New Vatican guidelines say that consecrated virgins need not actually be virgins

I don't blame current consecrated virgins for being upset at the latest Vatican guidelines, after making a sacrifice and now being told that such a sacrifice is no longer necessary. Another example of the folly of the man-made religion that is Roman Catholicism, as reported by Olivia Rudgard in the London Daily Telegraph, July 16, 2018 (link in original):

Consecrated virgins say they are "disappointed" by the Vatican’s new guidance that literal virginity is not necessary.

A document released earlier this month says that a woman does not need to have "kept her body in perfect continence" to become a consecrated virgin.

The Vatican document, entitled Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago, says that the "call to give witness to the Church’s virginal, spousal and fruitful love for Christ is not reducible to the symbol of physical integrity.

"Thus to have kept her body in perfect continence or to have practised the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to the discernment, are not essential prerequisites in the absence of which admittance to consecration is not possible."

Women who wish to be consecrated as virgins take part in a ceremony in which they dress in white and pledge themselves to Christ. There are thought to be around 5,000 worldwide.

Once they have joined the vocation, they wear wedding rings and cannot marry or engage in sexual relationships.

The US Association of Consecrated Virgins issued a statement calling the document "deeply disappointing" and said the advice was "shocking".

"The entire tradition of the Church has firmly upheld that a woman must have received the gift of virginity – that is, both material and formal (physical and spiritual) – in order to receive the consecration of virgins," it said.

The statement cites an earlier document, "Consecration to a life of virginity", which says that women becoming consecrated virgins must have "never married or lived in public or open violation of chastity".

There are around 250 consecrated virgins in the United States and around 200 in the UK.

Information on the British National Office for Vocation's website also appears to differ to the new guidance, stating that the women must not have "lost virginity through voluntary intercourse" or been previously married.

It adds: "While the numbers of those seeking consecration as widows and widowers appears to be growing, there is not currently a rite in the Western Church for this particular form of consecration."

The Vatican document says women can leave the vocation for "very serious reasons" if they apply in writing to the relevant bishop.

It adds that two years of preparation is needed before consecration and the ceremony does not normally take place before the woman reaches 25.

The document was published as guidance for the international church in response to a growing number of women who are expressing interest in the vocation.

The orders of virgins were present in the early Catholic Church but had died out since the medieval era before being revived in 1970 under the leadership of Pope Paul VI.

Women who choose to become a consecrated virgin live a secular life in the community and must be self-supporting.

Unlike nuns, they do not have special clothing or live secluded from the secular world, though some spend much of their time as a recluse.

Among the UK's notable consecrated virgins is Sister Wendy Beckett, 88, a South-African born art historian and broadcaster.

Israeli Knesset passes bill enshrining Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people as part of the country's Basic Law

As reported by Hana Levi Julian of the Jewish Press, July 19, 2018:

The Knesset voted 62-55 with two abstentions overnight Wednesday into Thursday to approve the ‘Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People’ — the bill that for the first time officially enshrines Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people” in the Basic Laws which guide the country’s legal system as a quasi-Constitution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called its passage a “pivotal moment in the annals of Zionism and the State of Israel,” in remarks following the vote.

The law underscores Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Hebrew calendar as the official calendar of the nation and sets Independence Day, national days of remembrance and Jewish holidays, as well as designates Arabic as a language with “special” standing, stipulating that “this clause does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law came into effect — a referral to the fact that up to this point, Arabic was the second official language of the state.

“We enshrined in law the basic principle of our existence,” Netanyahu said. “Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, that respects the individual rights of all its citizens. This is our state — the Jewish state. In recent years there have been some who have attempted to put this in doubt, to undercut the core of our being. Today we made it law: This is our nation, language and flag.”

Joint Arab List Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka, who has consistently represented the interests of the Palestinian Authority and in some cases those of Hamas from the podium, ripped to pieces a printed text of the bill before the plenum.

His faction colleague, Knesset member Ahmed Tibi, said in a statement delivered in Arabic, “I declare with astonishment and sorrow the death of democracy. . . The funeral takes place today in the plenum.”

Following is a translation of the final version of the bill:

Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People
1 — Basic principles
A. The land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, in which the State of Israel was established.
B. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination.
C. The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.

2 — The symbols of the state
A. The name of the state is “Israel.”
B. The state flag is white with two blue stripes near the edges and a blue Star of David in the center.
C. The state emblem is a seven-branched menorah with olive leaves on both sides and the word “Israel” beneath it.
D. The state anthem is “Hatikvah.”
E. Details regarding state symbols will be determined by the law.

3 — The capital of the state, Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.

4 — Language
A. The state’s language is Hebrew.
B. The Arabic language has a special status in the state; Regulating the use of Arabic in state institutions or by them will be set in law.
C. This clause does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law came into effect.

5 — Ingathering of the exiles
The state will be open for Jewish immigration and the ingathering of exiles

6 — Connection to the Jewish people
A. The state will strive to ensure the safety of the members of the Jewish people in trouble or in captivity due to the fact of their Jewishness or their citizenship.
B. The state shall act within the Diaspora to strengthen the affinity between the state and members of the Jewish people.
C. The state shall act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the Jewish people among Jews in the Diaspora.

7 — Jewish settlement
A. The state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.

8 — Official Calendar
The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state and alongside it the Gregorian calendar will be used as an official calendar. Use of the Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar will be determined by law.

9 — Independence Day and Memorial Days
A. Independence Day is the official national holiday of the state.
B. Memorial Day for the Fallen in Israel’s Wars and Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day are official memorial days of the State.

10 — Days of Rest and Sabbath
The Sabbath and the festivals of Israel are the established days of rest in the state; Non-Jews have a right to maintain days of rest on their Sabbaths and festivals; Details of this issue will be determined by law.

11 — Immutability
This Basic Law shall not be amended, unless by another Basic Law passed by a majority of Knesset members.

July 25, 2018 update: It comes as no surprise to this blogger that not everyone is happy with this law. Druze leaders in Israel are protesting, as reported by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 23, 2018:

JERUSALEM — Druze leaders in Israel filed a challenge with the Supreme Court over legislation passed by the Knesset making Israel the “nation-state of the Jewish people.”

The Druze leaders, including three Knesset members, called it “extreme” and said it discriminated against Israel’s minorities, the Times of Israel reported.

Arabs make up nearly 20 percent of Israel’s population. Members of the Druze minority serve in the Israel Defense Forces.

The lawmakers were from both the ruling coalition and the opposition: Hamed Amar of the Yisrael Beytenu party, Akram Hasson of the Kulanu party and Salah Sa’ad of the Labor party.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Ayoub Kara, a Druze lawmaker of the Likud Party, is likely to get an increase in his security detail after death threats made against him and his family after he voted for the law

Kara has received death threats online and was subjected to physical harassment.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has added a particularly laughable protest, as reported by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 24, 2018 (links in original):

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the “spirit of Hitler … has found its resurgence among some of Israel’s leaders” in criticizing the country’s nation-state law.

“The Jewish Nation-State Law is proof, with no room for doubt, that Israel is the world’s most Zionist, fascist and racist state,” Erdogan said in a speech Tuesday to his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. “This Israeli understanding is no different from Hitler’s search for a pure race.”

Shortly after Erdogan’s statements were reported and tweeted out by his office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by calling the criticism a “compliment.”

“Erdogan is massacring Syrians and Kurds and has jailed tens of thousands of his citizens,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “The fact that the great ‘democrator’ Erdogan is attacking the Nation-State Law is the greatest compliment for this law.

“Turkey, under Erdogan’s rule, is becoming a dark dictatorship whereas Israel scrupulously maintains equal rights for all its citizens, both before and after the law.”

Erdogan last week accused Israel of apartheid in passing the legislation, which enshrines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

President Erdoğan: “The ‘Jewish Nation-State Law’ is the proof, with no room for doubt, of Israel’s being the most fascist and the most racist state in the world.

