensively about Stuart genealogy and early Scottish history. He discusses the close ties between certain members of the Catholic hierarchy, specifically St. Bernard, the Templars and the Scottish Celtic Church...Sacred Geometry of the [Jewish] masons who built King Solomon's Jerusalem Temple....Also in 1128, Saint Bernard's Cousin, Hughes de Payens, founder and Grand Master of the Templars, met with King David I in Scotland, and the Order established a seat on the South Esk....Both David and his sister mere (sic) maritally attached to the Flemish House of Boulogne, so there were direct family ties between David, Hugues de Payens, and the Crusader Kings of Jerusalem....St. Bernard [a Cistercian monk] had been appointed Patron and Protector of the Knights Templars at the French "Council of Troyes" in 1128. At that time, he had drawn up the Order's Constitution and had since translated the
[The Templars'] Jerusalem excavations had ... led to other important discoveries, including some ancient documentation which enabled them to challenge certain Roman Church doctrines and New Testament inscriptions.... Their documentary discoveries were substantial, including numerous books from the East, many of which had been salvaged from the burned library of Alexandria [Egypt]. There were ancient Essene works predating Jesus Christ and volumes from Arabian and Greek philosophers, all of which were destined to be condemned by the Church. There were also countless works concerning numerology, geometry, architecture and music, along with manuscripts pertaining to metals and alloys. In all, the Templars returned to Europe with the combined knowledge of thousands of years of study.
Thus, by the early 1100s a substantial amount of Middle Eastern knowledge, learning and mysticism had been transferred to Scotland. (p. 146)
Prince Michael Stewart is quoted further:
`Scotland was the perfect haven for the Knights Templar of Jerusalem. The Stewart king, the Setons, and the Sinclairs, were all hereditary Kights Templar, and Scottish Rite Freemasonry was later created as a sub-structure of the organization....
The Sinclairs gained their privilege because they had afforded half the Templar Fleet safe anchorage at Orkney, and the Setons had given valuable financial assistance during the Order's hour of need....
William Sinclair, [St. Clair] Earl of Caithness and Grand Admiral of Scotland, was appointed Hereditary Patron and Protector of the Scottish Masons by King James in 1441....
In 1475 a Charter ... was ratified, and Rosslyn became known as "Lodge Number One" in Edinburgh. (p. 147)
King James VI became a speculative Freemason at the Lodge of Perth and Scone in 1601, and on becoming James I of England two years later, he introduced the concept south of the Border. (p. 148)Scottish Guilds were given access to the Templar banking system...(p. 148)
The Cabala originated in the Holy Land around 70 C.E. and incorporated Judaic religious ideas together with geometric principles developed much earlier...The same architectural and mathematical principles were applied to the construction of the Temple of Solomon in Israel.....In medieval Palestine, the principles had been combined with a mystical numerical system which assigned each letter in the Hebrew alphabet to a number or digit. (p. 148)
The authors indicate that the tree of life symbolism embodies the doctrine "as above, so below" in that the tree has both roots and branches. This metaphor proposes "that activities on Earth are reflections of actions in Heaven." (p. 149)
...within the Templar Order, the same set of codes and metaphors was used and it was relayed only to initiates into the order....(p. 151)
The Cabala also developed a series of images and calculations based on what is termed "sacred geometry"...
Also incorporated within the Cabala were Fibonacci numbers....the Pythagorean theorem, the Golden Mean and the Golden Right Triangle of Phi were well known by the Cabalists and favored in their designs.
IT'S SUE-THE-CHURCH WEEK AGAIN
This time it's the Hispanics in the courtroom:
Four Hispanic families are suing St. Anne's Catholic School over a policy that requires students to speak English at all times while at school.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, calls for an end to the policy and asks for an order barring similar policies at other diocese schools....
"Language is an essential characteristic of one's national origin," according to the complaint filed in the case. "The ban on Spanish at St. Anne's created an atmosphere of intimidation, inferiority and isolation for Hispanic students."
The lawsuit was filed by parents Mike and Clara Silva, Maria and Fermin Fernandez, Guadalupe Cruz-Tello and Alma Contreras on behalf of themselves and their minor children. It names as defendants St. Anne Catholic School, Principal Margaret Nugent, St. Anne Catholic Parish and the Catholic Diocese of Wichita....
The diocese has said the school enacted the policy in response to four students who were using Spanish to bully others and to put down teachers and administrators....
The students named in the lawsuit are bilingual U.S. citizens...
Read all of it...
