(RNS) — With the abundance of legal codes, death and, well, genocide, the story of Moses’ journey through the desert isn’t exactly begging to be made into a comedy.

But “The Promised Land” does just that. Written and directed by Mitch Hudson — a crew member for “The Chosen,” the popular film series depicting Jesus’ life — “The Promised Land” leans into the irony baked into the biblical narrative, using the “mockumentary” style made famous by hits like “The Office,” “Parks and Rec” and “Abbott Elementary.”

The pilot episode, which has racked up over 140,000 Instagram followers and 450,000 views since it debuted on YouTube two weeks ago, features Moses dealing with every absurd complaint the Israelites bring to him. For starters:

• “This water is too bitter.”
• “My son is 14 and he won’t move out.”
• “What do I do about this pestilent growth on my foot?”

Meanwhile, Moses’ sister Miriam has decided she’s a musical prodigy, and there’s an escaped Egyptian soldier in the camp trying desperately — and hilariously — to go undetected.

Continued below.

VATICAN NEWS (CNS) — In order to be compassionate and respond best to the needs of others, it is necessary to take time to relax and not be anxious about getting things done, Pope Francis said.

It is also a “social injustice” when working parents hardly see their children because of long hours away from home, he said, before praying the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square on July 21. “In families, fathers and mothers should have time to share with their children, to let love grow within their family and in order not to fall into the dictatorship of doing.”

Rest and compassion​

The pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark (6:30-34) about Jesus telling the apostles to rest after their return from their mission of preaching and healing. However, when Jesus saw the vast crowd that had gathered, “his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things,” the verse says.

The pope said, “On the one hand, there is an invitation to rest, and on the other, Jesus’ compassion for the crowd.” Resting and being compassionate “may seem like two incompatible things, while they actually go together.”

“Only if we learn how to rest can we have compassion. Indeed, it is only possible to have a compassionate gaze, which knows how to respond to the needs of others, if our heart is not consumed by the anxiety of doing, if we know how to stop and how to receive the grace of God, in the silence of adoration,” he said.

Dictatorship of doing​

Continued below

Beautiful!!

Here's something else to seriously consider:
Romans 11:22 kjv

"Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

They are born again children of God, that have left the faith. they probably went back to the system of Judaism.

Vambram said:

I have enjoyed and been blessed by the Newsboys and also MercyMe for over 20 years. Both those bands have a lot of great songs. I still have a good collection of old cd's from them. I am glad that there's some men in your generation who still listen to MercyMe and the Newsboys.

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Hey, young people can be old souls, my brother. Right now, I have to get ready for work, but maybe I can find some 1980s-2000s Christian playlist at work on my work headphones. Classics...

Nah, he didn’t like their legalism. Something I need to keep in mind

tonychanyt said:

Matthew 5:


Jesus warned against careless, frivolous, or vain swearing. People in his time routinely abused swearing.


Note that Jesus did not say that do not swear by God.


For routine matters, no need to swear. Just be honest.

Mat 26:


On this occasion, Jesus did not tell the high priest not to swear. He responded to the high priest swearing.


To convince the hearers of the speaker's seriousness, there are special occasions for true swearing. 2 Corinthians 1:


2 Corinthians 11:


Galatians 1:


Can a Christian swear an oath?

Yes, swearing before a judge is okay. A marriage vow is okay.

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The only bow that I have taken was my wedding vow. I do not take vows in court.

Chris V++ said:

I know what you mean. Life is too short.

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Well, life is somewhat long, but we are occupied with work, technology, and not enough time in a year.

Paidiske said:

Don't get me wrong, it's a breath of fresh air to hear someone being positive about women in ministry for a change. And he does make some points I would take seriously.

But I have said before - if not on CF, then definitely elsewhere - that ordaining women, while it might be good and proper in its own right, is not a panacea. Churches that ordain women still have all the problems we had before, and all the problems that churches which don't ordain women have. In itself it doesn't fix everything else, because we're human...

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It's a case of having to be there to understand it.

I think spiritually mature men aren't threatened by women, and there's something defective baked into a religion if you say that women belong only in a narrow defined set of spaces.

christian-surfer said:

They shorted it by a huge amount, then claimed it was a mistake and got their money back

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Had Trump died they would have made billions. Somebody knew something and it didn’t go according to plan. Any small time investor would never get money back from this kind of transaction. I smell a rat in this. This was no mistake it was a miscalculation.

