Showing posts with label Atheism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atheism. Show all posts

Thursday 4 February 2016

Finding dachas to live in peace


Change in traditional settlement forms in Russia continued
When we read the old Russian literature we can see that the folks in Russia went from one place to the other. Many Russians still are nomads at heart,
something that “radically distinguishes them from [their] European neighbors who tend to live in one place only. Russians on the other hand may live in Arkhangelsk but work elsewhere in central Russia or the Far East much of the year.
From those many Russian stories we do have lots of ideas of those dachas. "Dacha" is one of those Russian words ("dacha" derives from the Russian verb "to give," dat') which entered many languages, giving people many dreams about that what seems to be more than just a place.
it is a phenomenon that defies translation. {Putting the Dacha in Its Place}
The dacha made itself integral to Russian life and culture. It is not any-more that what began as a token of elite status. Today society has totally changed
 
The dramatic increase in the number of dacha owners – now some 60 million people – and the concomitant growth of the 40 to 50 million people who support them represent another aspect of life outside traditional Russian cities and villages. Such people are often far more numerous on any given territory than are the original residents. {Rural Russia is alive and well}

In the cities people are seen and noticed also by federal institutions. There the state has still a lot in control. Outside the cities the state control seems to be less. That makes that those who do prefer an other way of living, than the previous state structures imposed on their citizens, escape to the country.

In the rural areas we may find more people who do not adhere to the traditional thought. We may find more people who have stepped away from communism, atheism but also from Russian Orthodox Church. As such in the rural areas you may find several Christadelphians doing everything to survive according to the Will of the Most High. Also the Jehovah Witnesses may find it easier to live in such areas. Furthermore we can find many sectarians who also found their way to the countryside.

There are some 10 million sectarians and almost as many more agriculturalists who often take over villages that have become vacant. In many cases, both groups remain “’outside the state’s field of vision.’” But they are very much there in fact.
Many of these new or new-old settlements have no official status. That often means that any structures that are erected have no official status and that those who live “outside the state” are at least formally without the social services other Russians receive. {Rural Russia is alive and well}
mol_169629_big2
> Please do read more about what, for the last decade, Simon Kordonsky with his group of scholars at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics found by investigating what rural Russia is like, why it is now so different from what it was in the past, and why because of these changes Moscow often fails to take it into account in its approach to the country.
 > Rural Russia is alive and well
>>Кочевой образ жизни помогает выжить российской глубинке

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Thursday 19 February 2015

American religious right will be quaking in their boots

Pie chart of religions of African Americans
Pie chart of religions of African Americans (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The religious right will be quaking in their boots, or perhaps saying that atheists are lying, when they read a new report (PDF) from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life. A third of Millennials, particularly the under 30 group, are declaring themselves religiously unaffiliated. That is an unprecedented number, and it is on the rise. Right now, according to Pew, 46,000,000 Americans are non-religious. Now, more than ever, America is on the road to eradicating religion. Perhaps the rabidly religious know this, too, which could be why there has been so much gnashing of teeth regarding “sins” such as abortion and marriage equality lately.
writes  in

Pew Research Report: A Third Of Millienials Have No Religion



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Wednesday 18 June 2014

Full text of Pope Francis' Interview with 'La Vanguardia'

.- In an interview granted with Spanish-language magazine "La Vanguardia" on Monday, Pope Francis lauded Pius XII for his efforts in saving Jews, discussed Orthodox-Catholic relations, as well as the motivations behind his prayer meeting at the Vatican last Sunday.

Below, please find the full text of his interview in English:


Interview with Pope Francis: “One has to take the secession of a nation with grain of salt.”

“Our world economic system can’t take it anymore,” says the Bishop of Rome in an interview with La Vanguardia. “I’m no illumined one. I didn’t bring any personal projects under my arm.” “We are throwing away an entire generation to maintain a system that isn’t good,” he opines with respect to unemployed youth.

“The persecuted Christians are a concern that touches me very deeply as a pastor. I know a lot about persecutions but it doesn’t seem prudent to talk about them here so I don’t offend anyone. But in some places it is prohibited to have a Bible or teach the catechism or wear a cross… What I would like to be clear on is one thing, I am convinced that the persecution against Christians today is stronger than in the first centuries of the Church. Today there are more Christian martyrs than in that period. And, it's not because of fantasy, it’s because of the numbers."