After this regulation, Israel has nothing left to say about fascism and racism as well as their repercussions.” pic.twitter.com/qQclQE2WSt

— Turkish Presidency (@trpresidency) July 24, 2018

Discovery of hidden silver cross in Hippos provides evidence of the state of religious tolerance of first Muslim Caliphate in 7th century

Front of 160g weight with stained cross, recovered from an archaeological dig in Sussita

Silver cross on marble column from partial reconstruction of church apse at the Sussita exhibition at the Hecht Museum

As reported by the University of Haifa, circa July 11, 2018:

A brass weight weighing approximately 160 grams discovered during the University’s archeological excavations at Hippos (Sussita) provides groundbreaking evidence of the delicate relations between the Christian residents of the city and its new Muslim rulers, beginning in the mid-seventh century CE. “More or less by chance, we discovered a stain covering the cross on the obverse of the weight. At first we were convinced that it was just dirt, but in fact the stain was made deliberately to conceal a cross, a Christian religious symbol used by the Christian population, so that they could continue to use the weight in their contacts with the new Muslim rulers. This is the first time that we have found a weight featuring this type of concealed element,” explained Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, who is the head of the Hippos-Sussita Excavations.

Sussita National Park, which is managed by the Nature and Parks Authority, has been excavated since 2000 by a delegation from the Institute of Archaeology. Hippos was founded in the second century CE, and later became a major city during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The city was demolished in a strong earthquake in 749, during the period when the Land of Israel was ruled by the first Islamic caliphate of the Umayyad administration, which occupied the country in the mid-seventh century.

Numerous historical testimonies show that at least during the early stages of Muslim rule, the new authorities showed a tolerant attitude toward the Christian population. Evidence of this can be found at Hippos itself, where at least seven churches have been uncovered, most of which continued to operate during this period without any signs of destruction. The massive basalt crosses found in the excavations, which decorated the tops of the church gables, were also clearly not seen as problematic by the Muslim rulers. However, the current much smaller finding, with a weight of just 160 grams, offers a groundbreaking and unique insight into the delicate fabric of relations between the new rulers and the longstanding residents – and in so doing, it also reveals a mysterious and exceptional story.

Using a metal detector, Dr. Bradley Bowlin discovered a small brass weight dating back to the Byzantine period in the northwest church compound at the site. Similar weights have been found in the past, and the object was passed on to Dr. Alexander Iermolin, director of the Conservation Laboratory at University’s Archaeological Institute, without any expectations of dramatic findings. A few weeks later, Dr. Iermolin contacted Dr. Eisenberg with some astonishing news. It emerged that a strange dark stain on the obverse of the weight was concealing a cross inlayed in silver; the other decorative elements on the weight were not concealed in this manner. “At first we thought this was random pollution. We intended to simply remove the dark stain and then continue the preservation process. But something smelled strange to us, so we decided to take time out,” Dr. Eisenberg recalls.

Instead of removing the unsightly stain, they forwarded the weight to Prof. Sariel Shalev, who is an expert in ancient metallurgy. After preparing a chemical profile of the weight and the stain, Prof. Shalev discovered that while the weight is made of brass, the stain was made from a metallic paste containing lead and tin. It was also obvious that the stain had been applied deliberately to the cross. “The melting temperature of the paste was around one-third the melting temperature of the other components of the weight. Since people during this period had a strong mastery of craftsmanship, it was clear that the stain had been made deliberately. Moreover, small sections of the silver cross had been chiseled out in order to ensure that the weight of the object remained unchanged. In short – there was no chance that the stain was coincidental,” Prof. Shalev concluded.

In the first stage, radiographic and ultrasonic imaging was undertaken at the laboratories of Soreq Nuclear Research Center by Dr. Izhak Hershko, Dr. Dan Breitman, and Dr. Zvia Shmul in order to explore the method used to produce the object and its unique decorations. After completing the laboratory tests, the object underwent a full conservation process, restoring it almost perfectly to the way it would have appeared some 1,500 years ago. The weight has dimensions of 44 x 43 mm and a precise weight of 158.9 grams. Its obverse bears a cross inlayed in silver placed on a semicircular base. Two Greek letters inlayed on the reverse of the weight specified its weight: six ounces. The decoration on the obverse of the weight represented the cross at Calvary or Golgotha, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion in Jerusalem, while an arch and columns depicted the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the city.

The researchers now turned their attention to considering why someone went to the trouble of concealing the cross without defacing the weight itself, and while continuing to use it for its intended purpose. Dr. Eisenberg explains that, in all probability, the reason lies in the Muslim conquest of the country in the mid-seventh century CE. On the one hand, the Muslim rulers allowed the Christian residents to continue their religious worship. Nevertheless, their religious tolerance had its limits. “The cross was deliberately covered by church officials during the early Islamic period so that they could continue to use the weight, together with other weights in the official city weights set kept at the central church in Hippos, as well as in their contacts with the Muslim administration in Tiberias. This situation offers a precise illustration of the dividing line during this period of regime change between considerable religious and cultural freedom and the point when a Muslim official might be forced to hold an object displaying an overtly Christian emblem,” Dr. Eisenberg explained.

The study of the weight and its significance was published recently in the Israel Exploration Journal. The weight itself is on display at the Hecht Museum, as part of an exhibition entitled “Before the Earth Shook: The Ancient City of Hippos-Sussita Emerges.”

12 more moons discovered orbiting Jupiter

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalms 8:3-4

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Psalms 19:1

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11

Outer Moons of Jupiter

I can't keep up with these discoveries; I remember when the total number of Jupiter's moons was 12. As reported by Andrew Griffin of the London Independent, July 17, 2018:

Scientists have found 12 new moons orbiting around Jupiter, in a breakthrough discovery about our mysterious neighbour.

They include an object that scientists have referred to as an “oddball”. It is just one kilometre in size, and is flying in the opposite direction to many of the planet’s moons – and behaves in an entirely different way to any of the other 78 objects orbiting the planet.

As such, it might be responsible for having smashed up many of the other objects that make up the moons around Jupiter. Scientists think the vast number of objects orbiting the planet are probably the result of collisions earlier in its life, which have been captured by Jupiter and now continue to orbit it.

The tiny moon – which is set to be named Valetudo, after the Roman god Jupiter’s great-granddaughter – is likely to continue having such collisions and could destroy itself, said scientists.

“This is an unstable situation,” said Scott S Sheppard, who helped lead the team who found the moons. “Head-on collisions would quickly break apart and grind the objects down to dust.”

Sheppard told The Independent: “It is as if the moon is travelling the wrong way down a crowded highway,” adding that it is far more likely that it would have a dangerous crash.

The new discoveries take the total number of objects found around the planet up to 79. Scientists expect there are probably around 100 different objects in total.

Saturn, Jupiter’s closest rival, has a mere 62 moons orbiting around it.

All of the new moons around Jupiter are less than two miles wide. That accounts for why they had been left undiscovered until now, when scientists found them using incredibly sensitive telescopes.

The team behind the discovery also found the most distant known object in our solar system – and suggested there might be a mysterious planet, a Planet X or Planet Nine, hiding out in the depths of our solar system. The new discovery was made almost by accident as researchers were hunting for more evidence of that world beyond Pluto.

“Jupiter just happened to be in the sky near the search fields where we were looking for extremely distant solar system objects, so we were serendipitously able to look for new moons around Jupiter while at the same time looking for planets at the fringes of our solar system,” said Sheppard.

Finding how the objects came to be formed and orbit around Jupiter could shed light on the formation of our own solar system. For instance, the new moons are so small that they would be influenced by any gas and dust around the planet – the fact they have managed to survive suggests they formed after the rotating disk of gas and dust that surrounded the sun formed into planets.

In Minnesota, as elsewhere, mainline churches continue their decline

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. I Corinthians 14:33-35

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. I Timothy 2:11-14

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was formed in 1988 as a merger of three smaller denominations, and has been moving further into apostasy ever since. The reader will notice that the first church mentioned in the following article has a female pastor. Having women in positions of leadership in a church is an indication that the church is not only going in the direction of liberalism, but an indication of the extent to which the church has already become apostate.

As reported by Jean Hopfensperger of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 8, 2018 (links in original):

La Salle, Minn. -- For 100 years, Lutherans in this farming community on the Minnesota prairie have come to one church to share life’s milestones.

They have been baptized, confirmed and married at La Salle Lutheran. Their grandparents, parents and siblings lie in the church cemetery next door.

But the old friends who gathered here early one recent Sunday never imagined that they would one day be marking the death of their own church.

When La Salle Lutheran locks its doors in August, it will become the latest casualty among fragile Minnesota churches either closing, merging or praying for a miracle. Steep drops in church attendance, aging congregations, and cultural shifts away from organized religion have left most of Minnesota’s mainline Christian denominations facing unprecedented declines.