LayHong_Loves_Christ said:

How did ancient people teach their children to study?
Did they have education system?
Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses etc., did they send their children to school?
Did they teach their children how to speak and write?

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As far as Adam was concerned, there would have been just his own children, and the question arises, if he sent them to school, who would be the teachers? We don't read in the bible of Adam, Noah and Moses sending children to school. I imagine parents would have taught their own children - this was certainly true as far as things about God were concerned. For example, God said to the Israelites:

“6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (De 6:6-7 NKJV)

tonychanyt said:

After the resurrection, near the end of the book of Matthew, Jesus said in 28:


Some realized Jesus' divinity.


has been given
Ἐδόθη (Edothē)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1325: To offer, give; I put, place. A prolonged form of a primary verb; to give.

Didn't the pre-existent Christ have all authority before?

Right. Php 2:


Why was Jesus given authority then?


Between the time he was born and died, his authority was limited. After the resurrection, he resumed his full divine authority.


If Jesus had all authority with Father from the beginning, why was more authority given to him in Mt 28:18?

Jesus' authority as a man was temporarily limited. After the resurrection, he resumed his full divine authority.

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Yeshua is theos/elohim, the Word incarnate, has full divine authority and in Him the fullness of deity dwells (Colossians 1:19, Colossians 2:9), yet there are many verses that signal His authority is still different from God the Father:

• God the Father is still also the God of Yeshua (Micah 5: 3-5, Matthew 27:46, John 20:17, Romans 15:6, 2 Corinthians 11:31, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 1:17, Hebrews 10:5-7, 1 Peter 1:3)
• God (= the Father) is the head of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3)
• Yeshua currently is seated at the right hand of God (=YHWH) (Psalm 110:1, Mark 14:19, Acts 7:55, Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 8:1, Hebrews 10:12, 1 Peter 3:22)
• Yeshua prays / intercedes for us / is the High Priest (between mankind and God) (Romans 8:34, Hebrews 8:1
• Yeshua is the way to the Father - the Father is the goal (John 14:6, Ephesians 2:18, Hebrews 13:15)
• God the Father is greater than Yeshua (John 14:28, John 13:16, John 6:38)
• Yeshua in all He does acts/speaks on command of His Father - He is under he full authority of God the Father (John 5:30)

YHWH is the very name of God (=the Father) forever (Isaiah 42:8). Yeshua is the name of the Messiah, the Son of God.

The One who sends/gives/is head is always higher in authority than the one who is sent/receives/is in submission. The Hebrew concept of Shaliah may help to understand and describe the relationship between Yeshua and God His (and our) Father. From the Wikipedia page: shaliah, literally 'emissary' or 'messenger' is a legal agent. In practice the shaliaḥ for a person is as this person himself.

Yeshua was given all power in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18-20)
Yeshua was given a name above all names (John 17:11, Philippians 2:9, Hebrews 1:4)

Yeshua works on behalf of God the Father (=YHWH) but in practice He is as YHWH Himself.

I'm not American but it seemed to me it was just a matter of time.

You don't have a great choice in my uninvolved opinion - Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.

But time will tell. In the end you only get one vote out of millions.

The house of the Lord is the temple of God, which is the body of Christ, which is comprised of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their lives. It is not a building, and it is not a human organization, nor a church denomination, nor is it a not-for-profit corporation of the federal government of the USA, or of any other country.

The church is a living organism with Christ as her head. And the sanctuary of God is within the lives of Christ’s followers. God does not dwell in buildings built by human hands. Thus, when we enter into a building called “church,” we are NOT entering God’s house nor have we suddenly walked into the presence of God, because God’s presence lives within us who obey him, and he is always with us. And we, the people of God, are the Lord’s house.

So, if zeal for the Lord’s house consumes us, it means that passion and fervor for Christ and for his church, his body, so fills up our lives to where we are fully engaged (involved) and committed to the Lord’s service and to ministering to the needs of his body. We are committed to serving and to ministering to and exhorting and encouraging one another in our walks of faith and in obedience to our Lord in holy living.

