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Catholic Sources and the Declaration of IndependenceREV. JOHN C. RAGER, S.T.D.The American Declaration of Independence, which is so admirable and dignified an expression of the American mind, is at the same time an accurate expression of the Catholic mind, medieval and modern. The general historical background, which projected the American Declaration of Independence, is well known. There has been much discussion, however, concerning the parentage, direct and indirect, of the political principles that make the American Declaration what it is, “that most wonderful work ever struck off at a given moment by the hand and purpose of man.” Two facts...

Although Beyonce is on maternity leave to look after her precious newborn Blue Ivy, the hard-working mom is still lining up projects for the year ahead. The "Countdown" singer has just revealed her plans to pitch in for Obama's reelection campaign by creating a T-shirt as part of the "Runway to Win" fundraising effort

Is there anything he can’t do? (Don’t answer that.) President Barack Obama proved Thursday night that he’s still got some of the ol’ hope and change magic at a fundraising event at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem after he sang a few bars of Al Green’s soul classic, “Let’s Stay Together”. Obama was thanking the Reverend Green for appearing that night at the fundraiser and his pretty creditable crooning was greeted with rapturous applause – but was the President trying to say something to America?

For most people, an extended stay aboard a luxury cruise liner sounds like a dream vacation. But Valeska Paris says she was held against her will aboard the Scientology cruise ship "Freewinds" for more than a decade. During her stay on the vessel, she alleges, she was forced into hard labor and never allowed to leave the ship without an escort. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC News) Lateline program, Paris claims that Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige sent her to the ship when she was 18 in order to prevent her family from pulling her...

First Lady Michelle Obama turns 48 on Tuesday, and the Obama re-election campaign is using her birthday to help organize the troops for the November elections. In 2011, Mrs. Obama celebrated her 47th birthday when President Barack Obama took her to a fancy dinner at The Source, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Newseum in Washington.

Michelle Obama already let loose for a little “random dancing” on "iCarly" and now another clip from her upcoming cameo on the show has been released to Entertainment Weekly. The snippet from the episode features the first lady saluting Carly and her friends for their webcast birthday surprise for Carly’s dad, an Air Force colonel stationed on a submarine.

A satanic rock band from Sweden known as Ghost is planning a 13-stop tour in America beginning in New York City on January 18. The band, whose keeps the names of its members anonymous, is actually a devil-worshiping ministry that features a lead singer who calls himself “Papa Emeritus” and dresses up as a kind of satanic pope in a skull mask and cardinal’s robes. Their “13 Dates of Doom” tour in the U.S. will include two other “doom rocker” bands, Blood Ceremony and Ancient Wisdom. Their flyers advertise the tour in this way: “In the name of Satan, we...

Cults, Movements, World ReligionsMARY KOCHAN To many of us, the modern religious landscape appears increasingly confusing, even strange or frightening. No matter how strong in faith and regular in religious practice our families may be, we are not insulated from contact with a bewildering variety of religious expressions, a Babel of “prophetic” voices and a dizzying array of competing world views. Sun Myung Moon founder ofthe Unification Church Questions Abound in Confusing Religious Landscape Insulation is not what our lay vocation is about, anyway. Instead of insulation, what we seek is contact, the contact which makes the electric presence...

My local "news" outlet on in my YMCA cardiovascular room just showed an extensive story just oozing with admiration for how Hussein handled the little baby at the Marine base that grabbed his face. Nothing but a big smooch to these fake journalist's little tin god. Made me want to hurl.

It’s official: it is no longer acceptable to call the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the fourth largest religious institution in the United States, a church with 7 million members in the US and 14 million members around the world, a “cult.” That’s the message Newt Gingrich sent when he fired his newly-hired Iowa political director Craig Bergman after it was revealed that Bergman had proposed a national crusade against the “cult of Mormon” in an Iowa focus group last week. Last Wednesday,The Iowa Republican reported on the focus group it organized: “There is a national pastor who...

“No, we don’t worship Joseph Smith,” I explained to the investigator. “We respect him as a prophet.” “You mean, like Mohamed?” he asked. “No, more like Moses, or John the Baptist.” It was a standard comparison that I had used repeatedly on my mission. Joseph Smith is just a prophet. He’s just like John the Baptist, or Moses, or Peter, James, and John. Of course, there are a few problems with that characterization, aren’t there? Chief among them — if Joseph Smith is really just like John the Baptist, then why don’t we treat the two similarly? And despite doctrinal...