“Sunday used to be set aside for church: that’s what families did,” said Donna Schultz, 74, a church member since grade school at La Salle, in southwest Minnesota. “Now our children have moved away. The grandkids have volleyball, dance on weekends. People are busy with other things.

“I’m really going to miss this,” she added quietly, gesturing to her friends in the lobby. “We’re like family.”

The rising toll is evident in rural, urban and suburban churches across the state.

St. Paul’s On the Hill Episcopal Church on prestigious Summit Avenue was recently sold to a developer after more than a century of religious service. Bethany Lutheran Church in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis held its “holy closure” ceremony last fall. St. Michael Catholic Church in West St. Paul celebrated its last mass 18 months ago.

Mainline Protestant churches have been hit the hardest. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Minnesota has lost almost 200,000 members since 2000 and about 150 churches. A third of the remaining 1,050 churches have fewer than 50 members. The United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in Minnesota, has shuttered 65 churches since 2000.

Catholic membership statewide has held steady, but the number of churches fell from 720 in 2000 to 639 last year, according to official Catholic directories. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which closed 21 churches in 2010 and merged several dozen others, is again looking at ways to consolidate church staffing and programs.

The closings and mergers are leaving a void in communities where churches frequently house child care, senior programs, food shelves, tutoring and other services.

And it seems likely to get worse. Most Americans still report that they are Christian, but the worshipers in the pews on Sunday increasingly have gray or white hair. The median age is older than 50 for nearly all mainline Protestant denominations, according to the Pew Research Center, a national polling and research group in Washington, D.C. For Catholics, it’s age 49.

“It’s just a matter of time before many congregations won’t exist,” said Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, which has examined religious life for three decades. “In the next 20 years, you’ll have half as many open congregations as now. It could be more devastating for certain denominations.”

Church attendance has been declining for decades nationally, but the pace appears to be accelerating. Since 1990, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and United Church of Christ have lost nearly half their national members. The ELCA has lost a third. The Catholic church still shows membership growth, but has 2,000 fewer parishes today, according to Catholic studies.

A record one in five Americans now report no religious affiliation, according to Pew.

But membership doesn’t always translate into people abandoning Sunday morning coffee to attend worship. Catholic and Lutheran surveys indicate about one in four church members actually show up each week.

Not every denomination or church is fragile. Some smaller evangelical denominations in Minnesota, such as Assemblies of God, and some megachurches report continued growth. But as a whole, even membership in the evangelical churches has plateaued, according to the Hartford Institute and other studies.

“There’s not a lot of good news in all these numbers,” said Kenneth Inskeep, the national ELCA’s longtime statistician. “The model we have used — a church, a pastor and a commitment by people to support the enterprise — is getting harder and harder to maintain.”

La Salle Lutheran Church is much like the hundreds of small churches whose steeples rise above Minnesota’s rural landscape. Most were planted more than a century ago, near dozens of small farms with large families and boatloads of the faithful arriving from Europe.

Those were the grandparents of the people at the church today. About 25 members remain, including Bonnie Viland, 86. She recalls when the church was so full of families that folding chairs had to be set up in the aisle on holidays.

“Everybody who moved into town went to the church — except the family that was Roman Catholic,” she said.

Church was a bedrock of daily life. Its absence leaves a large gap — spiritual, social, emotional — that for many seems almost impossible to fill...

...The decision to close the church was “very, very hard,” said church council president Lance Michaelson. But the council decided that rather than spend its remaining dollars keeping up the church, they would use the money to keep up its cemetery, where so many loved ones are laid to rest — and where many members plan to be, too.

“I think we could have stayed open longer,” said Michaelson, “but we’d be eating up the equity.”

Besides, just keeping the church going was a challenge.

“Most of the people on the church council have been there about 15 years,” Michaelson said. “You run out of people to do things.”

The Rev. Sarah Taylor is grieving too.

“Everything we’re doing, we’re doing for the last time,” said Taylor, La Salle’s pastor. “It was our last Christmas. Our last Easter. The last time we’ll sing that song … It breaks my heart...”

...La Salle’s closing did not come as a complete surprise to its worshipers. It and three other churches in the region began sharing pastors and other resources about a decade ago. La Salle will be the second of the four to close.

The Rev. Jon V. Anderson, bishop of the ELCA’s southwest Minnesota synod, said several churches close here each year.

Churches in every rural area are merging and sharing services in an effort to keep their doors open, bishops said. The ELCA now offers advisers who specialize in counseling closing and fragile churches, and finance experts to help churches survive with ever-shrinking budgets.

“It’s not uncommon for me to hear, ‘We had a funeral last week and the congregation had to revise its budget,’ ” said ELCA Bishop Lawrence Wohlrabe of northwest Minnesota.

Catholics, meanwhile, are less likely to shut down a church than to merge or consolidate staffing and programing. Marilou Eldred, co-chairwoman of a strategic planning group for the Twin Cities archdiocese, said the group is now looking at about 20 parishes.

“We can’t take for granted that all parishes will be here forever,” said Eldred. The group is meeting with church leaders, exploring mass attendance, proximity to other churches, demographics, and the condition of the church building, she said.

“Do they all need the Saturday night mass? Do they all need a 9 a.m. Sunday service? Do they all need faith formation [classes]?” Eldred said.

The archdiocese group, for example, recently met with the leadership of three churches in Richfield — St. Peter’s, St. Richard’s and Assumption — to explore ways to share costs and ministry.

Such arrangements are often the first step to eventual mergers, said Mary Gautier, a senior researcher at CARA. “Bishops are reluctant to close parishes and will avoid it at all costs,” she said.

Along with declining attendance, many Twin Cities churches facing closings and mergers have something else in common — old boilers or furnaces, leaky roofs, deferred maintenance. Those were among the factors driving the closure of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, a landmark church that couldn’t stem the tide of financial loss.

The Summit Avenue church, built in 1912, was designed by Emmanuel Masqueray, who was also the architect for the Cathedral of St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary. But the congregation, which had been losing members for years, lost even more after a priest was involved in a sex abuse scandal, and subsequent leadership didn’t attract new members or even keep the old, church members said. By 2015, attendance had shrunk to about 25 senior citizens on Sundays, who couldn’t afford the repairs needed in a 100-year-old historic treasure...

...The church is being converted into a performing arts center. The developer, John Rupp of St. Paul, also recently purchased a former Catholic retreat center. The shift reflects the growing number of religious buildings in Minnesota that are now real estate listings.

“I’ve had a couple congregations call me to ask for ideas on how to use their buildings,” said Rupp, who also has toured Anglican churches in England in need of new tenants.

In fact, the church closings in the United States reflect what’s been happening in western Europe for several decades, researchers say.

Even so, Minnesota religious leaders insist church life is not becoming a relic. It will just look different. Christian churches will need to be more creative, financially leaner, and more in tune with their communities if they are to survive the 21st century, they said.

Back in La Salle, church members are hoping for a positive ending. They are pleased that a nearby church without a building has made an offer on their property. They are taking inventory of its modest assets, and have contacted the Watonwan County Historical Society to see what items it may want.

They are also planning a 100th anniversary event in July. Schultz recently pulled down the banner in the church hallway that said “Happy 75th Anniversary” that she made 25 years ago. She’s back at her sewing machine, changing the 75 to 100, and will present it at the bittersweet celebration a month before the church locks its doors.

Even if a church closes, it doesn’t mean failure, said the Rev. Taylor.

“When La Salle closes, it leaves a legacy of kind, good people who have passed that on to their children and grandchildren,” she said. “No matter where people go, they will always bring a piece of La Salle church with them.”

Scientists trace source of neutrinos

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalms 8:3-4

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Psalms 19:1

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11

As reported by Jennifer-Anne Pascoe in the University of Alberta publication Folio, July 12, 2018:

The first evidence of a source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos—ghostly subatomic particles that can travel unhindered for billions of light years from the most extreme environments in the Universe to Earth—has been revealed by an international team of scientists that includes a contingent from the University of Alberta.

The source has been traced back to a known blazar—a giant elliptical galaxy with a massive, rapidly spinning black hole at its core—situated in the night sky just off the left shoulder of the constellation Orion about 4 billion light years from Earth.

The blazar, designated by astronomers as TXS 0506+056, was first singled out following a neutrino alert sent by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole on Sept. 22, 2017.