It also means that we are fully involved and committed to our personal relationships with Christ, to our times of personal worship with him, and to obedience to his Word. We are entirely dedicated to walking in the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, and to allowing the Lord to use us in other people’s lives according to his will and purposes for our lives.

As well, it means that we feel what God feels, we hate what he hates, and what he loves we love. We weep over all the junk that is presently going on in the world and in the worldly church in the name of God, and in the name of Jesus Christ. So, we will expose these fruitless deeds of darkness so that other believers are not led astray to what is false. And we will pray for revival!

Zeal for Your House

An Original Work / August 1, 2016
Based off Jn. 2:17; Ps. 69:9

Zeal for Your house, it consumes me.
Lord, I love my times with You.
I love to worship You and sing Your praises.
Time in Your Word brings me closer to You,
List’ning to You speaking to me,
Gently guiding me in truth.

Lord, You are my life’s example,
Showing me how I should live.
I love to walk with You where’er You lead me.
No greater joy have I when serving You.
Loving, giving, resting in Your strength,
I’m yielding to Your will.

Zeal for Your house, it consumes me.
See the church turned upside down:
Marketing ventures taking place of worship,
Men of the gospel turning into clowns.
Gospel message made appealing,
So the world will feel at home.

Lord, we need a great revival.
Turn their hearts, Lord, back to You.
Open the blind eyes, turn them all from darkness,
Lord, to the light. May they return to You,
Turn from their sin, forsake idols,
Be restored to God again.

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So, what is the context here? A man within the gatherings of the church was apparently in a sexual relationship with his father’s wife, which could be his mother or his stepmother, but still this was regarded as incest. And this was being tolerated by the church, for no action was being taken against the man. And the church, instead of mourning and grieving over this blatant sin happening amongst them, were proud of their gatherings.

Now this is a long passage of Scripture here in 1 Corinthians 5, so I have divided it up into three sections, and so this devotion will be in three segments, the first of which was “Blatant Sexual Immorality Among You,” which is where I deal more with our current situation in the church, at least here in America, where so many are sexually addicted, but where not much at all is being done to correct the situation, and so lives are being destroyed.

And this destruction of human lives and of the congregation of the saints is what I will cover in this writing, for that is grossly being overlooked and ignored these days. For many are ignoring the damage being done to human lives in order to “draw in large crowds of people” from the world into their gatherings. So they entertain them so that they will come back for more, and they dilute the gospel message to make it more appeasing to the flesh.

And it isn’t as though the leaders of these “church” congregations are not aware of the blatant sexual immorality going on within their members, nor that they are unaware of the destruction that this is causing to marriages and to families. But few seem to want to do anything to correct the situation which has now gotten way out of hand, for the “leaven” has worked its way all throughout these congregations of what are called “churches.”

I see that a few make some effort to correct this by providing self-help groups for men (usually just men) who are addicted to pornography, but many of these groups are following humanistic philosophy and don’t even allow for the reading of the Scriptures nor do they allow for biblical solutions to be taught among them because they don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable or to be offended. So many men continue in addiction.

Now I am not excluding women here. I am just not aware of groups for women having the same issues being provided by church congregations, but there may be. I just don’t know about them. And generally speaking, porn addiction or sexual addiction is more of a male issue than it is a female issue, but there are women and children who are addicted to porn and to other sexual deviances and practices which are sinful.

So we have this serious sin addiction and porn addiction situation ongoing within the gatherings of the church. And the leaders do know what is going on, at least generally speaking, though they may not know all the specifics. But it appears that few are taking action to remove from their congregations those who have had plenty of time to repent but who have continued on in their addictions, some of them for a lifetime, if truth be told.

And little appears to be being done to work with these broken marriages and these households to help them to come out from underneath their bondage to sin or to rescue those who are not living in sin but who are subject to the abuses of those who are living in addictive sin and so are sinning against their family members. And often or sometimes the spouse of the addicted is treated as the enemy if he/she dares to try to get help for their situation.

Often or sometimes the counsel given is just to leave the addict, but that isn’t the biblical solution, and that only puts more hardship and more suffering on the ones who are subject to abuse by the addicted. And so the spouse feels abandoned, not only by the addicted, but by church leadership who are supposed to be there to help and to heal and to not cast off. And sometimes the leadership just heaps even more abuse on the spouse of the addicted.

