The Holy Shroud of Turin

That would be something in our day and age of separation of church and state. The world could build the most impressive church in the world.

Most Amish now own cars. The government doesn't accept paper tax returns. It just seems like Amish will die out or they will have to change their technology doctrine. I give them 100 more years and they will be all but gone

https://youtu.be/pOnTfCH4Qgc

"Your history textbooks probably wrongly told you that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Protestant pilgrims of Massachusetts in 1621. Not so. There was the Catholic Thanksgiving of 1565 in Florida and another Catholic Thanksgiving of 1589 in Texas.

The first American Thanksgiving was actually celebrated on September 8 (feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin) in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. The Native Americans and Spanish settlers held a feast and the Holy Mass was offered. It was a Mass of Thanksgiving."

Eucharist means Thanksgiving in Greek.

http://taylormarshall.com/2014/11/6-amazing-cathol...

The birth of your movement happens to be also the day of Halloween (Reformation Day it is also called). On the evening of October 31, 1517 Martin Luther posted his theses on the door of Wittenburg Church and began a process that would splinter into 20,000 different groups all claiming to have the correct interpretation of scripture. Thus began the Protestant Revolution. Quite a diabolical event in the history of Christianity.

www.catholicbible101.com/luthersrevolution.htm

Jesus lived about 2000 years ago so 498 years is not old enough to have authority directly from Jesus Christ or the apostles. Protestants did not exist at that time

"The House of Representatives today voted 241-187 today to end funding to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood does an estimated 291,000 abortions annually.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, teamed with eugenics organizations such as the American Eugenics Society, in the 1920's. , Sanger found common cause with proponents of eugenics, believing that she and they both sought to "assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_Parenthood

http://news.yahoo.com/house-bills-hit-planned-pare...

I know there are several atheists here that like to debate religious people. I wanted to let you know my church has made a website especially for atheists. I thought some "atheist regulars" that visit R&S might like it. It allows atheists to debate against church theologians, scholars, etc. It might help you strectch your "mental muscles", or if nothing else, you might find it interesting. The website is www.strangenotions.com. It's built around three things: reason, faith, and dialogue.

The name "Strange Notions" carries a double meaning. The first sense comes from a colorful story in the biblical book of Acts. In the book of Acts, we discover the Christian convert, Paul, sailing to Athens. There he debates in the synagogue with the Jews, then in the public square, and then finally is invited to the Areopagus, a prestigious hill where Athenian philosophers gathered "for nothing else but telling or hearing something new." (Sounds like the Internet, eh?) Paul stands among the circle of pagan philosophers and appeals to what they all hold in common—devotion to truth, philosophy, poetry. His message intrigues the Athenian elite, who say, "you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean" (Acts 17:20).

This website is designed to mimic that first meeting of Christians and atheists, allowing both to discover intriguing "strange notions" on either side.

http://www.strangenotions.com/about/

http://www.strangenotions.com/about/

"The hardest thing in the world to open is a closed mind. People with closed minds seemingly believe that they wallow in the truth and are safely hidden and protected from outside influence. They are comfortable where they are, and they do not want to change because change requires effort. Also they are afraid that they might have to admit that they were in error if they were shown to be wrong. That would put them in a struggle with pride, which is the root of all sin. They are victims of what is commonly called "subjective certitude".

They are, "...ever learning yet never attaining knowledge of the truth (2Timothy 3:7)."

Objective certitude means that the mind conforms to objective truth. The person with objective certitude is certain of the truth because it is the truth. The person with subjective certitude is motivated by their feelings whether they are of truth or not. Those who are locked into subjective certitude are only fooling themselves into thinking that they are right simply because they are sincere in their beliefs. However, sincerity is a two edged sword and can be misleading, simply because a person can be sincerely wrong as well.

How are those with subjective certitude, resulting in closed minds, ever going to be able to even find the truth?

The answer to that one is that they will not ever find the truth unless they open their minds.

http://www.thecatholictreasurechest.com/errprot.ht...

John Smyth, the founder of the Baptist, was against any form of reading the bible at church.

"Smyth insisted that true worship was from the heart and that any form of reading from a book in worship was an invention of sinful man. This rejection of liturgy remains strong among many Baptists still today. Prayer, singing and preaching had to be completely spontaneous. He went so far with this mentality that he would not allow the reading of the Bible during worship on the grounds that a translation was "...the worke of a mans witt...& therefore not to be brought into the worship of God to be read."

I think it's clear that the Baptist started out at least as some kind of demonic sect.

He will be only the 4th Pope to visit the U.S. and the first ever Pope will give a speech to the Joint-Meeting of Congress (both the Senate and House of Representatives).

“It is with reverence and admiration that I have invited Pope Francis, as head of state of the Holy See and the first Pope to hail from the Americas, to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.”

– John Boehner –

House Speaker

The President and the First Lady will welcome His Holiness Pope Francis to the White House on Wednesday, September 23. The President looks forward to continuing this conversation with the Holy Father during his first visit to the United States as Pope."