For the most part, I enjoy sacrament meeting. I like that it’s always been the final meeting in every ward I’ve been in. It’s cool to sit close together with the family, even if our four-year-old is bending my shoe back trying to boost out of the pew and the eight-year-old is begging to go sit with Meghan, or Brittany, etc. I like the songs, the once-monthly testimonies and the wide variety, and quality, of the talks. Maybe the comfort of sacrament meeting never really changing as long as I remember, satisfies this believing Latter-day Saint. But, every December around...

they differ from Protestant religions in many significant ways. In fact, The Encyclopedia of Religion refers to Jehovah’s Witnesses as being “distinctive.” Consider three ways in which they are different. First, although Protestant faiths reject certain features of Catholic worship, Reformation leaders retained certain Catholic dogmas, such as belief in the Trinity, hellfire, and the immortality of the human soul. Jehovah’s Witnesses, however, believe that those doctrines not only contradict the Bible but also promote a distorted view of God.—See Exposed: Six Myths About Christianity. Second, the religion that Jehovah’s Witnesses advocate is, not one of negative protest, but one...

An exmormon.org member writes: "I just got this email from mormon.org thanking me for creating a profile. I immediately logged on to see if somebody had created one for me. I didn't have one. It was a trick to get me to log into the create profile page". -------------------------------------- Message Mormon.org User The following message has been sent to you: Church's Mormon.org Media Initiative and You Dear Member: Thank you for creating a mormon.org profile. We appreciate the time you have taken to create a profile and to "let your light so shine before men" (Matthew 5:16). We hope to...

"The Mormon Defense League" is out. "MormonVoices" is in. That change became official Monday, when the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research announced a name change for its website aimed at defending the teachings and practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FAIR is a non-profit organization that, according to a press release, is operated by "self-motivated Mormons who seek to improve the public understanding about the church" through conferences, workshops and scholarly articles posted on the organization's websites. While it is dedicated to "providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, beliefs and practices" of the...

JOE AMES is an alumnus of the Pennsylvania State University. He served as editor of The Lionhearted: Penn State’s Only Independent Newspaper from 1991 – 1993. The paper gained national attention when two female undergraduate students, both journalism majors and members of the student club “Womyn’s Concerns,” stole and burned thousands of Lionhearted newspapers on the lawn of its advisor’s State College law office, to the applause of Penn State faculty and administrators. Mr. Ames offers his view here of the recent scandal. “WE are Penn State.” Even those with superficial exposure to Penn State are familiar with its famous,...

Some public figures have labeled the “Mormon” church as a “cult”. Most recently, ABC News reported that Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress applied such a label in an interview following a political gathering where Jeffress introduced a political rival to Mormon candidate Mitt Romney. Use of such a term to describe Mormonism is highly offensive to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Cult” carries the connotation of dangerous, even violent groups whose beliefs are irrational and whose practices are immoral and lawless (Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, and The People’s Temple are all...

Last month, evangelical leaders gathered in D.C. for the Values Voter Summit, where disciples of the Pissed-Off Jesus harrumphed and yammered about how much America sucked. That's when the bomb ignited. Dallas megachurch preacher Robert Jeffresswas on hand to introduce Rick Perry. He warned that Mormon "cult" members were not only despoiling Broadway, but were actually running for president. "Non-Christians" like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman had invaded the Republican primary like a bunch of damn Mexicans — and they didn't even have comparable skill at operating a riding lawn mower. If patriots didn't take heed, Jeffress cautioned, America would soon be possessed by heretics. The nation was...

Robert Jeffress made national headlines recently with his assertion that Mormonism is a "cult" and a "false religion." Peter Wehner, a political commentator whose blog I read regularly, immediately criticized what he termed "the theological and political errors of Pastor Jeffress." What are the facts behind the firestorm? Is Mormonism a "cult?” The answer depends on your definition of the term. If by "cult" you mean the popular caricature of a manipulative group that practices mind control and exploits its members, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints clearly does not qualify. However, scholars use the word differently. According...

