Posted on 06/18/2014 7:20:48 PM PDT by ebb tide
Agreed.
Where's my cut?[/humor]
There is a certain kind of right winger to whom "Zionism" is everything other than a simple secular nationalist movement like Irish Republicanism, the Armenian Dashnaks, or the Italian risorgimento. To them "Zionism" really is "the world conspiracy." Everything liberal Jews in the media or "international bankers" do is literally to advance "Zionism." All the State of Israel is (according to these people) is a sort of (lehavdil!) "Vatican" of the "new world order" from which everything is going to be run. And it isn't just Catholics who believe this; I'm still furious with the John Birch Society for presenting itself as a decent, non-sectarian anti-Communist movement when it's crypto-official theologies are Rushdoonyian Protestant "reconstructionism" and Feeneyite/sedevacantist Catholicism. The JBS has even reversed its formerly pro-military position since with the fall of Communism only Jews allegedly benefit from American military actions. Not only do they not support the policies--they don't even support the troops any more.
There is a great divide here which no one seems to notice or understand. Let me try to explain as briefly as I can.
Some of us weren't raised in post-Biblical religions with two thousand years of continuous history. Some of us grew up with the Bible. Our golden age was not the Middle Ages. Our holy cities were not Rome and Constantinople. Our warrior heroes were never Charlemagne or Roland or El Cid. Our holy kings were never Contantine or Drtad or Menelik or Justinian or Theodosius. And the great eschatological monarch we looked forward to was never a restored Bourbon dauphin.
Look at a map of America, especially the old settlements on the coast or the tiny hamlets of the hinterlands. Our towns and cities have names like Canaan, Zarephath, Boaz, Pisgah, Moab, and Nebo. See how many of our little rural churches are named "Mt. Zion."
You people who can only see evil and "Satan" and damnation and absolute and abject horror in a restored Biblical polity will never understand. Your chrstianity may be the most authentic thing in existence, but it is alien to us. We don't know your kings, your saints, or your "holy" lands. But we know the Prayer of Jabez and that Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. What could you possibly tell us? How in the world do you even hope to appeal to us? While we have some terminology in common, it's very deceptive to take that too far. We will never understand you, and you will never understand us. There's not even any need in trying.
Meanwhile, while you see our devotion to the Jews and Israel as either misplaced or the spirit of "antichrist," most Jews don't understand either--and not just the liberal ones. To most of them my people are poisonous vipers to whom the whole thing is a scam and a pose while they lurk like demons to destroy Jewish souls with missionary activity. Does it mean anything to the most devout Charedi sage on earth that there are people who live in Boaz, Alabama? No . . . Boaz, Alabama is the home of monsters from the pit, the "ultimate chrstians." Meanwhile Jewish ecumenists constantly meet with the Pope and Orthodox patriarchs. Somehow, like the goat of `Azaz'el, all the guilt of those churches from two thousand years of history has completely left the institutions that actually committed those crimes and lodged itself in the people of Boaz, Alabama--a people that didn't even exist until relatively recently. To Jews my people are too chrstian. To Catholics and Orthodox and Birchites they aren't chrstian enough. But in their imperfect way I sincerely believe that their intention has always been to follow the True G-d. Unfortunately, they won't listen to me or others like me, and they remain in exile in that desert no man's land between two religions, hated by both opposites who seem to have little trouble with each other.
There is a really sick web site by a lunatic who claims that the trouble with the Catholic Church is that it has accepted the Bible and the Biblical G-d (even the "new testament" J*sus is declared an imposter, a Jewish conspirator who tried to replace the "true" chr*st who apparently was never in Jerusalem in his life. He says this is why the Catholic Church originally tried to destroy the Bible, and that it is only subversion that has led them to accept it. He's also adamantly opposed to any "second coming," btw. Anti-Bible and anti-eschatology--a complete Fundamentalist Protestant stereotype of Roman Catholicism. And yes, I know he's a nut and I don't blame him on Catholicism. But I tell you with all sincerity I wonder sometimes why many Catholics (and other anti-Jewish/Zionist chrstians) don't just go ahead and adopt his views completely. Every nation is declared beloved, every nationalism is considered a positive good . . . except for one. The Biblical nation is never supposed to be restored, and any nationalism by the Biblical chosen people is treated as "the 'real power' behind Communism" and accused to controlling the world economy! This is sick! This is hateful! This is EVIL!!! No, not "evil" as defined by someone like Alan Dershowitz. I mean "evil" as the antithesis of everything G-dly. I mean `AMALEQ-style evil. The de-literalization of messianic prophecy and the insistence that the actual Biblical Israelites must all blend in with everyone else and cease to exist (while the Biblical Holy Land is turned into some kind of big international park maintained by the United Nations) is based on a twisting of the entire message of the Bible. How can any sane person who isn't malicious down to the innermost recesses of his soul make such claims?
This is not to smear all Catholics/Orthodox/classical Protestants, and it is most certainly not to encourage practitioners of Judaeo-chrstian syncretism to continue in their hopeless quest to restore what never actually existed (a genuinely orthodox Jewish chrstianity), though that is what they'll take from this. But they love the Jewish People, and they do so with absolutely no encouragement, reward, or gratitude from most Jews. They do it because G-d told them to. Their stubbornness is tragic when it causes them to stick with an error. But I must admit, when it causes them to stick to what is right when no one else in the chrstian world will do so, it still makes me proud of them. I still love them, whatever they may think of me.
You should look at yourself for “cursedtianity.”
By the way, most Jews are not as self flattering as you are.
**Real Catholics are feeling abandoned by this Pope**
In what way.
Most of what he has said has been mis-reported.
Kasper had been debunked
By whom? Certainly not the pope who chose him to be the sole speaker before the last consistory. After a number of cardinals objected to parts of his talk, the pope later referred to his "serene" theology, or some such ridiculousness. Cardinal Maradiaga, head of the pope's inner circle of eight, castigated Cardinal Muller of the CDF, publically, for being too strict on the question of communion for the divorced/remarried. The pope should rebuke Kaspar and Maradiaga...but we may have to wait on that.
There have been many articles about how wrong he was. Homework time?
I am sure much of it is. However, he should talk less if he is unable to be succinct.
I do not think this Pope is right for our times.
Certainly I know that there have been 'debunkers' in the Catholic blogosphere, and elsewhere. However, the one who matters is the pope. He seems to have let some wolves in among the sheep - and it won't do to apologize for one, by calling him a 'serene' wolf.
bumpus ad summum
Wow. I just don't get this way of thinking.
And it’s not Catholic.
The person who wrote the letter isn’t Catholic?
She is. The idea that you can’t criticize the Pope is not a Catholic idea.
Repent and believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Missed that bit of strangeness on the first read. Still, there are a lot of good points for the pope.
...that phrase marked the writer as a wingnut...I read the rest of it with that in mind...
**Real Catholics are feeling abandoned by this Pope**
In what way.
Most of what he has said has been mis-reported.
...perhaps the poster should have dropped the term ‘real’ Catholics, for that is open to interpretation, but that many Catholics wait with anticipation for the end of his pontificate is without doubt...
...which of course does not mean his successor will please us any more...as in fact nobody can please everybody, and only a fol will try...
.as in fact nobody can please everybody, and only a fol will try...
...and only a fool spells himself as ‘fol’...
LOL
Spreading your usual critical spirit?
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