“These intriguing results represent the remarkable culmination of thousands of human years of intensive activities by the IceCube Collaboration to bring the dream of neutrino astronomy to reality,” said U of A physics professor Darren Grant, IceCube spokesperson and Canada Research Chair in Astroparticle Physics, speaking of the international team made up of more than 300 scientists from 12 countries.

The observations help resolve a century-old riddle about what sends subatomic particles such as neutrinos and cosmic rays speeding through the universe.

Since they were first detected more than 100 years ago, cosmic rays—highly energetic particles that continuously rain down on Earth from space—have posed an enduring mystery: What creates and launches these particles across such vast distances? Where do they come from?

Because cosmic rays are charged particles, their paths cannot be traced directly back to their sources due to the powerful magnetic fields that fill space and warp their trajectories. But the powerful cosmic accelerators that produce them will also produce neutrinos, uncharged particles that are unaffected by even the most powerful magnetic field.

Because neutrinos rarely interact with matter and have almost no mass—hence their sobriquet “ghost particle”—neutrinos travel nearly undisturbed from their accelerators, giving scientists an almost direct pointer to their source.

The discovery unites two areas of research strength at the U of A, astrophysics and particle physics. Grant’s colleagues and fellow physics professors Claudio Kopper and Gregory Sivakoff, along with their graduate students, played instrumental roles in the discovery.

“This whole project is an interesting mix of scientists whose work together began through things like the IceCube Alerts and Astronomer’s Telegrams, and progressed to an impressive collaboration of facilities working together on one paper,” said Sivakoff. “We're witnessing the benefit of combining the talents of astrophysicists and particle physicists, combining not only photon detection but also new messengers such as astrophysical neutrinos, like the one announced in today’s discovery.”

Alexandra Tetarenko, Sivakoff’s PhD student, converted radio observations into some of the measured data reported in the primary publication in Science.

“It’s truly humbling to be part of such a revolution in the field. There will be some growing pains, but in the end, the best combination of the two will likely emerge to better shape our view of the Universe,” he said.

For Kopper’s part, as lead of the “diffuse neutrino flux” working group for IceCube, which is responsible for the detailed follow-up reconstruction system that provided the initial input used by all of the analyses for the discovery, he emphasized that time is most definitely of the essence when tracking something traveling billions of light years.

"We had to run detailed reconstructions of the neutrino event direction as fast as possible before sending the alert from IceCube to all of its partners,” said Kopper, adding the team was only able to react as quickly as they did because of access to a highly specialized computer cluster funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and made at the U of A. “It allowed us to accelerate the necessary computations."

In addition to Kopper and Grant, UAlberta physics professors Roger Moore and Juan Pablo Yáñez are also members of the IceCube collaboration. All told, U of A researchers account for four of the five scientists from Canadian universities.

The announcement for the landmark discovery, marked by two papers published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science, was made by the international IceCube collaboration at the National Science Foundation in Washington. There are several follow-up observations detailed in a half dozen papers in addition to the two Science papers.

The majority of the world's Jewish population is now reported to be in Israel

Before Jesus Christ returns to Israel as her true Messiah, Israel will be deceived by a false messiah (see, e.g., Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21). The stage continues to be set, as reported by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz of Breaking Israel News, July 8, 2018 (links in original):

The Israeli government recently announced that the largest community of Jews in the world is in Israel. This demographic fact has far-reaching Messianic ramifications in Jewish Law, requiring the Jews to reinstate Biblical commandments that have not been seen in two millennia and bringing redemption one, rather significant step closer.

Last week, Immigration Minister Sofa Landver reported to the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs that Israel had taken America’s place as home to the world’s largest Jewish population.

It is difficult to definitively quantify the Jewish population since the definition of who is a Jew varies widely between the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements. But the United States has been host of the largest Jewish population since WWII, with just over four million Jew in 1945. That number grew to 5.4 million in the 1970’s, although the previously rapid growth slowed due to assimilation, intermarriage, and low birth rates. Landver reported that 5.7 million Jews currently live in the US.

The Jewish population in Israel at the state’s inception in 1948 was approximately 650,000, less than six percent of the global Jewish population, and grew over the next ten years to 1.8 million. By 1980, there were 3.2 million Jews living in Israel, rising to 5.8 million by 2010. Landver reported that there are currently 6.6 million Jews in Israel.

“Having a majority of Jews in Israel creates a different halachic (Torah law) reality, requiring Jews to perform certain mitzvoth (Torah commandments) they have not had to perform in 2,000 years,” Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the nascent Sanhedrin, said to Breaking Israel News. Rabbi Weiss explained that this condition of a majority of Jews in Israel was anticipated in prophecy as the final return of the Jews to Israel. It is referred to as the third inheritance of the land, the first being by Joshua, the second after the Babylonian exile.

The third inheritance refers to Jews’ prophesied return from the exile that followed the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. Jewish tradition holds that this return will usher in the building of the Third Temple, the return of the Davidic Dynasty, and the messianic era.

“But this is not something that will just happen,” Rabbi Weiss said. “The Jews returned to Israel in order to pave the way for the moshiach.”

When a majority of Jews live in Israel, Jews are required to count the 50-year Jubilee cycle, a mitzvah (Torah commandment) the Sanhedrin reinstituted almost two years ago.

“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Jubilee unto you.” Leviticus 25:10

The Jubilee (Hayovel in Hebrew) is a Biblical commandment that is observed exclusively in the land of Israel. It is the fiftieth year that comes after a period seven sabbaticals. The year triggers a number of Biblical commandments concerning property rights and returning the land to its original inheritors, the Jews who were allocated the land by lottery. Debts were forgiven and slaves who sold themselves due to debt were set free.

Having a majority of the Jews in Israel will also require the distribution of land and the return of Jewish tribal identity as described by the Prophet Ezekiel.

And it shall come to pass that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you Ezekiel 47:21-22

The Sanhedrin has made an official ruling on how this should be done and is prepared to do so now that the requirement of the majority of Jews live in Israel and the current situation requires it to be done according to Torah law.

“We are required to have twelve tribes,” Rabbi Weiss said. “The land will be divided according to the Biblical territories. Every Jew living in that territory will receive an inheritance and be considered as if he is from that tribe.”

But when the Sanhedrin declared the beginning of the Jubilee cycle in 2016, they did so on the basis of their ruling that the majority of Jews already lived in Israel.

“We based our decision on the opinion that the Jubilee begins when there are 600,000 Jews in Israel, like the number that returned to Israel from Egypt under Joshua,” Rabbi Weiss said. “When those conditions have been met, as they clearly have, then the conditions for counting the Jubilee has also been met.”

Rabbi Weiss explained the Sanhedrin’s decision to rely upon the number rather than the majority of the total number of Jews.

“The number of Jews outside of Israel is a statistic that cannot be easily established and it is too easily manipulated,” he said. “It involves defining who is a Jew, a point that is a source of fierce debate. There are untold millions of people in countries around the world who are just now discovering their Jewish roots and that will change the numbers as well.”

“Most of the Jews who do not deny their Jewish identity are living in Israel today, effectively creating the condition in which there is no Jewish nation outside of the Land of Israel,” he said. “The decision not to accept Israel, not to do mitzvoth, not to move towards establishing the Temple, these are conscious decisions to reject the clear reality that we have returned as a nation, which requires Israel to act in a different manner than they have for the last 2,000 years.”

Rabbi David Katz, author of Laws of Ger Toshav: Pious of the Nations, is working towards reinstating a classification of non-Jews that is also dependent on this change in demographics: ger toshav (a resident alien).

“Ger toshav is explicitly described in the Torah,” Rabbi Katz said to Breaking Israel News, citing the one of the many verses.

If a resident alien among you has prospered, and your kinsman being in straits, comes under his authority and gives himself over to the resident alien among you, or to an offshoot of an alien’s family. Leviticus 25:47

“It is clearly true that Israel is required to recognize the ger toshav but this will not happen as long as the rabbinate refuses to acknowledge the new reality and continues to enforce the exile paradigm,” Rabbi Katz said. “There are different levels of this classification, including outside of Israel, but the highest level of fulfillment of the ger toshav comes when the Jubilee is declared.”