Pope Francis received us last Monday in the Vatican - a day after the prayer for peace with the presidents of Israel and Palestine - for this exclusive interview with “La Vanguardia.” The Pope was happy to have done everything possible for understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.
Violence in the name of God dominates the Middle East.

It's a contradiction. Violence in the name of God does not correspond with our time. It's something ancient. With historical perspective, one has to say that Christians, at times, have practiced it. When I think of the Thirty Years War, there was violence in the name of God. Today it is unimaginable, right? We arrive, sometimes, by way of religion to very serious, very grave contradictions. Fundamentalism, for example. The three religions, we have our fundamentalist groups, small in relation to all the rest.

And, what do you think about fundamentalism?

A fundamentalist group, although it may not kill anyone, although it may not strike anyone, is violent. The mental structure of fundamentalists is violence in the name of God.

Some say that you are a revolutionary.

We should call the great Mina Mazzini, the Italian singer, and tell her “take this hand, gypsy” and have her read into my past, to see what [she finds]. (He laughs) For me, the great revolution is going to the roots, recognizing them and seeing what those roots have to say to us today. There is no contradiction between [being a] revolutionary and going to the roots. Moreso even, I think that the way to make true changes is identity. You can never take a step in life if it’s not from behind, without knowing where I come from, what last name I have, what cultural or religious last name I have.

You have broken many security protocols to bring yourself closer to the people.

I know that something could happen to me, but it’s in the hands of God. I remember that in Brazil they had prepared a closed Popemobile for me, with glass, but I couldn’t greet the people and tell them that I love them from within a sardine tin. Even if it’s made of glass, for me that is a wall. It’s true that something could happen to me, but let’s be realistic, at my age I don’t have much to lose.  

Why is it important that the Church be poor and humble?

Poverty and humility are at the center of the Gospel and I say it in a theological sense, not in a sociological one. You can't understand the Gospel without poverty, but we have to distinguish it from pauperism. I think that Jesus wants us bishops not to be princes but servants.

What can the Church do to reduce the growing inequality between the rich and the poor?

It’s proven that with the food that is left over we could feed the people who are hungry. When you see photographs of undernourished kids in different parts of the world, you take your head in your hand, it incomprehensible. I believe that we are in a world economic system that isn’t good. At the center of all economic systems must be man, man and woman, and everything else must be in service of this man. But we have put money at the center, the god of money. We have fallen into a sin of idolatry, the idolatry of money.

The economy is moved by the ambition of having more and, paradoxically, it feeds a throwaway culture. Young people are thrown away when their natality is limited. The elderly are also discarded because they don’t serve any use anymore, they don’t produce, this passive class… In throwing away the kids and elderly, the future of a people is thrown away because the young people are going to push forcefully forward and because the elderly give us wisdom. They have the memory of that people and they have to pass it on to the young people. And now also it is in style to throw the young people away with unemployment. The rate of unemployment is very worrisome to me, which in some countries is over 50%. Someone told me that 75 million young Europeans under 25 years of age are unemployed. That is an atrocity. But we are discarding an entire generation to maintain an economic system that can’t hold up anymore, a system that to survive must make war, as the great empires have always done. But as a Third World War can’t be done, they make zonal wars. What does this mean? That they produce and sell weapons, and with this the balance sheets of the idolatrous economies, the great world economies that sacrifice man at the feet of the idol of money, obviously they are sorted. This unique thought takes away the wealth of diversity of thought and therefore the wealth of a dialogue between peoples. Well understood globalization is a wealth. Poorly understood globalization is that which nullifies differences. It is like a sphere in which all points are equidistant from the center. A globalization that enriches is like a polyhedron, all united but each preserving its particularity, its wealth, its identity, and this isn’t given. And this does not happen.

Does the conflict between Catalunya and Spain worry you?

All division worries me. There is independence by emancipation and independence by secession. The independences by emancipation, for example, are American, that they were emancipated from the European States. The independences of nations by secession is a dismemberment, sometimes it’s very obvious. Let’s think of the former Yugoslavia. Obviously, there are nations with cultures so different that couldn’t even be stuck together with glue. The Yugoslavian case is very clear, but I ask myself if it is so clear in other cases. Scotland, Padania, Catalunya. There will be cases that will be just and cases that will not be just, but the secession of a nation without an antecedent of mandatory unity, one has to take it with a lot of grains of salt and analyze it case by case.

