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Coming Out In The Vatican A Homosexual Theocracy

I know all faiths have gays in their ranks but I was also under them impression impression that it’s worse among the Catholic clergy.
Ever heard of the Metropolitan Community Church? It was actually founded by a gay man that originally only had gay members. The first straight member was the founder’s mother.

I think they’re liturgical and celebrate Communion weekly.

I know one of their ministers became a Catholic priest later on.
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Christians Have an Image Problem

To love your enemies and even be willing to sacrifice your own life for them. But I think it is this disposition that we can aim for that will shine and expose evil and turn people to God.
God's Word says His children are light(s) in the world; but the world hates the light because it's actions-deeds-works are evil and they do not want to be exposed. Thus cannot expect the light to turn people to God.
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Coming Out In The Vatican A Homosexual Theocracy

We talked about this several weeks ago, but why are there so many gay clergy in Catholicism compared to clergy from other denominations?
The Church was infiltrated by communists. Bella Dodd, former communist, admitted this to Venerable Fulton Sheen.
  • Agree
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Illegal Immigration

Polling of the American people says otherwise.
All that we can do is estimate the damage done by the previous Administration.
Mankind, according to all Scripture, i.e. man's carnal society (i.e. society since the 1st century for context) is and has been doing damage (death and destruction) daily.
Depends how you enforce it.

Enforcing the law is not cruel. It's compassionate.

It can be.
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Illegal Immigration

Note: Even God has an entrance requirement. No one will be able to get into Heaven without meeting that requirement.

Are you ok with millions of illegal entrants the Biden administration let in during his 4 yr term...or should they be deported?
If the usa deported everyone, there'd be no sinners in the usa, eh? Think a minute on this - God does not deport anyone from the new heavens or the new earth ! He simply does not ever let them in, whom He has not invited in. God's "politics" (as if, or so-called) is not at all like sinful man's politics, right?
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All humans are 50th cousins?

I'm dubious about these kinds of tests matching regions. I'm especially dubious about how they manage your information. What finally shook out with 23andMe data?

Ultimately, except for health reasons, it doesn't matter, anyway. Who our ancestors were has no real bearing on us. And if we play the game of halving their genetic contribution with each generation, very quickly it runs to practically nothing, unless there's some kind of trait that manifests with the right gene combinations.
I dunno, I was just curious is all.
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Pentecostals and Baptists

The Baptist tradition originated in England as a Non-Conformist group started by John Smythe in the early 17th century. Smythe taught against infant baptism and had himself re-baptized (he baptized himself). Smythe also believed in rejecting the establishmentarianism of the Church, and that the Church should be a local congregation of free association bounded by covenant. Like other non-Conformists, the Baptists were persecuted in Britain, and would seek refuge in the Americas. The original Baptists, like Smythe, were of a Puritan variety; but they were not welcome in the Puritan colony of Massachusetts. This led a prominent American Baptist, Roger Williams to leave Massachusetts and establish Rhode Island with the promise of religious freedom (the Baptists rejected the idea of a state church or the government telling people what to believe and believed that religious liberty was a guaranteed right of all people, and being a Christian was a matter of free association).

After the American Revolution and the introduction of the US Constitution which promised religious liberty to all, Baptists were a group that grew and began to thrive in the new nation. However, because the Baptist tradition rejected all forms of church hierarchy and believed only in the local church/congregation, there was an explosion of different kinds of Baptists. What defined a Baptist was certain "Baptist distinctives", not a hierarchal ecclesiastical structure, not even necessary shared doctrine (outside of the certain Baptist distinctives, such as a rejection of infant baptism and belief in believer's baptism). As such while the earliest Baptists with their Puritan heritage were usually Reformed in their theology, later Baptists would adopt an Arminian theology, thus "Reformed Baptists" and "Free Will Baptists". Various issues, theological and practical, would create different groupings of Baptist churches.

