Soles for satan

By John Lewis Wednesday, 29 March 2017

A Dunedin satanic organisation's campaign to collect warm clothes for disadvantaged people across New Zealand is being welcomed by some and leaving others hot under the collar.

Satanic New Zealand recently launched a ''Soles for Satan'' online page, which aims to buy new socks, hats, and warm clothing for people in homeless shelters and children living in poverty.

Organisation co-founder Frankie Vegas, of Dunedin, said poverty was a major issue in New Zealand and it was important people supported the fight against it.

''We just want to use what little influence we have, to help the community around us.''

The Dunedin business personal assistant said the religious organization wanted to help in the hope of becoming an official chapter of the Satanic Temple, which was established in the United States.

''They've done a few Socks for Satan campaigns, so we decided to bring it here.''

Miss Vegas said the clothing would be distributed to those in need across the country. There had already been a lot of support from Auckland residents and Dunedin businesses.

Soles for Satan was the group's first major campaign, and it hoped it would become an annual event.

Miss Vegas was surprised at the level of support the campaign had received, given the community perceived the organization as being the opposite of Christian organizations.

She hoped the campaign would help change people's views of Satanic New Zealand.

''We're not in any way anti-Christian; we're just pro-Satan,'' she said.

''I understand and appreciate some people do feel we are anti-Christian, but if people looked up what we do and what we actually stand for, they would have a much better understanding.''

The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word, she said.

''I hope people can look past the name of our group and judge us based on our actions.''

Surprisingly, the campaign is also getting support from some churches.

The Rev Frank Ritchie, of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, in Auckland, said he supported the campaign as a way of promoting public discussion.

He said Satanists often had ''humanistic'' views, and he urged people to be open-minded.

Family First director Bob McCoskrie was scathing of the idea. He said it was no different from a good cause promoted by gangs.

All clothes collected would be donated to KidsCan, Women's Refuge and homeless shelters.    ODT

Pope urges leaders to return to roots

Gerard O'Connell March 24, 2017

“What hope is there for the Europe of today and tomorrow?” Pope Francis asked when he addressed the leaders of 27 European Union countries this evening in the Sala Regia (Royal Hall) of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, March 25, 1957, that created the European Economic Community, the forerunner of today’s European Union.

He said the answer to that question is to be found in “the pillars” with which the union’s founding fathers—the leaders of Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Luxembourg—had laid 60 years ago, namely: “the centrality of man, concrete solidarity, openness to the world, the pursuit of peace and development, openness to the future.”   

Francis believes in the E.U., and sees its importance not only for the peoples of this continent but also for peace and development in the world, but he is convinced it must be reformed. He made this clear today, and advocated that on the path to reform E.U.’s leaders should revisit the origins of the union in 1957 when its founding fathers signed the Treaty “after the dark years and bloodshed of the Second World War” because they “had faith in the possibility of a better future.”

He recalled that from the outset, the founding fathers understood that the Treaty would remain a dead letter unless they had “spirit and life” and so they agreed that “the first element of European vitality must be solidarity.” Francis emphasized that this spirit of solidarity “remains as necessary as ever today, in the face of centrifugal impulses and the temptation to reduce the founding ideals of the Union to productive, economic and financial needs.”

American Magazine

 

Pope Francis spends time with prison inmates

 

25/03/2017 (Vatican Radio) One of the highlights of Pope Francis’ 1-day pastoral journey to the Italian city of Milan is his visit to the city’s main detention center, the San Vittore Prison.

Shortly after midday and the recitation of the Angelus, the Pope travelled to the prison where he was welcomed by the director,Gloria Manzelli, and by the prison chaplain, don Marco Recalcati.

San Vittore currently hosts over 900 inmates – both men and women – as well as a number of infants who live with their detained mothers in a special unit. The Pope met briefly with them before exchanging greetings with a large group of the San Vittore staff and volunteers.

The building, designed by the engineer Francesco Lucca, takes inspiration from the 18th century Panopticon with 6 wings with three floors each. Moving through these wings, the Pope was given the opportunity to shake hands with some 80 people representing all the different categories of inmates, before going on to meet those who are detained in a “protected” environment.

In the third wing, Pope Francis sat down for lunch with some 100 prisoners and treated to a typically Milanese cuisine, including rice with saffron and steaks “alla Milanese” prepared by some of  the inmates themselves.