The prayer for peace from Sunday wasn’t easy to organize nor did it have precedents in the Middle East nor in the world. How did you feel?

You know that it wasn’t easy because you were there, and much of that achievement is due to you. I felt that it was something that can accidentally happen to all of us. Here, in the Vatican,99% said it would not happen and then the 1% started to grow. I felt that we were feeling pushed towards something that had not occurred to us and that, little by little, started to take shape. It was not at all a political act - I felt that from the beginning - but it was rather a religious act: opening a window to the world.

Why did you choose to place yourself in the eye of the hurricane, the Middle East?

The true eye of the hurricane, due to the enthusiasm that there was, was the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro last year. I decided to go to the Holy Land because President Peres invited me. I knew that his mandate would finish this Spring, so I felt obliged, in some way, to go beforehand. His invitation accelerated the trip. I did not think of doing it.

Why is it important for every Christian to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land?

Because of revelation. For us, it all started there. It is like “heaven on earth.” A foretaste of what awaits us hereafter, in the heavenly Jerusalem.

You and your friend, the Rabbi Skorka, hugged each other in front of the Western Wall. What importance has that gesture had for the reconciliation between Christians and Jews?

Well, my good friend professor Omar Abu, president of the Institute for Inter-religious Dialogue of Buenos Aires, was also at the Wall. I wanted to invite him. He is a very religious man and a father-of-two. He is also friends with Rabbi Skorka and I love them both a lot, and I wanted that that friendship between the three be seen as a witness.

You told me a year ago that “within every Christian there is a Jew.”

Perhaps it would be more correct to say “you cannot live your Christianity, you cannot be a real Christian, if you do not recognize your Jewish roots.” I don’t speak of Jewish in the sense of the Semitic race but rather in the religious sense. I think that inter-religious dialogue needs to deepen in this, in Christianity’s Jewish root and in the Christian flowering of Judaism. I understand it is a challenge, a hot potato, but it can be done as brothers. I pray every day the divine office every day with the Psalms of David. We do the 150 psalms in one week. My prayer is Jewish and I have the Eucharist, which is Christian.

How do you see anti-Semitism?

I cannot explain why it happens, but I think it is very linked, in general, and without it being a fixed rule, to the right wing.  Antisemitism usually nests better in right-wing political tendencies that in the left, right? And it still continues (like this). We even have those who deny the holocaust, which is crazy.

One of your projects is to open the Vatican archives on the Holocaust.

They will bring a lot of light. 

Does it worry you something could be discovered?

What worries me regarding this subject is the figure of Pius XII, the Pope that led the Church during World War II. They have said all sorts of things about poor Pius XII. But we need to remember that before he was seen as the great defender of the Jews. He hid many in convents in Rome and in other Italian cities, and also in the residence of Castel Gandolfo. Forty-two babies, children of Jews and other persecuted who sought refuge there were born there, in the Pope’s room, in his own bed. I don’t want to say that Pius XII did not make any mistakes - I myself make many - but one needs to see his role in the context of the time. For example, was it better for him not to speak so that more Jews would not be killed or for him to speak? I also want to say that sometimes I get “existential hives” when I see that everyone takes it out against the Church and Pius XII, and they forget the great powers. Did you know that they knew the rail network of the Nazis perfectly well to take the Jews to concentration camps? They had the pictures. But they did not bomb those railroad tracks. Why? It would be best if we spoke a bit about everything.

Do you still feel like a parish priest or do you assume your role as head of the Church?

The dimension of parish priest is that which most shows my vocation. Serving the people comes from within me. Turn off the lights to not spend a lot of money, for example. They are things that a parish priest does. But I also feel like the Pope. It helps me to do things seriously. My collaborators are very serious and professional. I have help to carry out my duty. One doesn’t need to play the parish priest Pope. It would be immature. When a head of state comes, I have to receive him with the dignity and the protocol that are deserved. It is true that with the protocol I have my problems, but one has to respect it.

You are changing a lot of things. Towards what future are these changes going?

