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  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Pardoned Jan. 6 defendant who fired gun at the Capitol arrested on kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault charges

Well, a man was arrested for kidnapping and rape in Chicago. That's certainly newsworthy.

Meanwhile, also in Chicago - 238 people were shot and killed at a Popeye's Chicken location within the span of five minutes. When pressed for answers as to how so many people could be killed at such a small restaurant in such a short period of time, Cook County homicide detectives replied "We're looking into it. They just keep getting more creative every day".
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JPPT's Faithful Thoughts and Devotions (3)

JPPT1974's Thurs Thoughts 11/13/2025:
We all enjoy seasons that
Are like Autumn or fall and
Spring, summer, and/or winter
As that we will like one season
Dislike the other but that there
Are seasons besides the change of the
Weather that we will feel like when our
Lives are in a unbearable predicament.
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The Pharisees are winning

Hive minds are problematic no matter the source. Including religion. Christians were told to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness. But they’ve chosen to follow men instead and confusion is the result. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

~bella
Whoa now sister!!! If you believe the Catholic Church has "hive minds" mentality in it then you must also believe God and His kingdom has a "hive minds" mentality. So why do you follow God then since you think the "hive minds" mentality is a bad thing? As Catholics, we "seek the Kingdom of God" too. And anything that is not covered in the Bible, the traditions and teachings of the Catholic Church cover the topics. Where do you get your answers of things not covered in the Bible? Your own interpretation of the Bible? What if that interpretation differs from the next person interpreting the Bible? There is nothing wrong with the "hive minds" mentality when the people interpreting the Bible have been given that power by Jesus Himself.

There are many things in the Bible and things that are not in the Bible that cause confusion among the faithful about God's righteousness and I am very glad to know that the Catholic Church has God's backing on how to understand those things.
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Do any of you follow MAGA theology?

Though "worship" can be a misused term many Trump supporters do allow Trump to lead them away from following Jesus. Which would be a form of worship. It's like Pope Leo's call to treat immigrants with compassion. Many on the right, that are regular church goers, reject that idea and condemn the Pope for what he says.
I worry about what I do.
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Anyone up for a chat thread?

Veteran's Day is this Tuesday in the US. Thankfully, church was not hoo-rah patriotic nationalist faux religion today. We didn't even sing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" or "My Country Tis of Thee." Pastor Al did insert a couple of thematically appropriate petitions in the Prayers of the People, which is fine and about what I tend to do myself if left to my own devices. I thought his petition for "those who have been maimed in body or mind" was poignant.
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Fulton J. Sheen’s Guide to Victory over Vice

Fulton Sheen’s Victory over Vice is a joy to read and a nightmare to review. Why? It is so quotable. The matter is made worse by the fact that it is a relatively short book. There is no padding, no excess, just thought provoking prose, judicious observation, and interesting anecdote.

Is there anyone reading this who has not heard of Fulton Sheen? The man was a priest and a bishop, but his legacy remains chiefly around his gift as a communicator. He gave sermons, wrote books, and proclaimed the Gospel in ways one would expect of a man of his calling, but there was something else besides. He was one of the first to see the potential of the media. For many, the chief form of media in the 1930s was radio, so he started the Catholic Radio Hour. It was a great success. By the 1950s, it was television that was in the ascendant, so he started a show there that ended up being broadcast on networks across America. Using both media, he was able to access people’s free time, enter their living rooms, present his ideas at the very center of the family home. One can only imagine how excited and active he would be with the possibilities offered by the Digital Age.

Continued below.

What Jesus Said About Adam and Eve

Doesn’t this suggest that the Adam and Eve story is less important than many Christians think it is?
Quite often we refer to fictional characters as though they were nonfictional. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, for example because they provide powerful analogies, figurative expressions of our human reality. I was talking with a friend who believes that even the parables describe literal historical events.

