Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Religious Freedom Report 09.26.15

The Pope in America dominated most of the news this week and he did address issue of religious freedom several times.


From Various Reports:
New York Times:
On the final leg of his first trip to the United States, Francis arrived in Philadelphia and went straight to the city’s Roman Catholic basilica, exhorting ordinary Catholics to bolster their role in sustaining the church. After a Mass before 2,400 people and a long midday rest, he traveled to Independence Mall and broadened his canvas: addressing the place of faith in a nation.
Religious freedom means the right to worship God, “as our consciences dictate,” Francis said. And, he went on, the principle goes beyond temples and the private sphere: Religion also serves society, especially as a bulwark “in the face of every claim to absolute power.”

 CNN
The archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, an ardent culture warrior, said he asked the Pope to address religious freedom in the birthplace of American independence.
Francis paid historical homage to those values, citing, for example, the Quakers who founded this city. But there were no explicit references to any of the U.S. Catholic bishops' recent battles over religious rights.
There was no mention, for example, of the Little Sisters of the Poor's lawsuit against the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act. (On Wednesday, though Francis did meet with the nuns in Washington -- a "show of support," according to a Vatican spokesman.)

ABC
"The Quakers who founded Philadelphia were inspired by a profound evangelical sense of the dignity of each individual and the ideal of a community united by brotherly love," he said. "This conviction led them to found a colony which would be a haven of religious freedom and tolerance. That sense of fraternal concern for the dignity of all, especially the weak and the vulnerable, became an essential part of the American spirit."
He also said, "You should never be ashamed of your traditions. Do not forget the lessons you learned from your elders, which are something you can bring to enrich the life of this American land."

A bit of a mixed interpretation from an ACLU Director, a Notre Dame Professor, and a constitution Law expert offering their take on the Pope via the Washington Post:
“We certainly agree religious freedom is a fundamental right; what the pope called ‘one of Americans’ most precious possessions.’ But it’s not a blank check to discriminate against or harm others,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
The pope has focused on immigration and climate change on this trip, while also talking about religious freedom as foundational issue.
“He seems to be using his visit as an opportunity to remind Americans that religious freedom is not supposed to be a ‘conservative’ issue, but rather a fundamental human-rights issue,” said Richard Garnett, an expert on religious liberty at the University of Notre Dame.
Marci Hamilton, a constitutional law expert who is academic curator for religious liberty at the National Constitution Center
– where the Liberty Bell is – said the talk sounded like the pope had been heavily influenced by U.S. bishops.

“The term ‘public square’ is right out of American politics. From Francis, you’d expect the focus to be on the poor, the needy
– and suddenly we’re talking about these abstract concepts. It just didn’t seem grounded in concrete reality the way he normally is,” Hamilton said.


But of course, the heathen raged (Psalm 2:1):
Let us remember that although Francis is a step up from previous Popes, his Church has done little more than lip service to truly reform Catholicism's animus towards gays, women, and population control. Although I believe that The Pope is sincere in his emphasis on the plight of the poor, by refusing to support birth control (a refusal reiterated in his encyclical against global warming) he not only perpetuates the very poverty he abhors, but supports Church policies that harm women in unexpected ways, as in the refusal of a Catholic hospital to perform a simple procedure that might save the life of Jessica Mann. --Jerry Coyne at the New Republic

http://www.religionchronicles.info/re-pope-francis.html



Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Freedom From Religion Foundation #FFRF & Americans United are having a Lot of Cows Today over Pope Francis

But, so what's new when it comes to the lefty anti-religious freedom groups.

