I guess if you were like everyone else you’ve heard all about the reports coming out of Ohio East Palestine with a Norfolk Southern locomotive, pulling a whole load of that heavy duty chemicals, I guess liquid chemicals came off the track and a bunch railroad cars fell off into a ravine, split open and spilled out their cargo which contain some volatile substances like n butyl acetate and vinyl chloride.
A little boy is killed by a deranged monster, or some small child drowns in their family swimming pool. A soldier escapes death in Iraq only to come home and get them self shot in the streets of Chicago.
Recently, while looking up an online website which records Vietnam War deaths by the city in the state; Where they came from, I found the only guy died from my hometown in that terrible war. He was only one. His name is Robert Barry and he was a lance corporal. He went by the name Bobby Barry and the article described him as a nice, but tough kid, that I join the Marines because he had a fight with his girlfriend, and he died on October 12, 1966. I was only 11 years old he was only 19.
I don’t know what shocked me so much about reading this. I didn’t know him, I probably never even met him, but he is the only one that died from my town in a war that killed so many guys. Yes, he died in a miserable place far away from home. Where a bunch of evil and greedy politicians sent him to fight in a war they never even intended to win.
Yeah, he had a fight with his girlfriend and she probably blamed herself for the rest of her life for his death.
Why did he die? Greed. It’s all about the American military industrial complex making their money. Building arms of war, they get rich, along with their allies in politics.
Many often wonder how these things can happen in the modern world. People say, "how can I loving God allow such tragedies?"
By Bob Barney It is very unfortunate that so many people have had their minds obfuscated with false religious dogma concerning sex and what God really wants us to know about the subject. You will see that God is no prude when it comes to sex and actually has given us a guideline on how to enjoy it without any guilt! In Genesis, God creates man and woman after the GOD kind. Notice that all other created beings are created after their own kind, but man was created after God’s own kind. Note also that God says “Let US make man in OUR image”. At least two beings are talking together, and they claim to be God (see the meaning of the word God here ). What is the very first thing that God realized about man? “It is not good for the man to be alone.” God does not want us to be alone. He wants us in a union with another human, just as God is one, he wants us to be one, with the helpmate that God gives us. Next notice the first command God gave to Adam and Eve. Gen 1:28 God blessed them and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals." Then we read a little later this: Gen. 4:1“Now Adam slept with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant.” (NLT translation). So sex was made for us to enjoy and to recreate after our own kind! We are meant to become part of the God Family. However, this command to have sex does not give us the license to have it with just anyone. Here are just SOME of the Biblical restrictions:
The following short video from Garner Ted Armstrong explains something about the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible. When Ezekiel gave his warning from God against Israel, the ancient kingdom of Israel had been "lost" for over 150 years! So, what the heck was Ezekiel talking about? In the series called "The Four Horsemen of Revelation" that I am discuss next week will plainly explain just who the players are in today's world. One cannot understand prophecy without understanding who the modern people of Israel are and where they live (hint- they are NOT JEWS). Who Judah is today, or Assyria, etc., we will learn about. By the way, Israel is America, and I will prove that in this series. I wanted to provide for you a well-done short intro by Garner Ted Armstrong on this topic.
How powerful exactly are the big pharmaceutical companies in this country? Well, that's a big question. There are a lot of ways to measure it, but here are a few ways you can measure it. In this country, Big Pharma can advertise its drugs directly to consumers and that's a little strange if you think about it, since consumers don't prescribe drugs, doctors do. So, why are the drugs being advertised directly to consumers?
That's allowed in only one other country on the planet, but it's allowed here. So, it may not surprise you that in this country, drug companies spend more on lobbying the Congress than any other industry, a lot more than any other industry and they don't do it by accident. They do it because it pays off. In a deal like this, a pretty remarkable deal, the drug companies have worked out with politicians. So, the government uses your tax dollars to buy billions worth of their products and then in some cases forces you to use those products.
Sometimes those products work, sometimes they don't work. In some cases, those products can injure you, but no matter what happens, there's nothing you can do about it because politicians have given these companies complete immunity. If their products hurt or kill you, you can't sue them. You're not even really allowed to complain about it. That's an incredible deal. Imagine if your company had struck a deal like that with Congress. You'd probably be a lot richer than you are.