Because of this, the Baptist tradition has a great deal of diversity, even within associations and conventions (the closest thing Baptists have, historically, to a larger ecclesiastical structure) there is a diversity from congregation to congregation. This has actually led to modern controversies, for exampling, within the Southern Baptist Convention as the leadership of the SBC has attempted to do some top-down measures to reign in congregations; with congregations in turn having dissociated with the SBC. This was one of the major reasons why Jimmy Carter, a life-long Southern Baptist, eventually left the SBC because he believed the SBC had betrayed its foundational Baptist principles. I only bring this up because it is relevant to the historic Baptist tradition, which historically does not care for top-down ecclesiastical structure--emphasizing the total and free autonomy of the local congregation.

Pentecostalism, on the other hand, is usually said to have its origins in the 1906 Azusa Street Revivals. This is, probably, mostly true--but it's more complicated than that. Pentecostalism has its earlier origins in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition that emerged in the 19th century, the same tradition that gave rise to the Church of the Nazarene (as an example). And even before 1906 there are examples of Pentecostal-like things happening among these earlier Holiness Churches. However Azusa Street was a major and pivotal moment, and it ultimately led to the formation of distinctively "Pentecostal" churches, such as Assemblies of God. Now, given the historic roots of the Pentecostal tradition, there are some superficial similarities between it and the Baptists; for example a rejection of infant baptism stems from the earlier Holiness Movement having diverse views on the subject (even today the Church of the Nazarene believers baptism or infant baptism depends on personal conscience and the sentiments of the congregation). A case can probably be made that the rejection of infant baptism in the Pentecostal tradition has to do with some influence of credobaptists in the early formation of the movement; as there were many credobaptists who joined (most notably, Baptists themselves). And given Pentecostalism's strong emphasis on a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit, then it stands to reason that those who may have come from paedobaptist traditions (or those which practiced both) wouldn't have had much issue with adopting a credobaptist position if the emphasis was on personal repentance, the choice to be baptized, and then to receive baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues (the latter being one of the chief distinctive doctrines of the Pentecostal tradition).

Which is to say the Baptist and Pentecostal traditions have very different histories, but there are certain superficial and similar things going on due to either some level of direct or indirect influence (Baptist influence on Pentecostalism, and in modern times also Pentecostal influence on Baptists). Both traditions emphasize a personal and individual participation in Christian religion and thus less stress is placed on historic liturgical practice, giving rise to less structured and loose services designed to fit the specific needs each tradition views as important for their communities (also, no doubt, both having been influenced by the Second Great Awakening in this regard).

Some Baptist churches have been influenced by the Pentecostal tradition, as such there are Charismatic Baptists.

But there are distinctive practices and doctrines which define each tradition. Baptists have their Baptist Distinctives, and Pentecostalism's chief distinctive theological position is baptism with the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues.

-CryptoLutheran
Thanks for the very informative post! I’m amazed by your immense knowledge!

God bless!
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What video games are you currently playing?

Was finally able to get my hands on a Nintendo Switch 2.

I like is so far, pretty much an upgraded Switch 1. The screen in the device is much nicer, the joy cons feel less cheap and the magnets that attach to the console works really well.

The Nintendo Online app and Online store is much more responsive.

It's about as powerful as somewhere between a PS4 and PS4 Pro. So sadly I don't expect a lot of native 4K games. Mario Kart World is about 1440P resolution.

The joy cons can be used as a mouse which works a lot better than I thought it would. Will probably buy a proper mouse pad for that later.

I know some people are waiting for the future possible OLED model but personally I use the Switch 99% of the time on the TV. I do know the screen on the device lags somewhat. Even more than the original Switch.

While I like the Switch 2, I do kind of wish Nintendo would just do a proper console. Especially as someone who isn't really interested in handheld gaming. I'd like to see Nintendo games on par graphics wise with current gen systems.
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Va. Christian School Teacher Accused of Having Sex with Male Student; School called the cops and has fired teacher

Va. Christian School Teacher Accused of Having Sex with Male Student: 'It Was Going to Be Brought to Light'

Katelin Campbell was arrested last Thursday and booked at the Halifax County Adult Detention Center. The 34-year-old was charged with having consensual sex with a child 15 years or older, as well as taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial relationship, county records show.

Campbell was a school teacher at C.H. Friend School, according to WSETand KFYI.