I feel a new dawn could be here for the United States.

http://www.popefrancisvisit.com/about-catholic-to-...

If this study is true, and I have every reason to believe it is, this is a truly scary insight into the minds of our youth.

"A recent Harvard University study bears this out. Researchers surveyed approximately 10,000 middle school and high-school age kids across all income levels and ethnic backgrounds between 2013 and 2014. When asked whether it was more important to them to be personally successful or kind, 75 percent picked success. Researchers also asked the kids what they felt their parents emphasized more; about 80 percent went with personal success.

The response caught the research team off guard. But it makes sense, they believe, considering that so many children grow up with parents and teachers who focus on achievement-oriented goals, such as acing standardized tests and getting into a good college. For today’s kids, high self-esteem has a higher value than acting selflessly"

Thoughts and opinions? If a person says they want personal success instead of being kind I don't think these peopel can call themselves Christian. Do you think there are a lot less real Christians than people generally think there is in the U.S.? It seems to be a scary study to me about the possible future of our nation and what is going on beneathe the surface. Your thoughts and opinions from a religious perspective or a non-religious perspective

"The number of abortions have declined substantially in most states since 2010, regardless of the number of restrictions palced on access to abortion.

Among the groups most active in promoting the restrictive laws is Americans United for Life. Its president, Charmaine Yoest, suggested that the broad decrease in abortions reflected a change in attitudes among pregnant women.

‘‘There’s an entire generation of women who saw a sonogram as their first baby picture,’’ she said. ‘‘There’s an increased awareness of the humanity of the baby before it is born.’’

If you know anyone that is going to have an abortion please let them get a sonogram so they can see the baby. They will know it is a life. We can win this war!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/06/07...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In their first encounter, Pope Francis received U.S. President Barack Obama at the Vatican March 27 for a discussion that touched on several areas of tension between the Catholic Church and the White House, including religious freedom and medical ethics.

At the end of their talk, Pope Francis gave Obama a bound edition of his apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), published last November. The gift prompted the president to respond: "You know, I actually will probably read this in the Oval Office when I am deeply frustrated, and I am sure it will give me strength and will calm me."

A few months later Obama quoted a passage from the exhortation in which the pope lamented: "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?"

Pope Francis also presented Obama with a pair of bronze medallions, one commemorating the 17th-century construction of the colonnades around St. Peter's Square; another portraying an angel that brings together the world's North and South in "solidarity and peace founded on justice."

"Wonderful meeting you, I'm a great admirer," Obama told the pope as they shook hands.

Maybe Obama is seeing the light. God can work in mysterious ways.

Hahn has helped convert hundreds if not thousands of people from Protestant churches to the Catholic Church. He has been dubbed "Luther in reverse."

A large number of Protestant pastors and Bible scholars have followed suit in converting to Catholicism

"My studies have led me to realize that we are privileged to read the sacred page within an unfathomable community: the communion of saints, the voices of Catholic Tradition, the great cloud of witnesses from all of history. Our guide is the Holy Spirit, working through the Church's Magisterium."--Dr. Scott Hahn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Hahn

http://www.scotthahn.com/

I was listening to one of his cd's this morning on my way to work, he is truly brilliant, one of the most gifted speakers I have ever heard. I was curious to see if you've ever heard of him.

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 29, 2015, If the Supreme Court rules that same-sex “marriage” is a constitutional right, one justice has said that the government could force clergy of all denominations to perform gay “weddings” or lose the ability to officiate any state-sanctioned marriage.

Justice Scalia repeatedly suggested that once a constitutional right to marry by same-sex couples was enshrined by the court, a member of the clergy could not be given civil marriage powers by the state unless he agreed to perform any and all marriages that the nation legally recognizes.

Justice Scalia continued to explain that same-sex "marriage" bans in the states "are laws. They are not constitutional requirements. If you let the states [redefine marriage], you can make a [religious] exception. The state can say, 'Yes, two men can marry — but ministers who do not believe in same-sex marriage will still be authorized to conduct marriages on behalf of the state.' You can’t do that once it is a constitutional proscription."

"I don't see how you could possibly allow that minister to say, 'I will only marry a man and a woman. I will not marry two men,'" Scalia said.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Todd Starnes it’s now “open season on Americans who refuse to bow to the government’s redefinition of marriage.”

"In assisting priests in nearly 100 exorcisms, Adam Blai has become a true believer in good and evil, God and the devil.

“If you’ve seen the things in the Gospels played out in front of you, it ceases to become faith. It’s knowledge,” says Blai.

When he comes face to face with evil , Blai says he knows it.

“Their heart is so black and lacking of any hesitation or compassion that you know they would tear you apart and be smiling the entire time,” he says. “There’s a sense of evil with a demon that is so far beyond any human I’ve ever met it’s impossible to convey it to you in words.”

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/02/12/demonic-...