Rabbi Katz noted an increase in recent years from non-Jews who are interested in being ger toshav. He suggested that this interest seems to be spontaneously generated, as if the sudden change in demographics requiring the return of that Biblical status automatically reestablished it in the hearts and minds of people for whom it is relevant. Though this spiritual cause of the reemergence of ger toshav is appealing, the rabbi prefers a more practical cause.

“The demographics have tilted the scales and made Israel prominent in the world in so many ways,” Rabbi Katz said. “Because the non-Jews are more aware of Israel in a positive way more than ever before. This leads them to want to connect to Israel in a deeper manner, which is ger toshav.”

Rabbi Katz believes that the establishment of Israel was undeniably a part of the geula (redemption) process but he feels that the process has become “stuck” in recent years.

“Everyone agrees that Moshiach ben Yosef is here,” Rabbi Katz said, referring to the first stage in the messiah that Judaism believes pave the way in practical means for the second, more transcendent stage, referred to as Moshiach ben David. “We need to break through this klippah (barrier, literally shell) of exile mentality in order to go to the next level.”

“The statistics will not make these changes,” Rabbi Katz said. “Any change in this approach would have to come from the Temple Mount, not from the exile and not from the political framework which includes the Chief Rabbinate.”

75 years ago: Liberal "Christians" promote the New World Order

Support from religious liberals for a new world order is nothing new. On July 9, 1943, John Foster Dulles, chairman of a planning commission established by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America (which became the National Council f Churches in 1950), told the International Conference of Christian Leaders--a council of 68 churchmen from 14 nations--that Protestant churches would sponsor a program in the fall to promote international collaboration. As reported by Australian Associated Press and published in the Hobart Mercury, July 13, 1943:

NEW YORK. Mon. [July 12] - The International Conference of Christian leaders at Princeton has decided to recommend to the Governments concerned that the temporary collaboration between the United Nations should, as soon as possible, give way to a universal order and should not be consolidated into a closer military alliance with the object of establishing a preponderance or concert of power.

The recommendation formed part of a resolution on post-war problems as seen in the light of Christian principles, which was adopted after four days' discussion. Other requirements named for progress towards a world order included: (1) That national isolationism and monopolism of political power by a few nations which hitherto had failed to maintain peace should be repudiated as policies which contravened the purpose of establishing a world order; (2) that armaments be drastically reduced as a step towards the goals envisaged in the Atlantic Charter of the abandonment of the use of force and the lifting of the crushing burdens of armaments from the people.

According to Martin Erdmann in his book Building the Kingdom of God on Earth: The Churches' Contribution to Marshal Public Support for World Order and Peace, 1919-1945 (2005), p. 296:

The Committee consisted of John Foster Dulles, New York, Chairman of the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace; Dr. A.C. Craig, London, General Secretary, British Council of Churches; Dr. Gordon A. Sisco, Toronto, Ontario, General Secretary of the United Churches Commission on Church, Nation and World Order; Very Reverend Alwyn Keith Warren, Dean of Christchurch Cathedral, New Zealand; Dr. H.J. Gezork, Newton-Andover Theological Seminary; and Dr. Timothy Lew, Dean of the Department of Theology of Yenching University and Member of the Chinese Yuan (Senate). See press release, Princeton, July 8, 1943.

Mr. Dulles, a Presbyterian, was well-qualified to lead such an organization. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister and the grandson of a Presbyterian missionary. A lawyer as well as a layman, he defended popular liberal minister Harry Emerson Fosdick in Mr. Fosdick's heresy trial in 1924. Mr. Dulles served as the Chairman and Co-founder of the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America; Chairman of the Board for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1935 to 1952. He was also a founding member of the Foreign Policy Association and Council of Foreign Relations. He was best known for serving as United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 until shortly before his death from cancer in 1959 at the age of 71, and was thus in a position to influence events in the direction he intended. Mr. Dulles' liberal legacy includes his daughter Lillias, who became a Presbyterian minister, and his son Avery who converted to Roman Catholicism, joined the Jesuit order, and became a cardinal.

10 years ago: The death of Sir John Marks Templeton

On July 8, 2008, U.S.-born U.K. financier and philanthropist Sir John Marks Templeton died at the age of 95. Sir John became wealthy by buying extremely low-priced stocks during the Depression and selling them when the U.S. economy improved during World War II. He pioneered the use of globally diversified mutual funds, and became a billionaire.

Sir John renounced his American citizenship in 1964 and became a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the Bahamas, and donated over $1 billion to charity, the best-known of which may have been the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities. The Templeton Prize was established in 1972, "based on the decision of a panel of distinguished judges from various academic disciplines and religious traditions," and is awarded to a living person who, in the estimation of the judges, "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works." The monetary value--£1,200,000 as of 2015--exceeds that of Nobel Prizes, as Sir John felt that "spirituality was ignored" in the Nobel Prizes.

Sir John was ostensibly a Presbyterian, but was in fact a religious syncretist, and established the John Templeton Foundation to support research into "big questions" through "explorations into the laws of nature and the universe, to questions on the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness, and creativity." He stated that "We are trying to persuade people that no human has yet grasped 1% of what can be known about spiritual realities. So we are encouraging people to start using the same methods of science that have been so productive in other areas, in order to discover spiritual realities." Sir John was not only in error in believing that "science" can be used to discover "spiritual realities," but denied the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only claimed that we can know the truth (e.g., John 8:32), but that He is truth (John 14:6). Sir John Templeton seems to have been the sort of person prophesied of in II Timothy 3:7 as characteristic of the perilous times in the last days:

Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Winners of the Templeton Prize have included Mother Teresa (1973); Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (2012); universalist Desmond Tutu (2013); and King Abdullah II of Jordan (2018). Templeton Prize laureates regarded as Evangelicals have included Billy Graham (1982); Chuck Colson (1993); and Bill Bright (1996).

Given that the purpose of the Templeton Prize is a commitment to "Spiritual Progress" rather than to truth as revealed in the Bible, this blogger doesn't believe that the Evangelical laureates should have accepted it (although I admit that it's easy for me to say that, not having ever been offered such a large amount of money for any purpose). If they intended to use it as intended by the John Templeton Foundation, then that would be in conflict with Biblical doctrine. If they intended to use it for strictly Christian purposes, then that would be in conflict with the intentions of the Prize's donor and judges. Discerning Christians criticized the Evangelical recipients at the time for accepting the Templeton Prize, but as far as I recall, none of them declined the Prize or the money.

A lack of discernment from Christians regarding Sir John Templeton wasn't restricted to Templeton Prize recipients; this blogger recalls seeing Sir John interviewed by David Mainse in the mid-1990s on his 100 Huntley Street program regarding Sir John's latest book (possibly Discovering the Laws of Life (1994)). I saw the interview just once and that was a long time ago, but Sir John was promoting his own man-made laws of success rather than the instruction to be found in the Bible. Instead of confronting and correcting Sir John Templeton's error, Rev. Mainse fawned on him. I don't recall if 100 Huntley Street was actually offering the book through the ministry, but Rev. Mainse definitely praised the book.

Liberal Jewish synagogues in the United States are using the methods of the Church Growth Movement

As reported by Jessica Klein in Alma, June 29, 2018 (links in original):

Last Friday night during a Shabbat service at Romemu, a Manhattan-based temple for “spiritual seekers and skeptics alike,” I marveled at the energy of an old man wearing a colorful yarmulke atop his gray ponytail as he danced through most of the service. Closing his eyes and swaying his arms, he stood alone toward the rabbi’s podium when the evening began. About three minutes in, others started to stand up and sway — mostly women at first before more gray-haired men, and then some younger community members, joined in.

The service, filled with a diverse crowd in terms of age, home-base, and ethnicity, offered many opportunities for dance. At one point, the congregation engaged in a massive hora around the seating area. Standing and clapping in the middle of the dancers, I looked up to see the rabbi’s podium vacant. Just as I wondered where she had gone, I turned around to see her dark, curly hair bouncing as she danced behind me, holding hands with two congregants.

Romemu is one of several Jewish communities in the US offering an alternative to the temple-going experience many of us millennials had to endure when we were young. “Endure” may be an unfair characterization for everyone, but for me, it fits. I remember mostly suffering through what felt like day-long services during the High Holidays as a kid, fidgeting in my seat, being forced to sit when I wanted to run and stand when I wanted to sleep, and escaping — if I was lucky — to the coat room to play cards with other 11-year-olds.