The visit concluded with an exchange of gifts and the blessing of cards with the prisoners’ names on them to be taken away by the Pope.

Throughout his pontificate Pope Francis has highlighted the predicament of prisoners and urged political leaders across the world to respect the dignity of inmates and offer them amnesty whenever possible. In many occasions he has called for a criminal justice system that is not exclusively punitive, but is open to the hope and the possibility of re-inserting the offender into society. Pope Francis has also called for a world-wide abolition of the death penalty and said he opposes life in prison without parole.

Underlining his deep concern for prisoners the Pope concluded the Holy Year of Mercy with a special Jubilee Mass for some 1,000 prisoners from 12 countries and their families, as well as prison chaplains and volunteers in St. Peter's Basilica.      RadioVaticana

The end justifies the means

Throughout Christendom, Protestantism was menaced by formidable foes. The first triumphs of the Reformation past, Rome summoned new forces, hoping to accomplish its destruction. At this time, the order of the Jesuits was created, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions of popery. Cut off from every earthly tie and human interest, dead to the claims of natural affection, reason and conscience wholly silenced, they knew no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but to extend its power. The gospel of Christ had enabled its adherents to meet danger and endure suffering, undismayed by cold, hunger, toil, and poverty, to uphold the banner of truth in face of the rack, the dungeon, and the stake. To combat these forces, Jesuitism inspired its followers with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers, and to oppose to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There was no crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practice, no disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re-establishment of the papal supremacy.

When appearing as members of their order, they wore a garb of sanctity, visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the poor, professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless exterior the most criminal and deadly purposes were concealed. It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means. By this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of State, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of nations. They became servants, to act as spies upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and display of the Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind, and dazzle and captivate the imagination; and thus the liberty for which the fathers had toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival of popery.  Great Controversy p.234

Stephen Hawking: Our future may depend on some form of world government

Professor Stephen Hawking considers himself an optimist, but you wouldn’t know it from some of the things he had to say in his latest interview.

‘Since civilization began, aggression has been useful inasmuch as it has definite survival advantages. It is hard-wired into our genes by Darwinian evolution. Now, however, technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war.’

Stephen Hawking

But despite his warnings of artificial intelligence and global warming sending us down a path toward total annihilation, Hawking maintains that he feels good about the future.

“All this may sound a bit doom-laden but I am an optimist,” he told The Times. “I think the human race will rise to meet these challenges.”

But how?

“We need to be quicker to identify such threats and act before they get out of control,” Hawking said. “This might mean some form of world government.”

That, however, could lead to global tyranny, the optimistic scientist added.

At any rate, these kinds of alarms have been raised by Hawking before. Last year, he made headlines when he spoke at Oxford University about mankind’s urgent need to explore space travel. He even offered up a timeline:

“I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet,” he said.      Market Watch

Scientists ‘on the brink’ of creating complex life form

Stephen Chen Friday, 10 March, 2017, 3:02am

Chinese scientists are taking part in an immense international project that is expected to create complex artificial life in the laboratory for the first time by the end of the year.

Researchers had previously produced simple life forms such as viruses and bacteria but this time the aim is to make an “eukaryotic organism”, one with cells containing a nucleus surrounded by a membrane and with DNA held together by proteins.

A research team with more than 200 scientists from countries including the United States and China will announce on Friday that Sc2.0, the world’s first artificially designed and built eukaryotic organism, is expected to “come alive” by the end of this year.

The new organism could lead to advances in genetic therapies that could help people live longer, the scientists said.

More than a third of the work was already complete, they said, with successful laboratory synthesis of six of the 16 chromosomes that held the organism’s DNA strands. Their methodology, research observations and technological developments were detailed in seven papers in the latest issue of Science.       SCMP

Media's Job: Control What People Think

by Ian Hanchett

UPDATE: Brzezinski took to Twitter to clarify her remarks, saying, “Today I said it’s the media’s job to keep President Trump from making up his own facts, NOT that it’s our job to control what people think.” She added, “Of course, that is obvious from the transcript but some people want to make up their own facts. SAD!”

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski stated President Trump “could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.”

Brzezinski said, “I think that the dangerous, you know, edges here are that he’s is trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts. And it could be that, while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.”     Breitbart

O foolish SDA's

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. 

O foolish Galatians (Seventh Day Adventists), who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?   
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
       


Galatians 2:20-21 & 3:1-3 KJV