BYE BYE VERICHIP
Human-implantable RFID microchips face an uncertain future in the wake of developments that the technology's developer, VeriChip, announced last week. The Delray Beach, Florida-based company announced it sold most of its assets to tool manufacturer Stanley Works for $45 million and that the rest of the company is for sale (see VeriChip Sells an RFID Business, More Change May Come). The remaining company essentially consists of the VeriMed Health Link business line, a patient identification service based on VeriChip's controversial, FDA-approved line of implantable RFID tags for lifetime human identification.Read the rest...
"That business is not self-sustainable," VeriChip vice president of corporate development Jay McKeage candidly told RFID Update. "It cannot stand on its own because of the cash burn involved in marketing to consumers."
Hat tip to Catherine of Sienna at Threshing Grain for this one.
MEDJUGORJE
I was recently scandalized yet again in discovering that a "seer" from Medjugorje was scheduled to speak at the parish where I'm registered. This apparition does not have Church approval. For all the faithful can know at this time it may be the work of the devil. There are many approved apparitions which can be promoted. This one is not among them.
The Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, the See in which Medjugorje is located, delivered a homily at the Confirmation Mass on June 15, 2006. The homily has been posted in English on the diocesan website. That homily addresses in part the state of disobedience of the Franciscan priests who promote the Medjugorje seers. It also lays out the proper process for approval of apparitions. The homily says in part:
The judgements of the bishops, after all the canonical investigations made thus far, can be summarized in these following points:
1 - Medjugorje is a catholic parish in which liturgical and pastoral activities are carried out, just as in all the other parishes of this diocese of Mostar-Duvno. No-one except the official Church authorities is then authorized to attribute the formal title of “shrine” to this place.
2 - On the basis of Church investigations of the events of Medjugorje, it cannot be determined that these events involve supernatural apparitions or revelations. This means that till now the Church has not accepted, neither as supernatural nor as Marian, any of the apparitions.
3 - Priests who canonically administer this parish of Medjugorje or those who come as visitors, are not authorised to express their private views contrary to the official position of the Church on the so-called “apparitions” and “messages”, during celebrations of the sacraments, neither during other common acts of piety, nor in the Catholic media.
4 - The Catholic faithful are not only free from any obligation to believe in the authenticity of the “apparitions” but they must also know that church pilgrimages are not allowed, whether official or private, individual or group, or from other parishes, if they presuppose the authenticity of the “apparitions” or if by undertaking them attempt to certify these “apparitions”.
5 - As the local Bishop, I maintain that regarding the events of Medjugorje, on the basis of the investigations and experience gained thus far, throughout these last 25 years, the Church has not confirmed a single “apparition” as authentically being the Madonna. The fact that during these 25 years there has been talk of tens of thousands of “apparitions” does not contribute any authenticity to these events, which according to the words of our current Pope, who I encountered during an audience on 24 February this year, commented that at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith they always questioned how all these “apparitions” could be considered authentic for the Catholic faithful. They particularly do not seem to be authentic when it is known beforehand that these so-called “apparitions” will occur...
(bolding mine - ct)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
FINDING PHAROAH'S ARMY
A reader sent in this story about the discovery of evidence supporting the parting of the Red Sea and the subsequent drowning of Pharoah's army:
Confirmation of the actual Exodus route has come from divers finding coral-encrusted bones and chariot remains in the Gulf of Aqaba
ONE of the most dramatic records of Divine intervention in history is the account of the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt.
The subsequent drowning of the entire Egyptian army in the Red Sea was not an insignificant event, and confirmation of this event is compelling evidence that the Biblical narrative is truly authentic.
Over the years, many divers have searched the Gulf of Suez in vain for artifacts to verify the Biblical account. But carefully following the Biblical and historical records of the Exodus brings you to Nuweiba, a large beach in th e Gulf of Aqaba , as Ron Wyatt discovered in 1978.
Repeated dives in depths ranging from 60 to 200 feet deep (18m to 60m), over a stretch of almost 2.5 km, has shown that the chariot parts are scattered across the sea bed.
Artifacts found include wheels, chariot bodies as well as human and horse bones. Divers have located wreckage on the Saudi coastline opposite Nuweiba as well.
KENNEDY HAS A BRAIN TUMOR
Senator Edward Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. You can read about it here.
"THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, FREEMASONS AND CABALA IN SCOTLAND"
is the title of Chapter 8 in Hirschman and Yates' book WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH.