There are many doctrines taught in the mainstream Christian churches today that are fasel teachings, which are not supported by the Word of God in the Bible. But how can so many people around the world be wrong? Because they have been deceived by the "wine" (false doctrines) of Babylon the Great. The whore of Babylon has made the whole world drunk with her false teachings and as Revelation 13 confirms, she has made the "WHOLE world wonder after the beast."
The purpose of this page is to enlighten you with the TRUTH of God's Word regarding these teachings. And I would urge everyone to prayerfully study these things for themselves. Asking God to reveal the truth, because it is only through the truth that we will be able to stand against the deceptions of Satan during the last days before Christ Jesus returns.
The Following Commentary Does Not Express the Views of The Plain Truth but is published to help keep our readers informed about various topics in the news or concerning Biblical history and viewpoints.
If an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack struck America, the damage would be catastrophic. An EMP is an intense burst of electromagnetic radiation and a powerful pulse of energy caused by a sudden release of stored energy, such as that from a nuclear blast or more likely a massive solar flare.
Boston, home of the original Tea Party, some of America's most historic buildings, a world-renown symphony, and now, the "The Largest Satanic Gathering in History."
A report at the Gateway Pundit has cited a social media announcement about "SatanCon," which will be in Boston April 28-30.
The convention will be celebrating the Satanic Temple's tenth anniversary, the report noted.
There were some social media reactions that were simply inquisitive: "Will satan be there?" asked Kelly T.
And there were responses from Christians who promised, "I rebuke and bind you who claim this in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior."
There also was the enigmatic, "The end is near," as well as a long list of images that appeared to show threatening images from stargazing.
The Gateway Pundit explained, "Though tickets are already on sale, the organization has not announced the location, vendors or presenters, However, when you click to book a hotel reservation, you are directed to book a room at the Boston Marriott Copley Place."
The report noted, "Those who purchase the 'Demon Circle" $160 tickets will receive access to the 'Satanic Marketplace,' access to 'on-site programming tracks,' an official TST SatanCon 2023 t-shirt, TST SatanCon stickers, and a SatanCon 2023 button.
In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s Day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two faces, one looking forward and one back. Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year. Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee. Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.
As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the Christian calendar or abandoned altogether. By the early medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would be impregnated by G-d and conceive a son to be called Jesus.)
After William the Conqueror (AKA “William the Bastard” and “William of Normandy”) became King of England on December 25, 1066, he decreed that the English return to the date established by the Roman pagans, January 1. This move ensured that the commemoration of Jesus’ birthday (December 25) would align with William’s coronation, and the commemoration of Jesus’ circumcision (January 1) would start the new year - thus rooting the English and Christian calendars and his own Coronation). William’s innovation was eventually rejected, and England rejoined the rest of the Christian world and returned to celebrating New Year's Day on March 25.
About five hundred years later, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (AKA “Ugo Boncompagni”, 1502-1585) abandoned the traditional Julian calendar. By the Julian reckoning, the solar year comprised 365.25 days, and the intercalation of a “leap day” every four years was intended to maintain correspondence between the calendar and the seasons. Really, however there was a slight inaccuracy in the Julian measurement (the solar year is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds = 365.2422 days). This slight inaccuracy caused the Julian calendar to slip behind the seasons about one day per century. Although this regression had amounted to 14 days by Pope Gregory’s time, he based his reform on restoration of the vernal equinox, then falling on March 11, to the date had 1,257 years earlier when Council of Nicaea was convened (March 21, 325 C.E.). Pope Gregory made the correction by advancing the calendar 10 days. The change was made the day after October 4, 1582, and that following day was established as October 15, 1582. The Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian in three ways: (1) No century year is a leap year unless it is exactly divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000, etc.); (2) Years divisible by 4000 are common (not leap) years; and (3) once again the New Year would begin with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus - January 1.
On New Year's Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. On New Year's Day 1578 Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a “House of Conversion” to convert Jews to Christianity. On New Year's 1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.
Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1 - supposedly the day on which Jesus’ circumcision initiated the reign of Christianity and the death of Judaism - was reserved for anti-Jewish activities: synagogue and book burnings, public tortures, and simple murder.
The Israeli term for New Year’s night celebrations, “Sylvester,” was the name of the “Saint” and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.). The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem. At the Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation. All Catholic “Saints” are awarded a day on which Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint’s memory. December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day - hence celebrations on the night of December 31 are dedicated to Sylvester’s memory.
Most nations around the world hold that the New Year begins on January 1. This wasn’t always the case. In fact, for centuries, other dates marked the start of the calendar, including March 21 (The spring Equinox- which, according to God's Calendar, is the true New Year's Day!) and December 25. So how did January 1 become New Year’s Day? Well, you can thank the pagan Romans first, and the equally pagan Catholic Church next!
The first mention of using this date goes back to the Roman king Numa Pompilius. According to tradition, during his reign (c. 715–673 BC) Numa revised the Roman republican calendar so that January replaced March as the first month. Notice, even at this time, the entire world was still following Go's calendar, with March being the New Year! It took the evolution of paganism (Satanism) to replace God's true calendar with that of pagan gods... It was a fitting choice, since January was named after Janus, the Roman god of all beginnings, March celebrated Mars, the god of war. (Some sources claim that Numa also created the month of January.) However, there is evidence that January 1 was not made the official start of the Roman year until 153 BC.
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar introduced more changes, though the Julian calendar, as it became known, retained January 1 as the year’s opening date. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the use of the Julian calendar also spread. However, following the fall of Rome in the 5th century CE, many Christian countries altered the calendar so that it was more reflective of their religion, and March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation) and December 25 (Christmas) became common New Year’s Days. They chose March 25th, because that calendar was off by 4 days a year. They had the equinox on March 25th, and the winter solstice (now Dec 21st) on December 25th.
In designing his new calendar, Caesar enlisted the aid of the Alexandrian astronomer, Sosigenes, who advised him to do away with the lunar calendar and follow the solar year, as did the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 46 B.C., making 45 B.C. begin on January 1, rather than in March. He also decreed that every four years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step. Shortly after Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., Mark Anthony changed the name of the month Quintilis to Julius (July) to honor him. Later, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) after his successor.
The true Christian Church, that was founded by Jesus and the Apostles frowned upon these pagan rituals, and that church stayed with the TRUE CALENDAR ordained by God! A great false Christian Church, which started in Rome, was a pagan church, originally worshippers of the God Mythra! This false church created the ecclesiastical calendar that we follow today. Scholars know that Jesus wasn't born in December, even the Biblical account of shepherds watching over their flocks in the fields – which would not have happened in winter – make a winter birth unlikely. But celebrating Jesus' birth during the time of the existing pagan celebration of the solstice was convenient and the Church usurped the holiday.
It later became clear that the Julian calendar required additional changes due to a 4-day miscalculation concerning leap years. The cumulative effect of this error over the course of several centuries caused various events to take place in the wrong season. It also created problems when determining the date of pagan Easter. Thus, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a revised calendar in 1582. In addition to solving the issue with leap years, the Gregorian calendar restored January 1 as the start of the New Year. While Italy, France, and Spain were among the countries that immediately accepted the new calendar, Protestant and Orthodox nations were slow to adopt it. Great Britain and its American colonies did not begin following the Gregorian calendar until 1752. Before then they celebrated New Year’s Day on March 25.
Over time non-Christian countries also began to use the Gregorian calendar. China (1912) is a notable example, though it continued to celebrate the Chinese New Year according to a lunar calendar. In fact, many countries that follow the Gregorian calendar also have other traditional or religious calendars. Some nations never adopted the Gregorian calendar and thus start the year on dates other than January 1. Ethiopia, for example, celebrates its New Year (known as Enkutatash) in September.
So, this is why January 1 is the New Year! Once again, the so-called modern world continues to follow the traditions of the pagan world of antiquity...think about that...