Many years ago I stood at the bedside of a young father as he hovered between life and death. His distraught wife and their two children stood nearby. He took my hand in his and, with a pleading look, said, “Bishop, I know I am about to die. Tell me what happens to my spirit when I do.” I offered a silent prayer for heavenly guidance and noticed on his bedside table a copy of the triple combination. I reached for the book and fanned the pages. Suddenly I discovered that I had, with no effort on my part, stopped...

Just finished watching "Special Report" and before I could turn the channel, there was prancing Shep, singing the praises of Hussein over the stock market climb.

Just after half his family was either allegedly murdered - or, at the least, tragically killed in a bizarre accident - Mohammad Shafia was still looking for a deal. "He was asking could he get a discount," Robert Miller, the manager of the Kingston East Motel where some of the Shafia clan - those who weren't dead, that is - were then staying. "Can't you give me a better price?" Miller remembered him saying. His reply: "No." Miller was testifying Tuesday at the first-degree murder trial of the 58-year-old Shafia, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, and their 21-year-old...

Here is a screen capture of Drudge...notice the photo of the football player holding up a pic of Hussein. Can anyone tell me the origin? Who is this, when was the pic taken?

With Mitt Romney campaigning...his Mormon religion is coming under increasing scrutiny. SNIP Now Mark Driscoll, pastor of the high-profile Seattle-based Mars Hill Church, has added his voice to the fray -- agreeing that Christians should consider Mormons as members of a "cult" and not "brothers and sisters in a common faith." Writing on his website Tuesday, Driscoll goes on at length about the various definitions of a cult. He is careful to say that Mormonism has "outgrown" the popular culture and sociological definitions of a cult because of its enormous growth and general acceptance in the nation. But, Driscoll writes,...

OKLAHOMA CITY – With our current poll showing the majority of Red Dirt Report readers are skeptical or out-right against the newly-hatched American intervention in Uganda and east-central Africa, one of the craftsmen in Congress of the so-called “Plan Uganda” operation, U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), is defending the this U.S. foreign policy move and our involvement there, as approved by Congress. We wrote several stories since Friday on the issue, which can be found here, here and here. Two members of the Oklahoma congressional delegation responded to our inquiries about the "Plan Uganda" operation. The Obama administration, with Secretary...

Mormons believe that in 1820 a young Joseph Smith went into the woods to pray. In answer to that prayer, they believe, Joseph was visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ. Today this is called the First Vision. As Joseph reported this vision (in the version that has since been named “official”), he asked the Deities which sect or church was right, and which one he should join. Joseph wrote, “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination...

A Statement from Truth in Action Ministries, Oct. 14, 2011 "While having the deepest respect for the moral and ethical standards of the Mormon people and their church, we must sadly reject their teachings as false and not Christian." –D. James Kennedy, Ph.D. Texas pastor Robert Jeffress generated headlines last week when he told reporters that Mormonism is a cult—a belief system at odds with historic Christianity. Since then he has been accused of bigotry, called a “poster boy for hatred,” and a “moron.” Despite those harsh charges, Jeffress, who backs Texas governor Rick Perry for the GOP presidential nomination,...

I subscribe to a Mormon apologetic Newsletter titled FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research). Normally it falls into my junk email account and I don't even open it, but today I had a few minutes and scanned the latest offering and was stunned to see the hypocrisy of the authors. Please note the entire email is posted below. This particular issue has a great deal of whining about those mean Christians who make the spurious claim that Mormons are not Christians, but are a cult. A couple of examples: -"Mormons are a cult" epithets into the national spotlight. In...

The news is abuzz with the question of Mormonism, cults, and Christianity. A cult is often understood as a religious group with strange beliefs out of the cultural mainstream (which many today increasingly consider biblical Christianity). Since "cult" is difficult to define, scholars tend not to use it. However, the question of what beliefs characterize Christianity is not a new debate, and is one we should not shy away from if words and definitions matter. Many people are shocked at the idea that some pastors believe Mormons are not Christians-- "judgementalism" is decried and "intolerance" proclaimed. Yet, as that may...

Warren Jeffs' Wife Escapes Polygamist Community By JOHN QUINONES and KEVIN DOLAK | Good Morning America One of the wives of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence for child sexual assault, has escaped the confines of the isolated Arizona community where his 85 other wives live. Arizona authorities have said that the 25-year-old woman who fled the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which was led by Jeffs, is now undergoing counseling and psychiatric care at a women's shelter. She was reportedly barefoot when she was found. The secluded community of the church...