So all of this is the opposite of what it is supposed to be. But honestly, if “the church” literally did a “house cleaning” today of all those who are living in sin, in practice, who have had plenty of opportunity to change, but who have continued in their addictive practices, I fear there would not be too many people left in the gatherings. For so many are following a diluted gospel which is giving them permission to keep on sinning without feeling guilty.

But we as the body of Christ are biblically responsible before God to be addressing these issues, and to be calling for repentance, and to be calling for our leaders to be pure in heart and mind and behaviors themselves so that they can clean out the old leaven so that the church may be a “new lump” for God’s purposes and for his glory in walks of holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord and no longer in deliberate sin.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

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Oh, how hearts breaking.
Sinners are faking,
Lies they are making,
Love they’re forsaking.
Broken hearts aching.

Liars pretending,
And not hearts mending,
And not love sending,
Sin they’re defending,
Truth they are bending.

Shooting their arrows,
Not good bedfellows,
Not on road narrow,
Lies they do swallow,
All this foreshadowed.

Immoral are they,
E’en though they do pray,
But faithful not stay,
In practice they stray,
From then to this day.

Their words not believe,
For they do deceive,
No pardon receive,
Their sins do not grieve,
Their idols they cleave.

They lie and abuse,
And others misuse,
Repentance refuse,
With lies they amuse,
Their sin they now choose.

The hurting forsaken,
Advantage of taken,
And now they’re awakened,
Although they are shaken,
In Christ’s love partaking.

An Original Work / September 15, 2022

Sexual immorality is on the rise and is at enormous proportions even among those calling themselves Christians, at least here in America it is. With the invention of the internet and then smartphones, most anyone has 24 hour a day, 7 days a week, access to a whole world of evil, in particular to a whole world of sexual immorality and deviation. Surely we are living in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah or the days of Noah before God flooded the earth.

Our men have been so emasculated by pornography and all forms of entertainment promoting sexual deviation and/or sexual immorality and sexually explicit material and adultery that it appears there are not many godly men left among us who truly fit the biblical qualifications of overseer or deacon. And this isn’t just about men. Many women and children are now caught up in these types of things, too, and it is on the rise.

And what is being done to stop it? Not much, from what I can ascertain. Even if some institutional churches have programs, usually for men, to help them overcome sexual addiction, often times these are not being led under the power of the Holy Spirit and in accord with the Holy Scriptures, but they are following the psychology and humanistic thinking and reasoning of human flesh, and so some of these groups just continue to enable them.

And so we have many statistical records on this subject which vary from group to group, but all of which have very high counts of Christian men, including pastors, who regularly visit porn sites. And this is not including all the other avenues of sexually explicit entertainment and activities readily available at the touch of a fingertip on a smartphone in the corner of a room where no one else can see what you are looking at.

And so is it any wonder that the gospel of Christ and the character of God have now been so diluted to where they are barely recognizable in comparison to what the Scriptures teach? And the gospel has been altered with the express purpose of not offending human flesh and in order to not condemn those who choose to make sexual immorality or any other sin listed in the Scriptures as their addiction of choice.

And so they teach them that a confession of faith alone forgives all sins, even future sins, but without genuine repentance and without walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commandments. So they go on living in sin, believing all their sins are forgiven and that heaven is now guaranteed them, but regardless of how they live. So there is no motivation to change. And very few are telling them of the consequences if they do not change.

So we don’t see much mourning over sin anymore. The focus seems rather to help alleviate any feelings of guilt for the one who is living in sexual addiction or in any other sinful addiction deliberately, without conscience. And few want to even hear about this or to have it mentioned because it makes them uncomfortable and it is not “positive” and they want everything positive, and the feel-good stuff is what is being preferred.

And so the vast majority of what are called “churches” here in America are indeed tolerating blatant sexual immorality going on within “the church” amongst its “members” by hushing it up, and sometimes making the spouse of the addict out as the enemy if he/she dares to bring up the subject and to try to get help. And so the addicts go from bad to worse, and marriages are being destroyed and families are falling apart, but “the church” is happy.