So where do we draw the line between literal historical and figurative? That is up to each of us and the churches we belong to.
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prayer for suicide attempt

My young niece tried to commit suicide yesterday, and has had depression her family found out. Pray for her sister too who has anxiety and sometimes turns to alcohol. Praying for a new home for her, my suicidal niece, and that she gets Christian counseling :heart:
Praying for you and your whole family. My heart goes out to you. My sister did the same and landed herself in ICU. :praying:
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Does Regeneration Precede Faith?

The connection to verse 20 doesn't exclude verses 25-26 or 35-36. It explains what triggered the entire discourse. The arrival of the Greeks in verse 20 is the narrative catalyst:

"Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip... and asked him, 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.'" (John 12:20-21)​
John deliberately isolates this event: "Now there were some Greeks..." (δὲ marks a narrative transition). He draws attention to them as a separate narrative unit before Jesus speaks again. The significance of it is that this is the first explicit mention of Gentiles seeking Jesus in John's Gospel. Up to this point, Jesus' ministry has been almost entirely within Israel. There had been occasional foreshadowings of Gentile inclusion (e.g., John 4:42), but this is the first time Gentiles are physically present and requesting audience with Jesus.

Jesus "answers them" (ἀποκρίνεται αὐτοῖς) in verse 23, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." The Greeks' arrival is what provokes this declaration. It is the event that marks the shift from "My hour has not yet come" (2:4; 7:30; 8:20) to "The hour has come" (12:23). So the arrival of these Gentiles signifies the transition from a Jewish-restricted mission to a universal one. Everything that follows Jesus' declaration in v. 23 unfolds as His theological exposition of this turning point.

Verses 25-26 develop the implications of His glorification (the necessity of death leading to life), while verse 32 gives its climactic significance: He being "lifted up" will effect a drawing of all kinds of people: Jew and Gentile alike, not Jew only. That's why John mentions the Greeks at all. They are the narrative signal that the redemptive focus is expanding beyond Israel.

The logic of the discourse is:

vv. 20-23 - The Greeks arrive --> "the hour has come."
vv. 24-26 - The principle of life through death (the grain of wheat).
vv. 27-33 - The meaning of Christ's death: the cross as the means of universal (not Jewish-only) gospel appeal.
vv. 35-36 - The closing exhortation: believe in the Light while it is among you.

The meaning of "draws" (ἑλκύω) and the scope of those drawn are not determined by the exhortation. In this context, the verb concerns the inclusion of all kinds of people; that is, kinds without distinction, not individuals without exception. Jesus is announcing the ingathering of both Jews and Gentiles into one redeemed people, not the universal salvation (or attempt at it) of every individual. Moreover, the semantic core of ἑλκύω is forceful or powerful, not merely inviting. The core idea it expresses is the decisive movement from one state or sphere to another. Thus, when Jesus declares, "I will draw all people to myself," He is not describing a mere attempt to persuade; He is proclaiming the certain efficacy of His redemptive work: the power of the cross to extend through the gospel to all nations and to bring people of every kind to genuine faith in Him. If that "drawing" is taken to refer to individuals without exception, the text would be teaching universalism.
And again no explanation of verse 36 although you did mention the first 5 words of the verse but cleverly omitted the part about believing in order to become sons of Light.

“While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.”
‭‭John‬ ‭12‬:‭36‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬
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A perspective on Baptism and the plan of salvation that I have not heard before

I have prayed and thought of this thread and the reasons I wanted to discuss it here. We all want to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. He states, I am the Alpha AND the Omega, the first and the last.

Revelation 1:8

8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty


Baptism is a sign for His believers.
Matthew 28:19-20

Baptism is described as the circumcision of Christ.
Colossians 2:11-12

Water was present on the first day. Genesis1:2
Circumcision was to occur on the eighth day.
Leviticus 12:3

Water is important to God as He says it is life giving. See scriptures

Psalm 1
Isaiah 35
Isaiah 43
Isaiah 55
Isaiah 58
Jeremiah 17
Ezekiel 47

John 4
John 7
Apocolypse (Revelation) 22:1-2

John 7 describes the Holy Spirit as the river of living water, while revelation says the river flows from the throne of God AND the Lamb
Filioque?