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney has a new message for those who attack his Mormon religion: back off. On Tuesday, Romney...delivered the word to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who again refused to reject an endorsement from the evangelical pastor who said the former Massachusetts governor is "not a Christian" and is a member of a "cult" because he is Mormon. "I would call upon Gov. Perry to repudiate the sentiment and the remarks made by that pastor," Romney said... Perry, through a spokesman, refused to disavow the pastor, Robert Jeffress, who heads a 10,000-strong Baptist congregation in Dallas. It's a significant...

Former Mormon Tricia Erickson agrees with Baptist minister Robert Jeffress' recent comments that Mormonism is a cult, and said she believes the American people do not know what they are in for if they elect Republican presidential nominee and Mormon Mitt Romney into White House. "Because the wisdom, judgment and discernment of our president may be crucial to our survival, would it not be prudent to examine his fundamental foundation and beliefs?" asked Erickson in a commentary written for Christiannewstoday.com. "And if his beliefs are distorted, why would it not be critical to our existence to protect our country from...

Karl Rove has criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry for not strongly denouncing evangelical Baptist minister Robert Jefress after the Texas pastor described former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney's religion as a "cult," during last Friday's Values Voter Summit. Appearing on Fox News on Oct. 10, Rove, a political adviser to former President George W. Bush, said Jeffress' statement was "a terrible mistake" that "doesn't belong in politics," and said that Perry needed to be stronger in his disagreement with Jeffress. "I wish Perry was a little bit stronger in denouncing this," Rove said. Rove's statement followed conservative TV host, and former...

Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, said Monday in an interview with Fox News' Bill Hemmer that "no one goes to heaven in a group," when asked about the eternal state of Mormons. When prompted by Hemmer to discuss whether or not he believes Mormons will go to heaven, Jeffress replied, "We all go to heaven or hell individually based on what we do with Jesus Christ. I don't think all Baptists are going to be in heaven, I don't believe all Catholics are going to be in heaven, I don't believe all Mormons...

Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann dodged questions Sunday whether Romney is a Christian. The issue arose during the just-completed Values Voters Summit in Washington, exposing tensions among evangelicals over Romney's religious faith, as we reported today. Dallas Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress kicked things off by endorsing Rick Perry and declaring that Mormonism is a cult and Romney is not a Christian. Speakers went back and forth on the issue -- and Romney himself weighed in, denouncing "poisonous speech" that doesn't help the nominating process. Asked about Jeffress' comments, Perry said he doesn't believe Mormonism is a cult.

After the Trump tease, the Daniels Dalliance, the Huckabee hesitation, the Palin pretense, and the Christie charade, the press corps has reluctantly turned its lonely eyes back to the once and future frontrunner, Mitt Romney. But having already exhausted the usual storylines—he’s stiff, he’s changed positions, he’s inauthentic—journalists have returned to the one that generated so many sparks in the last campaign: he’s a Mormon!This is not quite breaking news, of course, but it does inject a note of dramatic divisiveness into an otherwise tepid candidacy. Admittedly, news organizations had a legitimate reason to pounce on the question of Romney’s...

Yesterday at the Value Voters Summit, Texas Governor Rick Perry was introduced by the Reverend Robert Jeffress. This, according to the Washington Post, is how the introduction went. 2:27 pm: Texas Gov. Rick Perry is introduced by Southern Baptist Convention leader Robert Jeffress, who endorsed the candidate recently. Jeffress called Perry “the most pro-life governor in the United States of America.” He also alluded to Perry’s recent debate fumbles, saying, “do we want a candidate who is skilled in rhetoric, or one who is skilled in leadership?” Perry came on stage to loud, enthusiastic applause. What generated the news were...

Just noticed the story this Fox station did on the unemployed sleazebags across America. Viewers are informed the demonstrations are "peaceful"...no word on the reports of anti-semitic rhetoric or attacks on cops...also no report on how some demonstrators were HIRED. Then the occupy morons are given a free "here is where you gather today in Miami" info-graphic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters - Captains of Google, Bank of America and Citicorp say they are ready to pay higher taxes, as long as Congress uses the money to get the U.S. economy back on its feet.

