The Vatican’s liturgy chief has called on priests to celebrate Mass facing east.
In an interview with the French Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne, Cardinal Robert Sarah said that the Second Vatican Council did not require priests to celebrate Mass facing the people. Continue reading…
“President Calvin Coolidge warned in a speech given May 15, 1926, at the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia: “But there is another … recent development … the greatly disproportionate influence of organized minorities. Artificial propaganda, paid agitators, selfish interests, all impinge upon members of legislative bodies to force them to represent special elements rather than the great body of their constituency. When they are successful, minority rule is established. … The result is an extravagance on the part of the government which is ruinous to the people and a multiplicity of regulations and restrictions for the conduct of all kinds of necessary business, which becomes little less than oppressive. …” –Source
Sound like today? In fact, it sounds like the last few decades if you ask me. Just looking over the past few presidential elections wherein the popular vote blew the doors off the official votes via delegates proves the minority now rules the day. And why do it that way? Ok, dumb question, but for those unaware it’s simple. Continue reading…
Hundreds of pastors congregated in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss America’s increasingly secular culture and what the church’s role should be in casting out its demons.
The mood in the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill alternated between reverence and apprehension, as the Family Research Council hosted its Watchmen on the Wall national convention from Wednesday through Friday.
Sitting at dozens of round tables in a packed-capacity ballroom, some of the pastors in attendance blended in with the D.C. regulars wearing blazers and ties. But most were in colorful blue, purple or yellow button-down shirts that they might have also worn in the pulpit on Sunday. Continue reading…
RIO DE JANEIRO — As he struggles to build support for his presidency, Brazil’s new leader, Michel Temer, has been dogged by the kind of character issue that pollsters refer to as “a strong negative.”
Temer, rumor has it, is a devil worshiper.
The origins of this falsehood are unclear. Temer, 75, a longtime politician, is a Christian of Maronite Lebanese descent. But the rumors have inflicted enough damage that Temer turned to prominent evangelical pastors for help. They encouraged him to make a video appealing for evangelicals’ support. Continue reading…
A House conservative went after dozens of fellow Republicans on Thursday with suggestions that they’d sinned for backing an anti-discrimination proposal against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
CAIRO (AP) — An armed Muslim mob stripped an elderly Christian woman and paraded her naked on the streets in an attack last week in which seven Christian homes were also looted and torched in a province south of the Egyptian capital.
According to the local Orthodox Coptic church and security officials, the assault in the Minya province village of Karma on Friday began after rumors spread that the elderly woman’s son had an affair with a Muslim woman — a taboo in conservative Egypt. Continue reading…
MANILA, Philippines — An application for membership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been submitted by newly-elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The church has acknowledged receipt of the application and a character review of the baptismal candidate is under way.
President Duterte signalled his interest in the church in a recent interview with the Cebu Sun Star in which he said that if he was excommunicated from his own church he “might join the Seventh-day Adventists.”
Joining the Adventist Church would be a bit of an adjustment for the president, said University of the Philippines Anthropology specialist, Miguel Magnolia. “The Seventh-day Adventists don’t just baptize you on the spot. They want you to know what you are committing to. Plus, vegetarian chicken can be a shock to the system.” Continue reading…
The Philippines president-elect accused the Catholic church on Sunday of hypocrisy, saying the bishops who had condemned him during his campaign had been asking favours from the government.
Rodrigo “the punisher” Duterte, who won the 9 May presidential elections by a landslide, caused outrage in the church hierarchy in December after making a rambling and obscenity-filled speech cursing the pope. About 80% of Filipinos belong to the Catholic church. Continue reading…
The National Weather Service says a tornado that damaged or destroyed about 20 homes near the northeast Kansas town of Chapman was an EF4 with estimated peak winds of 180 mph.
Weather service surveyors determined the tornado started at 7:10 p.m. Wednesday and stayed on the ground for 26 miles before ending around 8:40 p.m. Kansas officials said Thursday numerous power lines and a set of railroad tracks were damaged in the storm.
The twister passed just south of Chapman, a community of 1,400 that in 2008 lost more than 60 homes and had several school buildings and churches damaged by a similar-sized tornado that cut through the heart of the town.
The weather service says Wednesday’s tornado was a half-mile wide and completely destroyed a farmstead near Chapman.
Earlier Thursday the weather service had rated the tornado as an EF3. Source
A day after 11 states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over bathroom guidance for transgender students, a 12th state says it wants to get involved.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said in a statement Thursday that his office had already spoken with Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, who is leading the suit.
“I intend, as soon as possible, to join the lawsuit against this latest example of federal overreach,” Bryant said in a statement. Continue reading…