  • The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are petulantly, and unsurprisingly, unhappy about everyone making a fuss about the Pope.
    Americans United is perturbed that the city of Cape May, New Jersey, is planning to broadcast the Pope’s September 27 Mass from nearby Philadelphia at the Cape May Convention Hall. The city, which has waived charges at the Convention Centre for other non-profit events, organised this one in conjunction with the Cape May Ministerium — a group of clergy representing different denominations.
    Regardless of the bonhomie and co-operative feelings, Americans United have threatened to sue if the event takes place.
    FFRF is similarly vexed about New York City’s giveaway of tickets to see Pope Francis in Central Park on September 25. This group which apparently had much, too much time on their hands, insist that it makes New York City appear “to be endorsing Pope Francis’s sectarian religious message”.
    And if this wasn’t enough, FFRF is also furious over Pope Francis’s scheduled meeting with inmates at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia on September 27. As prisons are “public-supported”, the group insists, Pope Francis shouldn’t have been invited to meet with the inmates nor should the inmates have been permitted to hand carve a chair to present to the Pontiff, even though they volunteered to do so.  SOURCE: Catholic Herald
--------------------------
MEME REPORT:
SOMETHING ABOUT THAT MONKEY SELFIE

Franklin Graham extends Welcome to Pope Francis to America

From Face Book:

  • I would like to extend a warm welcome to Pope Francis on his first visit to our great nation. Recently this Pope announced that priests could forgive abortions for one year—the Year of Jubilee. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). As a sinner, I’m glad we can go directly to God for forgiveness 24/7, on any day, in any year. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the price for sin with His shed blood on the Cross of Calvary.


Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Random Observations 09.22.15

During an interview on Face the Nation on Sunday, John Dickerson asked Hillary Clinton to describe herself in three words

She responded:
“I mean, look, I am a real person, with all the pluses and minuses that go along with being that and have been in the public eye for so long that I think — you know, it’s like the feature that you see in some magazines sometimes: Real people actually go shopping, you know?”

 Susan Rice will be on Face The Nation next Sunday to blame the other 50 words on a video.
 -----------------------
 Socialists see the glass as being half theirs.


 "I think Brian Williams easily won both GOP debates." -Brian Williams [now at MSNBC]


 Obama, a transvestite, and the Pope walk into the White House.....and we'll find out how that turns outs after tomorrow.  DC is taking a lot of safety precautions for the Pope's visit. But, the Vatican couldn't protect the Pope from the Obama agenda. Though the Vatican asked them not to, Obama has invited several LGBT and transgender activists to the White House to "meet" Pope Francis.


As Frankenstein read his news feed this morning, a headline reminded him of his childhood.


From the More Proof Evolution is False File:
If evolution was true, people who live in Chicago would be bullet proof by now.


 “I don’t need to be lectured by Ted Cruz or anybody else about conservatism." --Trent Lott [why the establishment Republicans will never get it)


 By applying MSNBC;s standards they set for themselves over the last 7 years, by going after Ben Carson they must be racist

 Left wing media didn't want Donald Trump to respond to Muslim question issue. They wanted Trump to say the media was right & he is wrong. CNN anchors seem a bit deflated that he didn't respond the way they wanted. MSNBC is running documentaries from 8 years ago so I guess their rage will have to wait til Monday.

 I have to agree 100% with Donald Trump on the Muslim question issue. He has no obligation to defend Obama. McCain used to apologize for things people said about Obama all the time in 2008 and look where it got him.

 News just reported that Obama and Raul Castro talked on the phone today. They supposedly discussed their differences, which means it was probably a very short phone call.

 Last week the liberals wanted Donald Trump to shut up; Now they're complaining because he is not saying anything.

 The first Democrat debate will also be held at a library. Presuming, of course, that Leavenworth Federal Prison has a library.

 80% of MSNBC viewers think Trump should correct anyone who says Obama is a Muslim. I'm just curious how they got 80% out 4 people.

 All these media outlets claiming who won the debate don't get it. The VOTERS decide who won the debate on election day.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Religious Freedom Report 09.21.15

 Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion held a large meeting in New York this last week:


The United States had a role in organizing the gathering and was represented by State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein and USCIRF Chair Robert George. Their close colleagues in the parallel Canadian Office of Religious Freedom also pulled together the event.In an energetic speech, Saperstein urged the international lawmakers not to separate religious freedom from other issues, but to see it as foundational in every kind of policy. He encouraged them to hold hearings, to issue statements, and to attend trials for the persecuted. He mentioned that he and other officials attended the trial of two South Sudanese pastors recently, and that the pastors were acquitted of the most serious charges and released."Even a country as powerful as the United States cannot fight this battle alone," George said during a coffee break. George said European leaders, especially Germany, have "shown themselves serious about religious freedom." Now, he said, it's a matter of seeing if the group can maintain this broad base of support for religious freedom, a coalition that has disappeared domestically. 