The rabbi at my Reform temple growing up had charisma and twin daughters my younger brother’s age. The cantor had a fabulous singing voice. What bored and bothered my childhood self was the non-optional part of my attendance. I was forced to be there, forced to learn to read Hebrew I didn’t understand (a skill with which I’m now pleased), and forced to see religion in the particular way my temple interpreted it. Never totally sold on the idea of “God,” this made going to temple unappealing and, frankly, not my speed.

Today, “God-optional” temples seem to be becoming more common — or at least more widely available. There’s Lab Shul in New York City, which explicitly makes its “God-optional” status known on its website, but others explain their fluidity when it comes to a deity in less straightforward terms. Kol Shalom in Portland, Oregon invites members “who are not afraid to question tradition, work out their own beliefs, and want to create something that’s authentic for them.” Kavana Cooperative in Seattle, Washington is non-denominational and “welcomes individuals and families with many approaches to Judaism.” The Kitchen in San Francisco “practice[s] irreverent reverence” and makes “room for many expressions of serious Jewish living and a collective power to do good.” Washington, DC-based Sixth & I’s website looks more like the landing page for a music venue. It identifies itself first as a “center for arts, entertainment, and ideas” and secondly as a “synagogue.”

In her book titled God-Optional Judaism: Alternatives for Cultural Jews Who Love Their History, Heritage, and Community (2001), Judith Seid writes, “If you’ve found a home in religious Judaism, you are a minority in American Jewish life.” She’s speaking to the fact that fewer American Jews seem to belong to religious congregations. Meanwhile, the number of Jews in the US who believe in God has declined. In a study from the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of US Jews were “absolutely certain” about their belief in God in 2007, vs. 37 percent seven years later (the most recent statistics available). In 2007, 10 percent firmly did not believe in God, while 17 percent didn’t in 2014.

Interestingly, there was an opposite trend when it came to “importance of religion in one’s life.” In 2007, it was “very important” to 31 percent, which increased to 35 percent in 2014. Furthermore, attendance at religious Jewish services went up in that same seven-year period, from 16 percent of those surveyed attending at least once a week in 2007 to 19 percent in 2014. (The Pew Research Center’s study surveyed a sample of 35,071 Jews, 26 percent of whom identified as “millennials.”)

Anecdotally, I can safely report that strong belief in a traditional “God” is uncommon among the millennials I know. In fact, organized religion overall seems to mystify and elude many of my peers. (I also live in a major metropolitan area, New York City, where the “traditional” tends to give way to what’s “outside-of-the-box.”) Of my friends and many former co-workers (I’ve held down a decent number of jobs in my six years here) of all denominations, I can only think of one who goes to any kind of religious service regularly (church), while a few others make appearances on important holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Christmas, Easter).

Before my Jewish friend and her Catholic (who’s considering conversion) fiancé attended Romemu’s service with me last Friday, their respective coworkers expressed… confusion, for lack of a better word. Espousing that typically urban millennial disinterest in organized religion, my friend’s teacher colleagues raised their eyebrows at her choice, finding it odd that anyone would opt to spend her Friday night that way (for the record, she got a sense they’d be less bemused if she’d said she were attending church).

Those teachers, who work at a Manhattan public school that serves immigrant, English language learner students, probably wouldn’t have thought her choice was so “weird” if they’d attended the service with us. After all the singing and dancing, Romemu’s rabbi gave a sermon about the president’s hateful, xenophobic policies leading to the separation of immigrant children from their families, connecting them to stories from Midrash and history when Jews have faced similar treatment. At the end of her talk, the rabbi recommended ways to provide aid to the immigrants being mistreated at our country’s borders today.

In addition to its progressive, practical messaging, Romemu has a non-traditional approach to God, similar to Kol Shalom’s and Kavana’s. The prayer translations we read during the service often used the term “Goddess” or “Breath of Life” in place of Adonai, and outside of the prayers, I don’t recall any mention of this usually male-identified holy being. The community doesn’t call itself “God-optional,” but as someone who feels “God-optional,” I also felt perfectly accepted.

Modern Jewish communities like these come from a movement known as Jewish Renewal, a type of Judaism that came out of the ‘60s and ‘70s “hippie” culture that the older man dancing at the start of the service looked like he walked straight out of. The aim was to appeal to cultural Jews who also identified as “seekers,” who wanted to study traditional beliefs under a newer, freer-loving microscope (and maybe wanted to substitute the four cups of wine at Passover with four tokes of weed).

In addition to older hippie-types dancing the hora at Romemu’s Friday night service, there were a good number of those who appeared to be millennials holding hands and bumping playfully into those dancing all around them. They seemed to be there of their own volition, I marveled, just as I remembered that I was there by choice, too.

To be honest, I can’t say going to this colorful, lively service made me want to go to more. Regular service-going just isn’t for me, as the whole experience remains too steeped in my negative synagogue experiences as a child. My friends, however, may be going back to spend more time with a religious Jewish community that doesn’t require all the usual trappings of religion, that is perhaps more tailored to the attitudes of people in a certain pink-and-avocado-loving age group… but I’m not here to generalize.

TSee also my post Orthodox Jewish synagogues in the United States are using the methods of the Church Growth Movement (December 27, 2017)

Muslims, Christians, and Jews in U.S. Virgin Islands unite to promote tolerance and cooperation

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? II Corinthians 6:14-15

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11

I applaud the official Muslim community of the U.S. Virgin Islands for denouncing the misconduct of a rogue Muslim, but Christians should reject "interfaith" alliances, and should keep in mind that while Muslims maintain that they are
"required to abide by the constitution and all applicable laws of the land, wherever they live," they're out to change those laws and substitute Sharia law, which is meant to apply not just to Muslims, but to everyone. As reported by John McCarthy of the Virgin Islands Free Press, July 2, 2018:

CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Representatives of churches, synagogues and mosques met at the Masjid Nur Islamic Center in Sugar Estate on Sunday afternoon to talk about religious tolerance and cooperation among all members of the community no matter what faith they follow.

The interfaith gathering at Masjid Nur on Eighth Street in Sugar Estate was in response to the arrest of 29-year-old Alla H. Salem on Virgin Islands charges Friday allegedly for taking down nine flags at the entrance of the road to Cyril E. King International Airport and replacing them with black flags bearing the word “Allah” in white.

Virgin Islands Police Commissioner Delroy Richards Sr. said there was no basis for federal charges in a press conference about the incident on Saturday.

The center issued a statement Sunday night condemning the placement of the black flags.

“Masjid Nur Muslim Community of St. Thomas condemns the placement of ‘black flags’ labeled Allah, which means God in Arabic, near Cyril E. King Airport. In fact, the suspect was reported and turned in by concerned members of the local Muslim community, ” the prepared statement said. “As confirmed by the police commissioner during his press conference this past Saturday, the suspect is considered to be suffering from mental illness.”

“In the faith of Islam, Muslims are required to abide by the constitution and all applicable laws of the land, wherever they live, ” the statement said. “We really appreciate the support and solidarity expressed by many of the faith leaders in the local community. At this time we ask everyone to work towards unity, healing and hope.”

Salem was arrested by the VIPD Friday on Virgin Islands charges of conversion of government property, malicious mischief and petit larceny.

“I would like to thank the community, especially members of the Arab community, who came forward to the Virgin Islands Police Department and the FBI and who provided that crucial information that we needed to track this particular suspect and bring him forward, ” Richards said Saturday.

Participants of Sunday’s meeting described it as reinforcing solidarity and unity among all the religious faiths in the territory.

“The purpose of the meeting was for the various faith traditions to come together for the purpose of dismantling stereotypes and fostering religious tolerance, ” said Pastor Charles Brown Jr. of Family of Faith AME Church in Sugar Estate.

Brown said community involvement was instrumental in the Virgin Islands Police Department’s quick arrest of Salem. The community reached out to Masjid Nur and told members of the center that Salem had put up the Allah flags and the center immediately called the proper authorities, according to Brown.

The pastor characterized the Sunday meeting as a success.

“The major thing that was accomplished was we recognized that it was our responsibility to respond and change the narrative regarding what happened to foster a spirit of religious tolerance, ” Brown said Sunday evening. “One purpose of the meeting was to “show our tremendous appreciation and support for the work the Islamic Center does prior to this incident, as well as what they did regarding this incident. That’s the short-term accomplishment, and the long-term goal is instead of being reactionary to this incident we are going to strengthen the already existing partnership we have and make sure we can collaborate long term on community issues.”