The authors write:
Men from several Scottish (and English and French) Jewish families enlisted in the ranks of the Knights Templar, including Bruces, Douglases and Sinclairs. Countless others were involved in the administration of the Templar wealth....Each knight took a vow of chastity and poverty, yet the order itself, was permited to accumulate communal property of unlimited magnitude.(p. 132)
Pope Alexander in 1171 issued a bull granting the Templars exemption from prosecution in any religious or civil court of law in return for their support in winning back Jerusalem. The order was now not only fantastically wealthy, but free of any external control over its activities. The only law members were bound by was that of the Master Templar. By this time also a large part of the Templar force was composed of horsemen called Turcopoles, of Turkish, Syrian and Palestinian descent. These were mercenaries who followed a Middle Eastern lifestyle; they were not Christian, but Moslem or Jewish. Further, the Templars themselves had started to become morally corrupt. (p. 133)
The authors present a list of Templar properties, given by Place-Name, Province, Type. There are 27 castles on the list, plus a number of cities (including Safed where Kabbalah was nourished), temples, many houses, and other property. The locations of these properties include Palestine, Tripoli, Sicily, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, Flanders, and England. There were also "several preceptories in Scotland and Ireland, which were dependent on the Temple at London. (pp. 133-136)
They were, in a sense, "the first multinational corporation--one over which no court or tribunal had jurisdiction." (p. 137)
The papacy in Rome was similarly corrupt and decadent....Powerful Roman families selected popes who would do their bidding; often those chosen were not only mentally incompetent, but also sexually perverted. Some died violent deaths, strangled or stabbed by their bodyguards....Priories and bishopricks were usually controlled by powerful local families, who placed their younger sons, or illegitimate sons, into holy offices....(p. 138)
Templar Kights developed a congenial living arrangement with the Muslim "foes."
By 1250, the Templars had become a largely secret and closed society. Their initiation rites were hidden from view...The majority of persons associated with the order were now estate managers, laborers and international traders and bankers. Even criminals were permitted to join, if they brought some skill or resource of value. In addition, the order had become the primary banking enterprise in the European world....
[I]n Spain...Muslims were allowed to use Temple estates as places of worship....By 1250 there were an estimated 7,000 fully initiated Templars, with a corresponding number of associates and dependents that was seven or eight times as large. (p. 139)
Remarkably, also by 1250, the Templars had altered their religious creed. Though established initially as Christian soldiers, they now read from the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible, or Torah, and had formed a new identity binding themselves to the ancient Israelites....By 1290 the Europeans had lost the Holy Land to the Muslims...many of the remaining European inhabitants, exhausted by the corruption of Christianity, converted to Islam....
In October 1307 C.E., King Philip of France, who had expelled the kingdom's Jews the year before in order to confiscate their possessions, turned his attention to the French Templars. In collaboration with the Pope, he ordered all French Templars arrested, tried for heresy, and executed; he then promptly appropriated their immense wealth and holdings in France. Some of the members of the French Temple became aware of Philip's plan and escaped with a large portion of their treasure. At the same time, a Muslim colony in southern Italy was evicted by Philip's brother King Charles II and appears to have formed something akin to an alliance with the fleeing French Templars and traveled with them to Christendom. (p. 140)
The French Templar treasure, loaded upon 18 galleys, made its way to Scotland, reportedly to the Isle of Mull. From here, the Templars and their treasure took refuge with the St. Clair family at Rosslyn Castle. Nearby Rosslyn Chapel, built in the 1400s, was, and is, the edifice filled with images and icons drawn from three faiths--Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It contains ample testimony to the "sacred geometry" of the Jewish Cabala... (p. 142)
The chapter contains a lot of information--too much for a single blog. I'll take it up again next time.
CHERIE BLAIR ON CONTRACEPTION
Cherie Blair has appeared to challenge Catholic teaching on artificial birth control as she spoke about the impact of contraception on women's lives.
Mrs Blair, who described herself as a "good Catholic girl", said the ability to control their fertility had "changed" women's lives, in an interview on GMTV with Lorraine Kelly.
Her remarks came after Ms Kelly told Mrs Blair that emails from viewers were mentioning her contraceptive arrangements following her admission in her new book that she had not packed her "contraceptive equipment" for a visit to Balmoral, which resulted in her pregnancy with her youngest son Leo.
"People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception but it is really an important thing for women because one of the things about the book is about how women's lives have changed," Mrs Blair told Ms Kelly.
Read more...
Monday, May 19, 2008
"WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH"
Chapter 7 of Hirschman and Yates' book addresses cemetary records. The authors have listed the names contained on grave markers at a number of Scotland's cemetaries. For my purposes, I found the names Stuart/Stewart, Kennedy, Sinclair, Geddes, and Templeton most significant--Stewart because of Prince Michael Stewart, Kennedy because of the Kennedy family's prominence in America, Sinclair for obvious Roslin Chapel associations, Geddes because I believe there is a possible Anthroposophical connection with him, and Templeton because of the John Templeton Foundation. The authors also mention that the French name Maurice is a form of Moses, something I did not know.