 I'm not aware that the US is doing much at all for Christians in other countries. By  that I mean the government and not the many charitable and Christian organizations that are always active. John Kerry and Barack Obama  are so disengaged that they pushed through a horrible nuclear deal with Iran and didn't even bother to get US prisoners released that are being held there, which includes two pastors.

 Kristen Grant [The Federalist] wrote:

When Pope Francis comes to America, he will stand in Independence Hall and speak about religious freedom. No doubt he will echo the themes of his first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” which declared that “no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life… without a right to offer an opinion on events affecting society.”
When he does so, he will not be asking for a special megaphone for white men in clericals, but rather reminding Americans of a fundamental right of all people—including a lot of poor, female, black, Latino, and gay people—to bring their full humanity to the public square and contend there for the future of their country.

We'll see. 

 Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo {D-Ca]and  Co-Chair of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus:
 
I've introduced a bipartisan bill in Congress to deliver relief and protection for religious minorities. The Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act would allow non-state actors to be designated as violators of religious freedom, granting the administration better tools to address extremism and violence in groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State. And Congressman Juan Vargas, D-Calif., is leading on bipartisan legislation to grant persecuted individuals in ISIS-held territory access to priority refugee status processing at the State Department.
Progress was made last week when the administration appointed Knox Thames as Special Envoy at the State Department charged with focusing exclusively on the plight of religious minorities in the Middle East. Former Congressman Frank Wolf, R-Va., and I championed the law to create this position in the last Congress, and this long-awaited appointment is welcomed.
The papal visit presents a unique opportunity to send a message to the world in condemning the act of genocide as the most barbaric and criminal act of humankind, and propel a global response. It's an existential crisis for religious minorities in the Middle East, and it is a defining moment for America.

Democrats aren't generally very good at protecting religious freedom. There generally has to be some other goal in mind. Or it has to be so fantastic that it creates warm feelings when its announced, but in practicality, it's meaningless. 

 The Christian Post reported:

Hundreds of Christian conservatives gathered in the blistering heat in Nashville on Constitution Day Thursday, to rally for religious freedom in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling and called on the state to uphold its definition of marriage as being a union between one man and one woman.
As a crowd of over 400 gathered for the "Stand in the Gap for Truth" rally hosted by the Tennessee Pastors Network outside the state's Legislative Plaza, a number of issues, from the Iran deal to same-sex marriage, were discussed by prominent Evangelicals and state lawmakers.
Among the speakers who participated in the event was the husband of jailed Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, Joe Davis, the father of presidential candidate Ted Cruz, Rafael, Bishop E.W. Jackson and former Southern Baptists Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president Dr. Richard Land.
A few Tennessee state representatives, including Republican Rep. Mark Pody who spoke at the rally, also introduced legislation Thursday called the "Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act" into the state legislature. The legislation, if passed, would "void" the Supreme Court's ruling in June that struck down states' ban against same-sex marriage.

Idaho Statesman Editorial:

We don’t believe any faith group should be forced to perform or sanctify a marriage they don’t agree with. Those judgments are the purview of the religious organization and belong in their lane of traffic. Government intervention in religious matters is contrary to everything American. Such actions deserve our immediate wrath.
Last year city officials in Houston subpoenaed the sermons and other materials of some pastors, purportedly to investigate some petitions filed against the city’s equal rights ordinance. Whatever the motives, demanding sermons is an affront to religious freedom and deserved the overwhelming criticism it received.
We as a society have our work cut out for us defining and defending the lanes of traffic that will preserve religious freedom and still provide the equal access our Constitution guarantees.

Of course, previous to this summary, the editorial condemned Kim Davis for not quitting. After all, religious freedom is important...but not more important than work (liberal 11th commandment,  I think]. 

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/09/19/3994017/editorial-our-religious-freedom.html#storylink=cpy