Posted on 07/18/2012 7:25:59 AM PDT by marshmallow
I.
Bruce Fingerhut in South Bend called my attention to Father George Rutler’s essay in crisismagazine.com (July 13), entitled. “Post-Comfortable Christianity.” Father Rutler is the well-known pastor of the Church of Our Savior in New York City. He is a man of many, many talents, a witty and insightful lecturer, often on EWTN. With his Scot origin, he has been known to appear in the kilt version of the Roman Collar at the Highland Games. Rutler is a convert Episcopal priest who speaks the King’s English, speaks it well and clearly.
The title, “Post-Comfortable Christianity,” Rutler explains, is not used in place of “Post-Christian,” since “nothing can come after Christ,” a profound theological observation in itself. We have lived as Catholics in relative peace in recent times. We think we belong and are accepted by this culture. Indeed, we have sometimes bought an easy version of our faith that requires little sacrifice and no Cross.
We have not had to worry, or so we thought, about ourselves being discriminated against or persecuted. Such despicable activities were, we thought, against the law. They were events that happened “elsewhere.” We never thought that our law could itself be “against the law.” The Third Millennium began with fireworks and Ferris wheels, Rutler commented, but is now “entering a sinister stage.” We have not anticipated that so many Catholics, often public leaders, when it came to a choice between God and Caesar, would opt for Caesar in his worst form.
Rutler introduces his comments by recalling Father Bernard Bassett, S. J., on his death-bed. He told Rutler that, if he (Bassett) had to do life over, all he would do is read St. Paul. Rutler quips that for most of us “God gave us the Apostle of the Gentiles in order to have second.....
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicworldreport.com ...
Good read.
“And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name.”
~ Revelation 13:16-17
I’ve copied the URL to the article to pass to my (LDS and other) family and friends. I’ve been saying the same thing for some time now, but not nearly as capably.
The truth slowly happening declared in this article.
The Church is still trying to dance around the edges. The message needs to be clear and unequivocal.
“It is tantamount to a Mortal Sin for a Catholic to cast his vote to re-elect Barack Hussein Obama”.
That is the only option left. They are on very thin ice if they think John Roberts is going to save them.
Very good read. The only problem is that I honestly can’t see Romney doing anything different on this score. Mormonism is a faux religion that is actually theocratic at its core, and I think he is perfectly fine with having the state in charge. I don’t think he will “revoke Obamacare” and to my knowledge, he actually hasn’t even specifically claimed that he would do so.
So it might be the last free election...but offering only one choice with two different faces, which is no choice at all.
I think our only hope lies in getting as many conservative Republicans as possible elected down ticket. If only we controlled the Senate.
8.22 - 5. "Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1 Peter 2:17.) Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. [It fulfills this task] by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the Kingdom of God, God's commandment and righteousness, and thereby the responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word by which God upholds all things.
8.23 We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its special commision, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church's vocation as well.
8.24 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State.
In other words, there is a place for the state under God's plan. But the state is not the church. And it has no business usurping the role of the church. That is precisely what is occurring, and Obamacare is a very subtle but insidious effort by the state to supplant the church.
Amen. But his is a reminder that just as there are men “in” the Church who are not actual member,” there are those “outside” the Church who are members of the body of Christ. I am thinking of Bonhoeffer in particular.
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