The chapter also contains many pictures taken in Scotland of gravestones and architectural structures with Jewish symbols carved into them, including Cabalah symbols.
In addition to the cemetary lists, there are poll tax lists, and occupation lists such as "watchmaker", "goldsmith", and "glassmaker" lists. The authors are attempting to add credence to their claim of Jewish names in Scotland.
ONE MORE JOKE BEFORE I GET MY MIND OUT OF THE LOO
Three women and three men are traveling by train to the football game. At the station, the three men each buy a ticket and watch as the three women buy just one ticket.
'How are the three of you going to travel on only one ticket?' asks one of the men.
'Watch and learn,' answers one of the women.
They all board the train. The three men take their respective seats but all three women cram into a toilet together and close the door. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the toilet door and says, 'Ticket, please.' The door opens just a crack, and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on.
The men see this happen and agree it was quite a clever idea; so, after the game, they decide to do the same thing on the return trip and save some money.
When they get to the station they buy a single ticket for the return trip but see, to their astonishment, that the three women don't buy any ticket at all!!
'How are you going to travel without a ticket?' asks one perplexed man.
'Watch and learn,' answer the women.
When they board the train, the three men cram themselves into a toilet, and the three women cram into a toilet just down the way. Shortly after the train is on its way, one of the women leaves her toilet and walks over to the toilet in which the men are hiding. She knocks on their door and says, 'Ticket please.'
I'm still trying to figure out why men think they are smarter than women.
CALIFORNIA BISHOPS REACT TO THE COURT'S DECISION
The California Catholic Conference of Bishops, however, "strongly disagreed" with the court’s decision to "disregard the will of the majority of people of California.
"That statute reflected the wisdom of the voters of California in retaining the traditional definition of marriage as a biological reality and a societal good" the bishops said in a published statement.
Proposition 22 was approved by 61 percent of California voters on March 7, 2000. The proposition provided that "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California"
"Catholic teaching maintains that marriage is a faithful, exclusive and lifelong union between one man and one woman joined in an intimate partnership of life and love—a union instituted by God for the mutual fulfillment of the husband and wife as well as for the procreation and education of children" according to the statement.
The bishops acknowledged "every person involved in the family of domestic partners is a child of God and deserves respect in the eyes of the law and their community. But" they said "those partnerships are not marriage—and can never be marriage—as it has been understood since the founding of the United States"
The statement accused the court of opening the door "for policymakers to deconstruct traditional marriage and create another institution under the guise of equal protection"
Read the whole story here.
CHAPEL OF THE NUN AND THE IMAM
This story is so bizarre that I have a hard time trying to classify it. Syncretism? Sure. But it seems to me that it even goes beyond syncretism. Is there a word representing the nth degree of syncretism? Heresy, maybe? Nun with incense--Robert Lentz icon--tossed together with an Imam in the Sisters of St. Francis chapel. I think the last sentence in the story sums it up:
"Along with the great symbolism in the icon, isn't it ironic that 800 years later, east and west are still fighting and humankind is still trying to make sense of this and pray for peace?," Sister Karen asked.
If it hasn't worked for 800 years, why on earth do these people think it will work now?
HERE WE GO AGAIN - "BLOODLINE"
From the New York Times:
“The Da Vinci Code” brought to the masses the theory that there exists a lineage traceable to Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The sensationalistic documentary “Bloodline” further explores this supposition, one that is gospel to some and totally ludicrous to others.
“I’m not an archaeologist or a historian,” the director Bruce Burgess humbly states. “I’m just a filmmaker who is fascinated by the huge implications of this story.” He also seems to be more than a little fascinated with himself.he New York Times:
Read it here...
THE GENEALOGISTS AREN'T HAPPY
As expected they are protesting the Catholic decision:
The Vatican's recent ban on Mormon microfilming and digitizing of Catholic parish records out of concern they will be used for the LDS practice of baptizing the dead may have a wide-ranging and chilling effect on the whole family history enterprise, some professional genealogists say.
"It's going to close off a great many countries and even Catholic dioceses in America whose records haven't been microfilmed," says Jim Petty, past president of Utah's chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists. "This makes it difficult for genealogists of any religion."
A letter from the Vatican called LDS baptisms for the dead a "detrimental practice" and directed each Catholic diocesan bishop "not to cooperate with the erroneous practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
"The problem is not about making historical records available for research," said Monsignor Terrence Fitzgerald of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. "The problem is with baptism for the dead. I wouldn't want my mom and dad who were lifelong Catholics to be baptized LDS. I don't think it works, but I still think it's disrespectful."