I am no illumined one. I don’t have any personal project that I’ve brought with me under an arm, simply because I never thought that they were going to leave me here, in the Vatican. Everyone knows this. I came with a little piece of luggage to go straight back to Buenos Aires. What I am doing is carrying out what we cardinals reflected upon during the General Congregations, that is to say, in the meetings that, during the conclave, we all maintained every day to discuss the problems of the Church. From there come reflections and recommendations. One very concrete one was that the next Pope had to count on an external council, that is, a team of assessors that didn’t live in the Vatican.

And you created the so-called Council of Eight.

They are eight cardinals from all the continents and a coordinator. They gather every two or three months here. Now, the first of July we have four days of meetings, and we are going to be making the changes that the very cardinals ask of us. It is not obligatory that we do it but it would be imprudent not to listen to those who know.

You have also made a great effort to become closer to the Orthodox Church.

The invitation to Jerusalem from my brother Bartholomew was to commemorate the encounter between Paul VI and Athenagoras I 50 years ago. It was an encounter after more than a thousand years of separation. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has made efforts to become closer and the Orthodox Church has done the same. some orthodox churches are closer than others. I wanted Bartholomew to be with me in Jerusalem and there emerged the plan to also come to the Vatican to pray. For him it was a risky step because they can throw it in his face, but this gesture of humility needed to be extended, and for us it's necessary because it's not conceivable that we Christians are divided, it's a historical sin that we have to repair.

In the face of the advance of atheism, what is your opinion of people who believe that science and religion are mutually exclusive?  

There was a rise in atheism in the most existential age, perhaps Sartrian. But after came a step toward spiritual pursuits, of encounter with God, in a thousand ways, not necessarily the traditional religions. The clash between science and faith peaked in the Enlightenment, but that is not so fashionable today, thank God, because we have all realized the closeness between one thing and the other. Pope Benedict XVI has a good teaching about the relation between science and faith. In general lines, the most recent is that the scientists are very respectful with the faith and the agnostic or atheist scientist says, “I don’t dare to enter that field.”

You have met many Heads of State.  

Many have come and it’s an interesting variety. Each one has their personality. What has called my attention is the cross made between young politicians, whether they are from the center, the left or the right. Maybe they talk about the same problems but with a new music, and this I like, this gives me hope because politics is one of the more elevated forms of love, of charity. Why? Because it leads to the common good, and a person who, [despite] being  able to do it, does not get involved in politics for the common good, is selfish; or that uses politics for their own good, is corrupt. Some fifteen years ago the French bishops wrote a pastoral letter reflecting on the theme “Restoring Politics.” This is a precious text that makes you realize all of these things.

What do you think of the renunciation of Benedict XVI?

Pope Benedict has made a very significant act. He has opened the door, has created an institution, that of the of the eventual popes emeritus. 70 years ago, there were no emeritus bishops. Today how many are there? Well, as we live longer, we arrive to an age where we cannot go on with things. I will do the same as him, asking the Lord to enlighten me when the time comes and that he tell me what I have to do, and and he will tell me for sure.

You have a room reserved in a retirement home in Buenos Aires.  

Yes, its a retirement house for elderly priests. I was leaving the archdiocese at the end of last year and and had already submitted my resignation to Benedict XVI when I turned 75. I chose a room and said “I want to come to live here.” I will work as a priest, helping the parishes. This is what was going to be my future before being Pope.  

I am not going to ask you whom you support in the World Cup….

Brazilians asked me to remain neutral (he laughs) and I  keep my word because Brazil and Argentina are always antagonistic. 

How would you like to be remembered in history?

I have not thought about it, but I like it when someone remembers someone and says: “He was a good guy, he did what he could. He wasn’t so bad.” I’m OK with that.

Read more:

http://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20140612/54408951579/entrevista-papa-francisco.html#ixzz34VC9wXkh  

This text was translated from the original Spanish by CNA's Alan Holdren, Estefania Augirre and Elise Harris.

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Hello America and atheists

In response to the article

ATHEISTS EXPOSED! shared by Greg Liebig Sr.

I wrote a reply which I also would like to share with you here.

In the article the author does like he is God writing to the people of the United states of America.