Scripture tells us that there will be theological disagreements and variances of understanding, yet it says whatever we do, we do from the heart as for God and not men (paraphrase) Col 3:23

We are not here to lord ourselves over one another. The Sabbath came after creation, not at the beginning. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, not the end only. The Sabbath was a sign of the Old Covenant. Jesus chose water to represent the New Covenant and told us we must be born of water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of Heaven. John 3

Water represents the first day of creation and baptism the circumcision if heart on the eighth day. The Sabbath is not to be profaned, but it has been fulfilled. We are no longer limited to worshipping God in the temple on the Sabbath, but can now worship Him in spirit and in truth any time and anywhere. Matthew 18:20

Life comes from Christ, not obeying the Old Covenant. Galatians 3:11


People may disagree with the Catholic Church due to their personal opinion, but the teaching of the Catholic Church is thoroughly based in Scripture.
Calling her the harlot of Babylon or Sunday worship the mark of the beast is presumptuous and misleading. The sacraments all point to Christ whom we worship. Our honor of Mary amplifies the Word of God as described in Gen 3:15. Mary says that her soul amplifies the Lord. She does not detract from Him

There is no scriptural cause to oppose the Catholic Church. Personal opinion may give one cause, but personal opinion does not a scriptural reason make. 2Peter 1:20

Pray for the salvation of all men for the greater glory of God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit

This is absolutely correct, there is no basis for calling the Roman Catholic Church the harlot of Babylon or any of the other obscene things that people have said about it, such as accusing it of having killed 120 million people as one member claimed, or accusing it of being responsible for censorship on the Internet (yes, someone actually said that).

This is not to say the Roman Catholic Churches has not committed grievous actions, for example, the martyrdom of St. Peter the Aleut*, a 15 year old Aleutian boy who was on a fishing expedition to California who was arrested along with his fellow Aleutians because the Franciscans felt threatened by his Russian Orthodoxy, and he received the crown of martyrdom for refusing to renounce it. St. Peter the Aleut, pray for us!

However, the important thing is that the Roman Catholic Church made amends for these actions, it apologized for these errors under Pope St. John Paul II, it has returned relics to the Orthodox church, even those which were given to it for safekeeping at the onset of Turkocratia such as the head of St. Andrew the Apostle, which itself is a noble act, since the Roman church preserved the relics of the Orthodox church and then returned them in the late 20th century, and the Roman Catholic Church from a doctrinal perspective is mostly correct, differing from the Orthodox Church on only a small number of issues such as the aforementioned question of the exact nature of the conception of the Theotokos or the actual powers of the Bishop of Rome. In terms of Roman Catholic Eucharistic doctrine, and the veneration of icons and relics and Our Glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary, the Roman church is correct, likewise her sacramental theology is substantially the same as the Orthodox church, and her more ancient liturgies, such as the Traditional Latin Mass according to the Tridentine, Dominican, Ambrosian, Mozarabic, Norbertine, Carmelite and related uses, are on a par with the liturgies of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox church in terms of beauty.

*Coincidentally, the place of his martyrdom was San Pedro, most likely the San Pedro near Los Angeles, and not that near San Francisco.
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Trump federalizing DC police, deploying National Guard in capital crime crackdown

Yeah, that is actually the point. It really does sound like something made up that you'd read in The Onion. But he really did say something that made him look ridiculous.

Did you only just realise this?
Like I have said, repeatedly, sandwich guy should have been charged with disorderly conduct or let go with a warning.
The testimony was ridiculous
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Proton Mail

Can you post the article here for us to read?


I've never heard that criminals use it. But it's possible. My experience has been they use Gmail or they try to make their email address look like it's from a legitimate source (like Microsoft or a bank).

I have Proton myself and I love it. I have one of the paid versions and I have multiple email addresses just for one account. I know on one of the paid subscriptions, you can do a custom email domain if you want to. You can look into that.
I read several articles some months ago, I don't remember exactly what they were, but it was stuff similar to this:

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