On St. Croix, Omar Idheileh, president of the Virgin Islands Islamic Society, said the Muslim community “renounces the actions of the individual or individuals or individuals responsible for taking down the U.S. and V.I. flags at the St. Thomas airport and replacing them with a flag that read ‘Allah.'”

“This action is disturbing and is against our religious teachings and it has caused unease to the Virgin Islands Muslim communities on St. Croix and St. Thomas,” Idheileh said. “Both communities have spoken to the authorities to help bring the perpetrator to justice. The Muslim communities on St. Croix and St. Thomas have lived here for decades in peace and security with Virgin Islanders, and we hope and strive for it to remain like this. We are one community under the leadership of the U.S. government, and we will always uphold that as Muslims. This is what our religion teaches us.”

The interfaith group has called a meeting open to all members of the community for noon Wednesday at the same Masjid Nur in Sugar Estate.

Anglican churches in England are selling stained glass windows and organs to make ends meet

The Church of England has been in a death spiral for so long that I can't remember when it wasn't. The obvious solution is to preach the true gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, with the Bible as the only authority of faith and practice, with real Bible-believing Christians in the pulpits and pews. However, such a course is anathema to a church that's deep into apostasy; as a result, those churches that haven't sold their buildings and had them converted into mosques are now selling their artifacts, as reported by Olivia Rudgard of the London Daily Telegraph, June 27, 2018 (link in original):

Churches are selling off their stained glass windows and organs to fund upkeep, a Church of England court has warned.

John Bullimore, chancellor of the Diocese of Derby, said that fears that churches would rip out valuable artefacts to raise money were well-founded.

Ruling on an application by All Saints Church, Findern, to remove a 150-year-old organ and install a kitchen and toilet, Mr Bullimore said he shared the concerns of the organ adviser that small churches would "sell off assets - furniture or fixtures and fittings - because they are ‘not really needed’, or the mission of the church locally is more important".

"I do not think this danger is altogether fanciful," he said, adding that he had previously heard a case where a church had sought to sell its stained glass windows to a Japanese firm "to adorn some building for rest, recreation and refreshment thousands of miles away".

The request had been turned down, he said, in part because it was "wrong in principle for churches to look round their interiors in times of need to see what ‘treasures’ they could dispose of as decorative items, whether they be unused pulpits or balconies, or pews or windows, or indeed anything else, that might find a ready sale, and raise some funds."

He added: "Such items are part of the heritage, and were probably first acquired in many cases as the result of many small and sacrificial gifts by a large number of parishioners and benefactors contributing to the costs of erecting and fitting out the church.

"So in my own limited experience, I think the danger is real."

However, he granted the church permission to remove the organ because its sale was "by no means a money-raising scheme" and the change would allow the church to install better facilities.

Methodist church in Bermuda holds sodomite "pride service"

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

It's getting all but impossible to find any place where sodomy isn't celebrated, in apostate churches as well as in society. The reader will notice in the following item that the church in question has a woman in an unscriptural position of authority, and that the church is affiliated with the hopelessly apostate United Church of Canada. As reported by Paul Johnston of the Hamilton Royal Gazette, June 22, 2018:

Organisers of a weekend gay pride church service said yesterday they hoped it would attract people outside the usual congregation.

Sandy Mayor, chairwoman of the board at Wesley Methodist Church, said: “I would love for people from outside the community to come and see that we’re not an aberration, that really we’re just a community of faith that are celebrating Christ’s love.

“This service — while it will recognise a different group — we’re talking about the love of Christ. I believe that if you close your eyes and listen to the service it’s nothing different than what is being preached on any other service.”

The church, on Church Street, will hold its third annual Pride Service this Sunday.

“Love is a Many-Gendered Thing” is the theme of this year’s sermon.

Reverend Meredith Fraser, the church pastor, said the theme was about “the love that encompasses everyone we meet — whatever colour, whatever gender, whatever nationality, whatever creed.”

The Hamilton church is in communion with the United Church of Canada.

Ms Mayor said that UCC allows its congregations to decide whether to perform same-sex marriages or carry out blessings.

She said that four years ago a member who had married his same-sex partner overseas asked the church to bless the marriage.

Ms Mayor said: “Although it was a struggle, because it was the first time we had to consider that, we indeed went ahead with the blessing.”

She said the first Pride event was born out of the desire to celebrate the “courageous move” taken by the church “in a fairly conservative community”.

She added: “It’s almost become automatic since then that it’s something that we wanted to include in our annual calendar of events.”

Ms Mayor said that members of the public had often praised the church for its position on same-sex marriage.

She added: “I’ve had people speak to me and say ‘Oh I wish our church would do that’ or ‘Bravo, for taking that stand’.

“I think there are a lot of people in the community that actually are very supportive.”

Ms Mayor said that many gay people — particularly those brought up in a religious environment — did not feel safe in some churches.

She added: “We want people to know — regardless of what their background is, churched or unchurched — they are welcome on any Sunday at Wesley.”

The service starts at 11am.

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide sentenced to 12 months for covering up crimes of pedophile priest

As reported by Vatican Insider, July 4, 2018:

ROME - Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide might be able to avoid imprisonment after the Newcastle tribunal, north of Sydney, will evaluate his eligibility for 12-month home detention. The decision will be taken on 14 August. The Prelate will be eligible for parole after serving six months.

Wilson, 67, who suspended himself but did not resign as Archbishop of Adelaide and Vice President of the Australian Bishops' Conference, was sentenced for covering up serious crimes - the sexual abuse of children committed by priest James Fletcher in the 1970s, when both served in the diocese of Maitland, near Newcastle. Fletcher died in prison at the age of 65 in 2006, one year after being sentenced to almost eight years for nine paedophile crimes committed between 1989 and 1991.

"The whole community is devastated in so many ways by decades of abuse and its concealment," magistrate Robert Stone said over pedophile abuse within institutions, in his sentencing. Given the seriousness of the offence and the need for general deterrence, only a custodial sentence can be imposed, whereas a suspension of the sentence would not correspond to this need, he said. The only option is therefore to serve a sentence in prison or at home. Given the age, mental and physical condition of the defendant and the absence of any criminal record, also 12 months of home detention would be an appropriate punishment.

During the trial, the prosecution insisted on a custodial sentence for "deterrence" and "reporting" reasons, in such a high-profile case. Public prosecutor Gareth Harrison had asked the court for an appropriate verdict for the "breach of trust" towards the vulnerable minor who - along with another altar boy - had approached Wilson in 1976 accusing Fletcher, the priest. "A 15-year-old boy had turned to him for help, and the defendant lied in court about his knowledge of allegations of abuse? The root of each of those lies is the unflinching loyalty to the Catholic church and protecting it at all costs," Harrison said.

Ian Temby, the prelate's defender, in turn, had asked to spare him prison time because of his poor state of health and because his safety would be at risk behind bars. And he had presented reports from various doctors with details of his medical conditions including diabetes, Alzheimer’s and heart problems, saying that in prison his health would worsen, while his personal safety would be at risk.

"The Archbishop has not been convicted of any sexual offenses and there are no indications that he has been involved in any of the crimes committed by Fletcher, but could be seen by the prison inmates as a pedophile and thus exposed to assault by other detainees," lawyer Temby said.

Avi Lipkin founds joint Jewish-Christian party to contest next Israeli Knesset election

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. II Corinthians 6:14-17

As reported by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz of Breaking Israel News, May 23, 2018:

Avi Lipkin, a well-known lecturer who has spoken in over 1,000 churches, announced that he has formed the first joint Jewish-Christian party and intends to lead it in the next Knesset elections. A closer look at his motives reveals that this may be the wave of the future.

The acceptance of Lipkin’s Gush Hatanachi (Biblical Bloc) party application was announced on Wednesday. The party’s founding document reads:

“The Biblical bloc protects everyone who believes in the Bible and opposes the ethnic cleansing of Jews and Christians from the Land of Israel. The Biblical bloc represents parties all over the world who espouse Judeo-Christian, democratic Western culture.”

“The party will also work to strengthen Israel by formulating a program to improve public relations around the world by recruiting Jewish and Christian speakers and training them to improve Israel’s image in the world and protect Western democracy.”