“First, let it be known, that I created each and every person on this planet; also, That I Love Each And Every One Of Them. Furthermore, let it be known unto them, that I have a purpose for them now, during the millennial reign of my Son Jesus (Yeshua) and Then Throught All Eternity!
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - NARA - 515673
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - NARA - 515673 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“My precious humans are eternal spiritual beings: yes, for the time being they are in flesh, blood and bone bodies, at death, that changes. When I send Yeshua to rapture up the church they will be changed as well. I am having you tell humanity this because it won’t be long before I tell My Son to get His Bride, the Church, the believers.”
Strange that this God calls those human beings eternal spirits, when He has created them as mortal elements in the universe.

Then that god speaks about the Satans or adversaries of God and the ones who fool the world, with their own false teachings.
As he (the Satan or devil) sees the approaching of Christ’s appearing, he and a few of his partners (doubt and fear) have really been stepping it up.”
One of his lies is,” God (Yahweh) does not exist.”
Another is, “Jesus (Yeshua) did not really die and rise again.”
“So, consequently he has turned a great number of people against me. He really does hate my precious humans.”
“Another one of his tactics is he has chosen very weak minded individuals to enlist in his destructive task and they have fallen for his lies, hook, line and sinker.
He tells them to go to various places and spread these lies. He even pushes his agenda onto governments. He even tells people that it is not right to have people display Godly things in government institutions; like the Ten Commandments for instance.
He has them say it is offensive to pray in public places.”
The author calls all those who do not want to believe and those who agreed to let such things happen "atheists, non-believers, heathen or just plain lost".  But he reminds the people they have to remember that God, no matter what happens, still loves these people: "don’t ever loose sight of that fact."

And that is very important: god loves His creation and all what we can see around us is part of that creation. All people on this planet earth are also created in the image of God and are loved by the Divine Creator.
He also gives them the necessary time to be able to find Him and to come closer to Him. though many also donot want to recognise the person God provided to save the world, He gave His only begotten son, to offer himself as the most justified ransom and to become the mediator between Him (Jehovah God) and men.

English: It is really a nice building. I took ...
A nice building in the United States of America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So therefore I also would call like that author to the United States of America and to other nations:

Hello America, are you not the New World, where so many of the Europeans went to because at the continent many denominations limited their people and because many governments brought strong limitations of all sorts of freedom?

Did you America also forgot that many of your ancestors looked for the Truth and looked for God His Word and His Will?

Though many descendants from those pioneers went far away from those Bible Students and Bible researchers, and prefered to follow 'standard churches' or even more 'mega churches'. With times (you or) they became not so interested any more in reading regularly the word of God, available in much more versions now in their own or in their new language. You also wanted to be called Christians but pick and choose which laws to live by and to impose on others living around you.
II (The Presidents of the United States of Ame...
II (The Presidents of the United States of America album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They prefered to make new gods, like the many movie stars, football and other sports idols, but also the fashion models and idols form other worlds like the cooking world. In this some did not mind to fit their other god, Jesus. So many americans are not willing to accept hat he was a real Jewish man, of flesh and blood, who could be seen by many, who was tempted more than once and who really was brought to death in a cruel way, but less cruel than many other tortured people.

God is an eternal spirit, who can not be seen by men or they would die. God also can not be tempted. that is all be written in the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God, many do not want to take for the words which are there black on white, but they do prefer to hold fast on tradition and denominational dogma's, like the 'Holy Trinity'.

Yes, America, wants to stay blind and does not want to have its eyes opened by the Biblical truth. Do they ever wounder if it is not because of their blindness, their ignorance that america is turning upside down?

But is it not the disease which is spreading all over the world, where money is the Manon, the new god worshipped by so many?
The Love of money is the root of all evil church in America and every other culture that has turned its back on Christ and his Father, the Only One God.  

The Biblical message has been corrupted to such a degree that seminaries are supporting a “priest class” that has elevated itself above the laity. This shift toward relying on a seminary educated expert trained in Christian theology to lead the church is inherently risky and flawed.  The body of Christ and it’s shepherds are to be vigilant with discerning and testing the doctrines being introduced into the churches.  The modern day Protestant denominations have completely capitulated the hard won gains of the Reformation and the American bible Student movement. America and with it other nations are re-instituting the old Catholic paradigm of ignorant congregation and all knowing priest class.  On top of the increase in creating Biblically ignorant congregations, America has hybridized Biblical Christianity with of all things “The American Dream”. 