(Joe Kovacs is the author of the new book Shocked by the Bible 2, as well as his previous books Shocked by the Bible and The Divine Secret, all on sale in bookstores and Amazon.com. Learn more at www.shockedbythebible.com)
In case you haven't noticed recently, the world in which we live seems to have lost its bearings, sliding toward some sort of dark abyss, both in America and across the world.
No doubt, you're familiar with old problems such as murder, war, theft, disease, homelessness, hunger, lying, economic turmoil, religious strife, lusting, adultery, fornication, unwanted pregnancy, abortion and people having a lack of care and concern for their fellow man.
But these days there are a host of new concerns that have many people shaking their heads in disbelief.
(ISRAEL365 NEWS) -- A prominent Israeli professor is at the center of controversy concerning his deciphering an inscription dated to the 8th century BCE that was discovered at the Siloam Spring in Jerusalem. The professor claims that the inscription refers to Biblical King Hezekiah and “emphasizes the reliability of the Bible.” But his critics disagree.
The story began two weeks ago when Prof. Gershon Galil, a Professor of Biblical Studies and Ancient History and former chair of the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa, announced that he had successfully deciphered five royal inscriptions of King Hezekiah, including hundreds of letters and dozens of lines of text. The inscriptions, etched into the walls of the City of David’s Hezekiah Tunnel in Jerusalem, described the King’s accomplishments during the first 17 years of his kingship, which began in the late 8th century BCE and continued into the early 7th century BCE.
The Plain Truth is that UFO's are real, but they are not little green men from Mars or other planets in some solar systems. Most UFO's (and the term means UNIDENTIFIED flying objects) have been and still are of this world. Weather phenomena, secret military aircraft and even hoaxes make up the first type of UFO sightings. There is a second type of UFO that we will IDENTIFY! If you believe in God, and the God who inspired the Bible, then in the pages of that Bible you will find the plain explanation of what these types of UFO's are...They are ANGELS! The Plain Truth: The Plain Truth about UFO's
"Aliens? Is that a UFO?" ~ Ben Davidson of Suspicious 0bservers
In a move that proposes government impose what appears to be a clear violation of the free speech provisions of the Constitution, a group of activists in Loudoun County, Virginia, is demanding that the school board ban "hate" speech at its meetings.
A group organized a petition after another parent quoted from the Bible's admonitions to take care of children.
The district, of course, has been ground zero for the fight by parents against the leftist ideologies adopted by some schools, and their supporting activists, to promote the LGBT agenda to children.
A recent grand jury report faulted Loudoun County for its promotion of that ideology, and the superintendent was removed.
During Yule Festival, the best storyteller in a family or village would tell stories about family adventures or about the gods, and help others tell their stories, as well.
A chocolate yule log cake adorned with cookies shaped like gingerbread men, snowflakes and reindeer. Some families, especially those of Scandinavian descent, may make yule log cakes during the Christmas holiday season.
How the Yule log tradition evolved from an ancient Viking ritual
A Viking re-enactor stands in the foreground as a fire burns behind him.
Yule logs can mean different things for different people. For some, yule logs mean warm, crackling fireplaces. For others, they bring to mind sweet, chocolate cakes.
Either way, the Christmas icon in modern times may be an echo of a tradition from as far back as ancient times, particularly in a changing medieval Scandinavia.
Christmas in the post-War United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Religion Today is contributed biweekly by the University of Wyoming's Religious Studies Program to examine and to promote discussion of religious issues.
Who Was Against Christmas?
By Paul V.M. Flesher
Picture the following scenario. Crowds of Americans rioting in the streets. Two opposing groups shout loudly, vying to have their messages heard and heeded. The groups meet. Confrontation ensues. Fistfights break out. Church windows are smashed. What are these rioters fighting about? Christmas. One group favors celebrating Christmas, the other opposes all Christmas observances. This isn't an imaginary event, it is history. It happened in Boston on Christmas day in 1706.
In America's increasing love-affair with Christmas (both the Christian and commercial versions), we have forgotten that there was a time when much of European and American Christianity thought that Christmas should not be celebrated. In the riot described previously, the anti-Christmas group consisted largely of Congregationalists (Puritan descendants), Baptists, and Presbyterians, while the pro-Christmas group comprised mostly Anglicans (Episcopalians). The notion that Christians of any stripe should not want to celebrate Christmas is so foreign to our present concept of the holiday, that we need to review some history to understand it.