And I am certainly not saying that this represents every congregation of people in America who call their gatherings “church.” But from all outward appearances it appears that this represents the majority of them. And this is HUGE!! But it brings in large crowds of people from the world when you hide these truths and when you hide the truth of the gospel from them so that the world will be at home in your gatherings. But God forbid!!

But what is the church supposed to be doing? The church is supposed to pronounce judgment on those who are living in sin and who are living in adultery and in sexual immorality. And I am not saying that we must condemn everyone who might sometimes sin. But the Bible makes it clear that these things are not to exist among us and that we are to purge ourselves of these things so that we can live holy lives pleasing to God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Should I Not Preach Jesus

An Original Work / July 4, 2013
Based off 1 Corinthians 9:16-10:13

Woe to me should I not preach Jesus.
I’m compelled to preach the full gospel.
I make myself a slave to ev’ryone
To win their hearts to Christ.
All this I do for my Lord Jesus,
And for the sake of His Name;
Do it for the sake of His gospel,
So that I, its blessings gain.

Scripture notates the sins of others;
Written down for us as examples
To keep us from setting our hearts
On evil as did those of old.
Do not worship other gods of man;
Do not give your hearts to them;
Not partake in immorality.
Do not test your Lord and King.

So, be careful if you think you are
Standing firm in your faith in Jesus.
God has given his word to warn us,
So through faith we will not fall.
No temptation has o’ertaken you
Except what is commonplace.
God is faithful to not let you be
Tempted past what you can bear.
He gives the way of escape.

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I'm also continuing Shy, Tower of God, and Our Last Crusade, along with NieR Automata.

ATRI -My Dear Moments-
This one's about a guy who finds and inherits a cute android girl. They live in a time where the ocean levels have risen to cover coastal cities, probably due to global warming.

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies
A comedy romance with a high-ranking member of an organization devoted to world domination falling for a cute but dysfunctional magical girl.

No Longer Allowed in Another World
A comedy isekei. A nihilistic poet tries to commit double suicide, but he ends up in another world. He keeps trying to commit suicide there too, but his new, powerful female companions do their best to keep him alive as he keeps inadvertently solving problems.

Wistoria: Wand and Sword
A young man tries to succeed at a magic academy despite being unable to cast magic spells. He relies on skill, knowledge, and physical prowess, and hopes to earn the right to go where his elf girlfriend is.

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools
An isekai where a young woman is reincarnated in a magical world. She commits herself to creating useful magical items, many inspired by her former life.

A Nobody's Way Up to an Exploration Hero
Somehow modern Earth now has access to D&D style dungeons. One guy goes it alone in the dungeons, and isn't very good at it, but he gets lucky and finds a couple very useful summoned allies.

The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Becomes Invincible
Yeah, he's a 30-something guy who got a late start in adventuring in his standard fantasy world, and can't cast higher level spells, but he is still waaaay better than his fellow rookies thanks to his insane training.

I start the day, the war begins
Endless reminding of my sin
And time and time again
Your truth is drowned out by the storm I'm in

IceJad said:

Mention it not, for we are all in the body of Christ.

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Amen to that.

Lord we pray for the nation of Bangladesh that peace and calm be returned. We pray for wisdom for the leaders to make wiser policies. We pray for the Bangladeshi people that they may find recourse from any unfair laws and regulations in peaceful manners. We uphold this nation to You Lord, Amen.

Our Father in heaven,

We come to You to uphold Multifavs and family in prayer. Place upon the mother Your healing hands. Grant her relief in times of pain and discomfort. Strengthen her body Lord that she may recover from her illness. We ask too for Your grace to be upon Multifavs. Let Your Presence be felt in her troubled times, a leading hand on uncertain paths and a piecing light during clouded minds.

Grant Lord Your protection and grace on the whole family. In the name of Jesus we ask, Amen.

Hello folks. Today marks the second installment in the hymn per week series, which will happen on most weekends. Today is an 18th century hymn known as God Himself is Present. All hymns are freely available from the Open Hymnal Project.

Open Hymnal Project (2014 Hymnal PDF): http://openhymnal.org/OpenHymnal2014.06.pdf



Video (Lutheran hymn, but works well for all denominations including Catholics):
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