The essence of his party is much more simple.

“Christianity has its share of hatred for Jews but we have our share of hatred for Christians,” Lipkin told Breaking Israel News. “We have to stop hating the Christians. We have to become like Ruth and Naomi. In my lecture tours, I have seen that many Christians are ready for this.”

In a candid interview with Breaking Israel News, Lipkin explained how this vision of a renewed relationship between Jews and Christians makes sense in Israeli politics. He sees the Christian demographic rapidly becoming a major factor which, shockingly, currently has no representation in the Knesset.

“For hundreds of years, the only Christians in Israel were Arab,” Lipkin explained. “This changed twenty years ago when one million people made Aliyah to Israel, mostly from the former Soviet Union. Fully one third were not Jewish.”

“Eight percent of the population in Israel today is Christian but they have no representation in the Knesset,” he said. “Until recently, the Arab Christians who used to be anti-Semitic aligned with the Muslims. In the face of growing Islamic extremism, these Christian Arabs are slowly realizing they need to change and slowly, they are turning to Israel and the Jews.”

Indeed, just as many see Israel as a refuge and sanctuary for oppressed Jews from around the world, Lipkin envisions Israel as serving the same purpose for Arab Christians as well as Western Christians.

“Jews are sovereign in Israel. We have to embrace and protect our Christians from any threat coming from the Islamic side. We need to give Bible-believing Christians representation in the Knesset.”

“The Islamic Jihad already had plans twenty years ago to annihilate every Jew in the West. Because of assimilation and intermarriage, we will see a tsunami of six million Jews from America and other Western countries coming to Israel accompanied by four million Christian spouses and relatives. This is imminent and we need to be ready for it.”

His party list will be half Jewish and half Christian taken from a broad spectrum of both religions.

Lipkin made aliyah over 50 years ago from New York and lives in Kedar, Gush Etzion. He served in the IDF as a spokesman for seventeen years. A prolific author, he has written extensively on the threat Islam poses to Western culture and, more specifically, Christianity.

He worked for the Likud’s Knesset campaign in 1988, editing and translating the party platform into Hebrew, English and Spanish. After the Likud victory under Yitzhak Shamir, he was a senior editor and translator in the news department of the Government Press Office.

Lipkin earned his Master’s Degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and is considered one of the pioneers in Jewish-Christian relations.

I suspect that the percentage of Israeli population cited by Mr. Lipkin as "Christian" consists mainly of "cultural Christians" rather than actual born-again believers in Jesus Christ. Avi Lipkin is very popular with Christians, and is a frequent guest on Christian radio programs such as those of Southwest Radio Church, but he publicly denies Jesus as Messiah. Real Christians should think twice about joining or supporting any party claiming even in part to be "Christian," especially one founded by someone who clearly denies that Jesus is the Christ.

Geriatric sodomite Church of England vicar defends his "marriage" to a young male model

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

The following item speaks volumes about the current state of the C of E. As reported by Thomas D. Williams of Breitbart, June 30, 2018 (links in original):

A 79-year-old gay Anglican priest in the U.K. has defended his marriage to a 25-year-old male model from Romania, insisting he is not “a dirty old man” but just wants “to show people we are normal.”

Appearing Thursday on “The Jeremy Kyle Show” with husband Florin Marin, the Rev. Philip Clements, a retired rector and boarding school chaplain, said he is not being taken advantage of despite buying Marin a house in Romania and letting him see other men.

The now retired vicar, who married Marin last year after meeting him on Gaydar two years earlier, said that the younger man was not a gold-digger, adding that their rocky relationship was “not quite as simple” as the media had made it out to be.

The couple faced criticism after it was revealed that Rev. Clements had sold his £215,000 home in Sandwich, Kent, to buy an apartment in Bucharest, where Mr. Marin is originally from. Clements was reportedly left penniless when the couple split up five months into their marriage.

“I bought a beautiful new flat in Bucharest. We were living there and we had married by that time,” Clements said.

“That’s where I was going to settle. I’d put the house in his name so he’d feel secure when I die – because you’ve got to think about those sorts of things when you get to my age,” he said.

“But we had a bit of a tiff, as most relationships do, based on the fact that he was asleep at two o’clock in the afternoon having come in at five o’clock in the morning because he likes clubbing,” he continued, adding that the couple’s split was not based on financial motives but on personal differences.

“He said I was too old to go to a club. It was like I was Cinderella, I was left at home. I woke him up and he was very cross; he started punching my leg a bit,” Clements said.

Host Jeremy Kyle asked Clements whether he felt that Marin was making a fool of him since they stopped living together so soon after their marriage.

“Being made a fool of can be very nice, especially if it’s a very young man making a fool of you,” the vicar replied.

He also revealed that he and his younger husband have had “moments of physical relationship,” but admitted that due to his age, he is limited in that regard, adding that he and Marin “have an arrangement.”

“I’ve said to Florin that if he has any relationships he should tell me, but I’m not going to be angry about it.”

Marin himself joined the show, saying, “I love this man.” He denied being a gold digger taking advantage of the elderly vicar for money.

“They don’t know me, they don’t know us,” he said of critics.

Both men said that although they are not currently living together, they look forward to being together on a more stable basis in the future.

Trans People Urged to Become Priests in Church of England Drive ‘to Honour LGBT+ People’ https://t.co/1Mb4gKGLZJ

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 28, 2018

Officially, the Church of England teaches that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, while some regional Anglican bodies, such as the Scottish Episcopal Church, have endorsed gay marriage. In 2015, the U.S. Episcopal Church voted to officiate same-sex marriage ceremonies in church.

Some conservatives Anglican bodies, such as the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), have resisted the move toward accepting same-sex marriage.

Last week, over 2,000 Anglicans gathered in Jerusalem for a GAFCON networking event, seeking new ways to “move Gospel ministry forward” at a time when the global Anglican Communion is perceived as “theologically confused” on issues such as same-sex marriage.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, after calling God "stupid," seeks to repair relations with the country's Roman Catholic bishops

As Maxwell Smart used to say, "Look, I hope I wasn't out of line with that crack about..." The God of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte may not be that of Roman Catholicism, but certainly isn't the God of the Bible, either. As reported by Christine Rousselle of Catholic News Agency, June 27, 2018 (link in original):

Manila, Philippines - After calling God “stupid,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that he will seek to have a dialogue with the country’s bishops’ conference in an effort to repair relationships.

The president’s spokesperson announced that a committee would be created to better collaborate and communicate with the country’s bishops.

On Friday, Duterte caused controversy when, in a speech, he said God was “stupid,” and a “son of a b-tch” for including the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden after consuming the forbidden fruit.

“How can you rationalize a God? Do you believe?” added Duterte. He also spoke negatively about the concept of original sin, calling it a “stupid proposition.”

Despite the outcry from his initial remarks, Duterte did not back down. He said that he was criticizing only the God that his critics believe in, not his personal God. Duterte was raised Catholic.

"What I said was your God is not my God, because your God is stupid. Mine has a lot of common sense,” said Duterte on Monday. He also said that the creation of Eve was God’s “greatest mistake.”

A presidential spokesperson said that the comments represented Duterte’s personal beliefs, and referenced the president’s previous statement that he had been abused by a priest while a student at Catholic school, the BBC reported.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said they were willing to meet with Duterte to discuss various issues and to rebuild the relationship between the Church and the government. Duterte is seeking to form a committee on this issue.

Archbishop Romulo Valles, president of the CBCP, said on a Catholic radio station in the Philippines that the invitation was a “most welcome development,” and that “to dialogue is to listen to one another, and is always good.”

Valles and Duterte have been friendly in the past, according to Filipino media.

Other bishops in the country aren’t so sure that Duterte is genuine in his desire for a dialogue. Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the auxiliary bishop of Manila, told ABS-CBN News that the call for a dialogue was “just his way of diffusing the criticisms against him.”

The Philippines is about 80 percent Catholic, and an additional 10 percent of the population is Protestant.

Duterte has been openly hostile to the Catholic Church since he came to power in July of 2016. Shortly before taking office, he referred to the country’s bishops as “sons of wh-res.”

He has been accused of “social cleansing” for his bloody war on drugs in the country. The country’s bishops offered to provide sanctuary for any whistleblowers in the Philippine police department who spoke out against various human rights abuses. In response, Duterte said the Church was “full of sh-t.”