Read the rest...
ASSYRIAN AND CHALDEAN CHURCHES MERGE IN CALIFORNIA
San Jose, CA., May 18, 2008 / 12:40 pm (CNA).- One week ago today leaders of the Chaldean Catholic Church in California formally received into communion a bishop of the Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East, his clergy, and about 3,000 Assyrian Christians.
The Assyrian Church, centered in modern-day Iraq, dates back to the earliest days of Christianity. According to the California Catholic Daily, the church eventually embraced the teachings of Nestorius, the fifth-century Archbishop of Constantinople whose doctrines were condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431.
Beginning in the sixteenth century, large numbers of Nestorian Assyrians came into union with Rome, forming the Chaldean Catholic Church. Today, the Chaldean Church is larger than the Assyrian Church.
Continue reading...
DO YOU LIKE BRITITH COMEDY ?
Here's a link to a You Tube segment of the Graham Norton Show with a bit of risque but amusing British humor. (Ever wonder how this particular natural function became anathema in public?)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
FROM THE EMAILBOX
Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 20 | Friday, May 16, 2008
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www.hli.org
This week's feature writer is Mr. Joseph Meaney, HLI Director of International Coordination, who has visited more than 59 countries of the world in a decade of service to the cause of life. He writes today on our world's response to infertility.
Infertility... a silent epidemic and growing pro-life concern
By Joseph Meaney
An infertility "epidemic" now affects one in five US couples with difficulty achieving or maintaining pregnancy. After looking forward to the blessing of children, my wife Marie and I were surprised to find ourselves in the infertile group. When we consulted doctors, most of them casually recommended "In Vitro Fertilization" (IVF) or "test-tube babies" without even investigating or attempting to treat the medical problems preventing conception.
An astonishing 100,000 IVF pregnancy attempts are made annually in the United States alone, usually involving more than one embryo. The vast majority of such babies do not survive the unnatural thawing and implantation procedure. Currently in the USA 500,000 tiny children are in freezers awaiting eventual use, and 50,000 more join them each year. In Croatia, HLI's Dr. Antun Lisec claims that more babies die from the "fertility industry" than by surgical abortion.
Catholic couples experiencing the pain of childlessness and pressured by medical doctors can be tempted by IVF even though effective moral means exist to combat infertility without the health risks of IVF to babies and mothers. How can we cooperate with the lucrative industry that treats children as objects to be produced in labs, subjected to "quality control," experimented upon, and in most cases discarded? Modern methods of Natural Family Planning (NFP) have helped many couples to conceive by determining the most fertile times in the wife's cycle. Diagnosis and treatments for conditions causing infertility are available from outstanding specialists like Dr. Thomas Hilgers of the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Nebraska.
Catholics are blessed to have Donum vitae, also called the "Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation", from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, explained in Donum vitae the moral illicitness of IVF, surrogate motherhood, and experimentation on human embryos. This magisterial instruction is available on the Vatican website, and it is likely that another document addressing newer fertility techniques and ethical questions will be published soon.
Most of us probably know married couples unable to conceive or who experience problems in having additional children. Understanding and compassion are essential if we wish to reduce rather than compound their suffering. Infertile women report similar levels of emotional pain as those diagnosed with breast cancer. Hence we should take the time to learn which statements tend to open wounds and which heal. For example, questions about the underlying reasons for infertility can be painfully perceived as motivated by curiosity rather than empathy. Family and friends should avoid impatience with the grieving process that can be quite long. My wife has recorded a powerful talk discussing these and other important aspects of infertility.
Infertile couples must learn how to overcome destructive temptations such as falling into self-pity, "avoiding the cross" through a stoic attitude, anger with God, or envy of others. Since infertility is something of an "emotional minefield," those wanting to help should reflect carefully before offering advice. As a general rule, it is better to allow the couple to raise the topic. Listening with understanding and sensitivity to the cross they are carrying is a beautiful way to witness to God's infinite love and desire that we help others achieve their most fundamental human needs. (cf Mt 25, 31-46)
Our modern world lacks respect for human life on a most fundamental level. The commonly promoted solution of IVF for infertility illustrates this cultural depravity. Clear Church teachings and authentic moral alternatives are available, but few are aware of these life-affirming resources. In closing, I would add that the Lord's greatest gift to us is spiritual fatherhood or motherhood. This is true for the priesthood and religious life, but also for some lay people in God's mysterious plan. Let us rise to the challenge as bearers of the Gospel of Life.