Prior to the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, Roman Catholicism celebrated the "Christ Mass." It was one of many special masses and feasts of the Catholic Church celebrating key events in Jesus' life or the birthdays of saints. The three main Protestant movements that ultimately came to America had three different reactions to this situation.
First, although the Anglican Church developed a Protestant theology, it kept much of Catholic liturgy, including festivals celebrating aspects of Christ's life and the feast days of many saints. It gave special emphasis to the celebration of Christmas.
Second, after Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517, special liturgical observances began to be frowned upon. The Lutherans thought that the celebrations of saints' days were too much and so cancelled them. But they still emphasized observing events in Jesus' life, and so continued with joyous Christmas festivities.
Third, the Calvinists in Switzerland banned all Christian holy days not mentioned in Scripture. That approach meant that the Sabbath was acceptable, but nothing else. Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and other celebrations were to be treated as normal days with nothing special about them.
The Calvinist position came to be quite influential in Great Britain, even though it never altered the position of the Anglican Church. John Knox brought Calvinism to Scotland as Presbyterianism where Christmas was banned in 1583, while the Puritans brought Calvinism into England, where it became influential in circles both within and outside of the Anglican Church. During the Civil War in 1647, Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan followers outlawed Christmas observance. It was brought back in 1660 at the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II.
From England, both sides brought their Christmas beliefs to America. The Puritans (later becoming the Congregationalists) were joined by Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists (despite their founders' pro-Christmas predilections), and Baptists on the anti-Christmas side, while the Anglicans dominated the pro-Christmas side, and were later joined by the Lutherans and the Dutch Reformed.
In Boston, the Puritans outlawed Christmas in 1659. Although the ban was lifted in 1681 when the British government took control of the colony, an armed guard had to protect the governor on his way to church on Christmas of 1686. When the colony reverted to local control in 1689, Christmas again fell out of favor.
The objection to Christmas by Americans was two-fold. First, for Calvinist theology, it reflected the pagan character of Catholic worship. Christmas was not a biblical holiday and had not even become a Christian festival before the late 300s; it was a creation of the church, not of Christ. Second, the holiday was accompanied by extensive reveling. Celebrations were not primarily worshipful, but involved feasting, game playing, heavy drinking, shooting, and gambling. For the over-indulgers, it brought out the worst of their excesses. Since the holiday celebrated the Savior's birth, such immoral behavior was seen as sacrilegious.
During the 18th century, Christmas observance began to be more accepted. Church-goers turned their attention to purifying the holiday of its excesses, rather than rejecting it altogether. By the 1750s, even New England hymn books contained Christmas carols. By the early 1800s, Christmas was observed with an emphasis on family and children.
In 1836, Alabama became the first state to make Christmas a legal holiday. Other states followed suit; even Massachusetts legalized Christmas in 1856, almost 200 years after its ban. But the last state, Oklahoma, did not join in until 1907. So next Christmas, 2007, will be the centenary of Christmas being the first religious holiday whose celebration across the United States is sanctioned by law.
Flesher is director of UW's Religious Studies Program. Past columns and more information about the program can be found on the Web at www.uwyo.edu/relstds. To comment on this column, visit http://religion-today.blogspot.com.
Excerpts from Fox News John Gibson's Book "The War on Christmas...."
As a matter of American history, however, some of the strongest complaints about the public celebration of Christmas have been lodged from within the Christian tradition—by devout Christians who had little use for the holiday. For a surprising number of American believers, the chief concern wasn't putting Christ back into Christmas. It was taking Christmas out of Christianity.