“We chose integrity instead of it being swept under the rug,” the school’s headmistress Dana Jones told WSET this week, confirming that the victim was a male student. "We understand that taking it to the police department, it was going to come shine a light on us."
  • Informative
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Illegal Immigration

Indeed. That’s why there are legal challenges being filed against this administration for how they’re conducting their enforcement operations.
Partisan theatrics and stalling tactics.

The courts keep shooting these frivolous cases down,

The American people are delighted with this Administration's enforcement of the law.
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Book Of Enoch And The Flat-earth

You cannot even prove that what is directly God inspired must be taken as "literal and inerrant."
You sure about that?

It seems to be contagious.

Ancient Greece played a cruicial role in the development of Western society, even to the point some say it's where it started. I get the word can be ambigious without clear markers, but when I use the word "ancient" I am thinking of pre-western influence.
Like the tower of babel ?
In this case it fell.
Yep.
That's a wile of the devil, so as to keep the Bible out of history class.
The worldly schools love the worldly views.
The righteous children live by faith, not by sight, nor "of the world".(nor of a forum?)
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Illegal Immigration

Happy to point out that Jesus Christ of Nazareth confirmed this in the new testament. Im affraid you're just not going to be able to get around it, " Love".

Matthew 25:35, 40:
"For I was a stranger and you welcomed me...Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
That doesn't answer my questions.

Your conflation of words does not constitute a confirmation.

Let's look at verse of your premise (specifically the word גר) in the Greek LXX:

Strong's Greek: 4339 προσήλυτος (proselutos) - proselyte

Strong's Definitions pros-ay'-loo-tos; from the alternate of (4334) (προσέρχομαι); an arriver from a foreign region, i.e. (special) an acceder (convert) to Judaism ("proselyte"): — proselyte.

Now let's look at the word in the verse that is being conflated with your premise.

ξενος G3581

So I ask again; do you understand what a גר is?

I ask again does Yah call us to follow the law?

(CLV) Hb 1:9
Thou lovest righteousness (kept THE LAW) and hatest injustice (disregard for THE LAW) ; Therefore Thou art anointed by The God, (tou theou) (YHWH), Thy God, with the oil of exultation beyond Thy partners."
  • Agree
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Christians Have an Image Problem

A “real”Christian does not follow.religion but a way of life (that is of course Christian is defined as a follower of the Will of Jesus rather than some church)

A religion is a way of life. What distinction do you have in mind?
  • Winner
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Pope Leo XIV invites Church to pray and fast for peace on Queenship of Mary feast day

Is being single, and able to handle it, a blessing?

Drunkness is something that clouds your judgement. If what you are doing leads to sin, then that is a form of drunkness.

The bible forbids anything that alters your mind. Thus, it can be anything from food, to drink, to substances, and more; inside and outside the body.

Ironically, plain water does that to me by giving me painful headaches from osmotic imbalance leading to swelling of cells.

Similar circumstances killed Bruce Lee but in my case, it's due to genetics, not drugs.

I still drink plain water but only in very small quantities. Even after doing a skate marathon in 100 F heat, I only drink small quantities of plain water. Most hydration comes from sweetened milk beverages.
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Illegal Immigration

The last administration created such chaos that they couldn't even track the children that were in their care, to protect them from child predators.

Up to 323,000 Migrant Children Missing in US, DHS Watchdog Finds

Aug 22, 2024The Biden-Harris administration has lost track of more than 320,000 migrant children who crossed the border without parents

All that we can do is estimate the damage done by the previous Administration.
That known misleading number is not what I asked. But the response does kind of answer my question.
  • Informative
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Former DOGE Employee beaten in DC trying to stop car jacking

from your link

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia is marking President Donald J. Trump's first 100 days by highlighting a 25 percent drop year-to-date in violent crime across the District, credited in part to the "Make D.C. Safe Again" initiative and the U.S. Attorney’s partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Metropolitan Police Department.
"Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the efforts of our 'Make D.C. Safe Again' initiative, the District has seen a significant decline in violent crime," said U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr.
Yes, it has dropped down 35% since 2023 when Trump wasn't in office. So they are just taking credit for something already occurring BEFORE they were in office. So one more time. This is all about Big Balls taking a beat down and Trump seizing a city with the military and other Govs sending the guard to DC, even though cities in those Gov's own states have worse crime than DC itself.
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