The dream has been shattered.  The New Atheism has made it safer for people to declare their godlessness. 

Godlessness and Unbelief is it there to stay?!? Or not?

It can change, but we shall need time and lots of people wanting and daring to come out into the world to assign their love for Christ and to show the world the work this son of god has done, and which blessings we have received by his offering himself for us.

You, like every other humans on the face of this planet, have one overwhelming and stupendously important need … to be forgiven for the sins you have already been condemned for, and released from the death sentence that you have already been sentenced to. No matter what happens in this world, as long as Christ shall not have returned, all people shall share the same 'lot', the same burden of finding death at the end of the road. We all shall die, believers and unbelievers.
But do know, afterwards there shall be something different for believers and non-believers. Than it shall be too late to change direction  God has given each of us and you, time enough to think, to consider, to find out, to look for the right way, for the right path.


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Friday 19 April 2013

Greatest single cause of atheism





The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is
christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
[intro track to War of Ages album Fire from the Tomb]

Popularized by the 1995 dc Talk track “What if I stumble?
Brennan Manning

How I treat a brother or sister from day to day,
how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street,
how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike,
how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life
than the antiabortion sticker on the bumper of my car.
Ragamuffin GospelBrennan Manning


In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift.  If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.
[Abba's Child]
Brennan Manning

 
“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes.
I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged,
I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good,
I feel guilty about not feeling guilty.
I am trusting and suspicious.
I am honest and I still play games.
Aristotle said I am a rational animal;
I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.
Brennan Manning

To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark.
In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.
As Thomas Merton put it,
‘A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.
Brennan Manning


The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes.
It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches.
For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift.
[The Ragamuffin Gospel]
Brennan Manning


We should be astonished at the goodness of God,
stunned that he should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love,
bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.
Ragamuffin GospelBrennan Manning


Do you realize that in a profoundly human way – the God of Jesus loves you?
He loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness;
beyond fidelity and infidelity.
He loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain without caution, regret, boundary or breaking point.
No matter what’s gone down – He can’t stop loving you!
 Brennan Manning
 



Brennan Manning
Brennan Manning (Photo credit: Jordon)
Last Friday at the age of 79 the author, friar and contemplative Richard Francis Xavier (Brennan) Manning gave his last breath.
He was the man who said Jesus loved the people around him and that his Father was willing to take them all up in His Kingdom if they wanted to come to Him.
In his book "The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled Beat-Up and Burnt Out"  Manning takes aim at those “so-called Christians who disfigure the face of God, mutilate the gospel of grace, and intimidate others through fear.” He finds it unthinkable that the church rejects those who are accepted by Jesus. Jesus loves those whom the Father loves. If Jesus accepts sinners then God accepts sinners – and He does. How can any of us enter the Kingdom except that God accepts us in our sinful state? (Romans 5:8)

Manning_sm
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Monday 17 December 2012

Falling figures for identifying Christians

In England the atheists saw their numbers grow from 6 million, to 14.1 million. some do think it is the conservatism of the church which draws people further away form the church. this could well be, but is it progressiveness that should keep people into the church community?

We think a church community can still be very up to date and keep to the values and rules given by the Master Teacher Jesus from Nazareth.

In Belgium we noticed that certain ideas to modernize the church and the many changes it underwent made people even more confused and having them making the step to leave their church. Also the happening in the English church and discussions about women functions made more people laugh at the ongoings in those churches and consider them not worth spending their time in it.

New figures from the 2011 Census show that the number of people who identify as Christians in England and Wales has fallen by 4 million over the last 10 years.

The data shows that numbers fell from 37.3 million in 2001 to 33 million last year.

The statistics came as the outgoing archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, claimed that English cathedral congregations are growing dramatically, challenging the claim made by secularists that the Church of England is fading in Britain.
Other polls have detected similar shifts. The 2012 British Social Attitudes Survey showed that only about half of Britons claim a religious affiliation, down sharply from 20 years ago when two out of three Britons did. Barely a quarter of young people identify themselves as religious.

The new figures show that Islam is the U.K.'s second-largest religion, at 2.7 million. Hinduism is third, at 817,000. The number of self-identified Jews rose by 3,000, from 260,000 to 263,000.