The public affairs department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently noted an uptick in the media's use of the word cult to describe Mormonism, even in august publications such as the New York Times and the Economist. It is probably not coincidental that two Mormons, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, are running for president. The peculiar place of Mormonism in American culture was made even more evident in a comment by Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt. Speaking in July with two other commentators about the presidential chances of Texas governor Rick Perry, she said she expected...

In 1820, during the second Great Awakening of religious revival, a young man named Joseph Smith claimed to see God in a grove in New York. This claim started one of the most controversial religions in recorded human history, including, at various times, polygamy and racism; and many assert today that sexism is still inherent in the religion. In this article, the LDS, or Mormon, belief system will be called a church or religion for clarity's sake. Whether these things are right, wrong or even true is a topic of endless debate. Today, however, I want to address a very...

Halftime show being wrapped up, Bobby Costas just announced Brian Williams would be worshipping Barack Hussein Obama on an interview on the "Today" show tomorrow. Be sure to not watch.

One of the most important articles ever written about Sarah Palin was by Paul Goldman, a Democratic political strategist and former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party,in September 2010, about 6 weeks before the 2010 midterm election. This article was originally posted at FR and at the WAPO: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2590825/posts http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/16/AR20100901606348.html In the article Goldman claims there is a good possibility that Sarah Palin has saved the Republican party (from extinction)by not going the third party route (via the Tea party) and in Goldman's words "to allow Republican anger to boil, yet not boil over." And then Goldman reflects on the...

After a hotly contested online summertime election, with tens of thousands of votes streaming in from across the country, Governor Rick Scott of Florida has been elected Worst Governor Ever by the American people. Scott’s rejection of high speed rail funding, attacks on teachers unions and billions of dollars in cuts to the middle class, while creating tax breaks for the rich, proved to be a very successful campaign strategy in the race for Worst Governor Ever. Governor Scott beat out many close competitors, including Texas Governor and now Presidential candidate, Rick Perry, Ohio’s Governor John Kasich and the man...

This clip explores what that expression, "when you unleash us," can mean. The end times cosmology of Black Nationalists calls for a final confrontation between the black and white races, to be led by black messiahs (plural). Black Liberation Theology is a pseudo-Christian Black Nationalist doctrine that was derived in large part from that of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam is a black cult-like sect, using Islam as a facade, much as Obama's Trinity church in Chicago fronts as a Christian church.

A FEW weeks ago I received an e-mail from an acquaintance with the subject line: Have you seen the video everyone is talking about? I clicked play, and there was Howard Dean, on March 19 in Berlin, at his most impassioned, extolling the virtues of a woman named Maryam Rajavi and insisting that America should recognize her as the president of Iran. Ms. Rajavi and her husband, Massoud, are the leaders of a militant Iranian opposition group called the Mujahedeen Khalq, or Warriors of God. The group’s forces have been based for the last 25 years in Iraq, where I...

Barack Obama Cult of Personality music video with a comprehensive look at the craze, double-speak, and controversy.

Watching our system deal with the debt ceiling crisis — a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may nonetheless have disastrous consequences — it’s increasingly obvious that what we’re looking at is the destructive influence of a cult that has really poisoned our political system. And no, I don’t mean the fanaticism of the right. Well, OK, that too. But my feeling about those people is that they are what they are; you might as well denounce wolves for being carnivores. Crazy is what they do and what they are. No, the cult that I see as reflecting a true moral failure...

I just received an email from World Net Daily advertising some books. Not unusual, as I'm on their list, and they send ads all the time. What is strange though, is the fact that all the books in this ad are religious AND take the oddball "7th-day Sabbath" position--definitely a very minority position among conservative evangelicals, and Christians of all stripes. The ad also hints at some dark conspiracy amidst conventional Christians, accusing us of not reading the bible carefully.Some evangelical apologists too categorize Adventism (which started with those who firmly predicted Jesus to come again in the 1840s) itself...

I did a lot of reading on Zsa-Zsa last night and, aside from the lying and NewAge cultism, what stood out for me is the whoring-your-way-to-the-top ethos, and the men she used (or was used by) to get there. Here's a break down of what the "Greek Goddess" has been doing in the real world: