Posted on 06/04/2023 8:25:35 PM PDT by Cronos
A senior Iranian cleric says around 50,000 of Iran's 75,000 mosques are closed, showing the declining numbers of Iranians attending.
Expressing regret over the low numbers engaged in worship, Mohammad Abolghassem Doulabi, who serves as the liaison between Ebrahim Raisi’s administration and the country’s seminaries, said on Thursday that the numbers are a "worrying admission” for a state built around the principles of Islam.
Doulabi, who is also a member of the Assembly of Experts – a deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader – said the outcome of religion in Iran has led to people leaving religion.
Emphasizing the weakening of religiosity among society and in turn, a weakening legitimacy of a government ruling by religious diktat, he said: “When people look at the output of the religion, they decide to enter the religion or leave the religion," with reasons including “the humiliation of people in the name of religion," “falsification of religious concepts and teachings,” and “depriving people of a decent life and creating poverty in the name of religion.”
He made the remarks as growing numbers of Iranians of all ages are becoming weary of the regime's justification of Islam as the base of its brutal dictatorship, reflected by months of violent protest since September in the wake of the death in morality policy custody of Mahsa Amini, arrested for the inappropriate use of her hijab.
Iranians are converting to Christianity by the masses.
Millions of Muslims are currently converting to Catholicism. They report encountering Jesus in a dream who inspires them, telling them exactly where to go and whom to talk to, to do what they know Islam punishes most severely.
The massive cultural, social and political interactions made possible by the internet has diminished people’s faith in religion. Also the large presence of predatory homosexuals in the Christian clergy has caused many to lose their faith.
I heard that too. That’s a good thing.
Good post. I was going to say religion is in trouble.
The book by the Trump hater New Age guy Deepak Chopra The Future of God (2014) had some food for thought. He made an argument that says, in effect, humble people have prayed and prayed to God but he is mostly silent, apparently anyway. He says if God is to have any followers left he will have to meet humans halfway and show some response or the weakness and fears of people will turn all of them away from all religions.
Not sure I paraphrased as he would like. His is a mostly Hindu viewpoint, all New Age and spiritual.
However I noticed a drop of religious people since I read a book by Billy Graham in 1968 in which he said: “God hears all our prayers. All of them. And he answers in some manner. But sometimes his answer is “no.”
I think many people who pray for their innocent baby or other loved one to survive an illness or accident and they die anyway and the praying relatives refuse to go back to church ever again, account for a lot of religious dropouts. My opinion.
One example of the other way is Denis Waitley (former Navy pilot, speaker and author) deeply angry and losing money over the fact he couldn’t make it to the airport for a flight and the plane had not taken off and he was still refused entry due to regulations of the closed passenger door and so on.
The plane finally took off and soon after crashed and all aboard were killed. His wife puts the saved unused ticket in his face when he starts to get upset again over a frustration.
Short video describing the phenomenon:
Millions of Muslims are Converting to Christianity After Having Dreams and Visions of Jesus Christ
Dinesh D’Souza
54K
Likes
919,255
Views
2021
Nov 29
Muslims by the millions are converting to Christianity. This has never happened before, and the astounding explanation given by many of the converts is that they are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RL2MM_efr6Y&pp=ygUbTXVzbGltcyBkcmVhbSBjb252ZXJ0IGplc3Vz
You have to pay attention, but I do find that many of my disappointments were salvation from worse possibilities.
Well gosh with all those nice folks out whipping people who aren’t doing it right why would one bother?
What one believes is not indicated by going to a box with a label
Thank you.
It isn’t how many don’t attend the mosques It’s how many I willing to kill those who don’t attend
Agree. I had a bad relationship with a deceitful women that freed me to later meet my dear wife and be in love from 1973 to 2022 when she died.
A very good thing from what had seemed bad.
The author of Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) thought his world had ended as a young man when he was rejected and could not marry the woman he loved. The man she later married committed suicide after being driven from happiness and an optimistic attitude into depression by her selfish manipulations.
Probably has nothing to do with the sectarian police state in Iran.
A little coercion works short term. Long term...
Years ago I heard that many people in Iran have also taken a renewed interest in Zoroastrianism, because unlike Islam, it is a religion with origins that are 100 percent Iranian.
its the tale of ye olde collection plate ...you can see the bottom of it allah ackbar!
Has anyone seen churches going up?
New Immaculata Church Consecrated in Saint Marys, KS after 45 Years of Anticipation
After 45 years of celebrating Mass in classrooms, a converted refectory, and an auditorium, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) priory of St. Mary’s Academy and College finally has its own church. Many Catholics living in and around Saint Marys, Kansas have waited decades for this day. Despite serving as the largest spiritual home for Catholics attending services offered by the SSPX in the United States, the Society has been without a proper church of its own in Saint Marys since its arrival in 1978.
The atmosphere was as jubilant as it was reverent. Both clergy and laity marveled at the magnificent church that had arisen in the Kansas hills. “Faith,” Bishop Bernard Fellay said in his sermon, “moved this magnificent mountain.”
“What an immense joy today to receive from God the new church,” he continued. “And what a church!...It is such a manifestation of the Faith.”
Bishop Fellay consecrated the church in front of 120 SSPX brothers, seminarians, and priests, and dozens of sisters. Nearly 3,000 people attended the consecration ceremony at the new Immaculata, some travelling from as far away as England and Australia. Thousands more watched online via live-stream. At one point in the ceremony, the stream had as many as 2,800 viewers. The importance of the Immaculata’s consecration was not only realized by the people of Saint Marys, but by Catholics around the world.
Why, it might be asked, is there such interest in a single church in the middle of Kansas? How can the Society afford such a magnificent church? “[Such churches],” Bishop Fellay answered, “do not come from so much money. They come from faithful who have the Faith. These are works of the Faith. And people are convinced—convinced of their faith, of this duty to glorify God. This faith will move mountains.”
Bishop Fellay acknowledged the immense joy that the people of Saint Marys and beyond must have in this new church. It exceeded the vision of Fr. Hector Bolduc, the first rector, who initially resolved to rebuild the Immaculata after the original church burned down shortly after the SSPX had acquired the property. Today’s consecration confirmed the hope of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who saw in Saint Marys a ray of hope for the future of the Catholic Church in America. The sorrow felt at the loss of the original Immaculata church has been turned into great joy. May 3, 2023 will be remembered as a day of wonder, happiness, and thanksgiving.
“But our happiness is much deeper,” said Bishop Fellay. “Once again, it is linked to the Faith. What are we doing right now? What is this ceremony making real? We sung it: this is nothing else but the gate of Heaven and the house of God literally.” The church, he observed, brings the laity to heaven. It is “opening a new window or a new gate into heaven.” In a similar way, Bishop Fellay added, through the church, “Heaven touches the earth here.”
sspx.org - 05/03/2023
Evidently they don’t have as many Mosquateers?
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