Liberal plots notwithstanding, the Americans who succeeded in banning the holiday were the Puritans of 17th-century Massachusetts. Between 1659 and 1681, Christmas celebrations were outlawed in the colony, and the law declared that anyone caught "observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting or any other way any such days as Christmas day, shall pay for every such offense five shillings." Finding no biblical authority for celebrating Jesus' birth on Dec. 25, the theocrats who ran Massachusetts regarded the holiday as a mere human invention, a remnant of a heathen past. They also disapproved of the rowdy celebrations that went along with it. "How few there are comparatively that spend those holidays … after an holy manner," the Rev. Increase Mather lamented in 1687. "But they are consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in Mad Mirth."
After the English Restoration government reclaimed control of Massachusetts from the Puritans in the 1680s, one of the first acts of the newly appointed royal governor of the colony was to sponsor and attend Christmas religious services. Perhaps fearing a militant Puritan backlash, for the 1686 services he was flanked by redcoats. The Puritan disdain for the holiday endured: As late as 1869, public-school kids in Boston could be expelled for skipping class on Christmas Day.
The Puritans are the most cited example of anti-Christmas spirit, but not the only one. Quakers, too, took a pass, reasoning that, in the words of 17th-century Quaker apologist Robert Barclay, "All days are alike holy in the sight of God." The Quakers never translated their dismissal of Christmas into legislation in their stronghold in Colonial Pennsylvania. But local meetings, as the Quakers call their assemblies, urged their members to disdain Christmas and to be "zealous in their testimony against the holding up of such days." As late as 1810, the Philadelphia Democratic Press reported that few Pennsylvanians celebrated the holiday.
Observance of Christmas, or the lack thereof, was one way to differentiate among the Christian sects of Colonial and 19th-century America. Anglicans, Moravians, Dutch Reformed, and Lutherans, to name just a few, did; Quakers, Puritans, Separatists, Baptists, and some Presbyterians did not. An 1855 New York Times report on Christmas services in the city noted that Baptist and Methodist churches were closed because they "do not accept the day as a holy one," while Episcopal and Catholic churches were open and "decked with evergreens." New England Congregationalist preacher Henry Ward Beecher remembered decorative greenery as an exotic touch that one could see only in Episcopal churches, "a Romish institution kept up by the Romish church."
Naturally, some celebrants of the holiday complained about the abstainers. In 1867, Reformed Church minister Henry Harbaugh protested that Presbyterians in his Pennsylvania neighborhood "spend the day working as on any other day. Their children grow up knowing nothing of brightly lit Christmas trees, nor Christmas presents. God have mercy on these Presbyterians, these pagans." You can hear the echo of that sentiment today, in the criticism of the megachurches that have announced that they will be closed on Christmas, because their leaders think congregations and church staff would rather remain home with their families. "Our culture does not need any encouragement to be more self-centered or narcissistic, or to stay at home on Sunday," Bible scholar Ben Witherington III wrote on Beliefnet last week. "Shame on you, megachurches."
Gibson briefly refers to the Puritan ban on the holiday but otherwise avoids any mention of division within the Christian tradition over how to celebrate it. His "war on Christmas" is purely a clash between secularists and believers. It's worth remembering, however, that in past American battles over Christmas, the combatants on both sides were Christian soldiers.
The gays have long referred to Halloween as “gay Christmas,” but did you know there’s actually a different holiday that more perfectly matches that description? So gather ‘round the rainbow Yule, join the queer chorus, and follow me in merry measure as I tell you about what is about to become your new favorite holiday, Saturnalia.
Gay Christmas, otherwise known as Saturnalia, was an ancient Roman festival held in mid-December to honor Saturn, the god of sowing, plenty, and agriculture. Though Saturnalia initially started as a one-day affair, it quickly grew into a three-day — and then a week-long — festivity. Because if you’re going to do Gay Christmas, you’re going to do it right.
Many present-day Christmas traditions can be traced back to Saturnalia. Customs like decorating our homes with wreaths, singing, feasting, and gift giving all originated during this holiday. Schools were closed, business was halted, and the courts were out of session. Strict dress codes were loosened, with participants exchanging their togas for more colorful clothing, and even gambling was allowed. So basically all the most gay Christmas traditions come from Saturnalia.
Of course, this was still a particularly holy day for the Romans. Official rituals were observed, sacrifices were made, and the statue of Saturn — whose feet were normally bound with wool — was unbound to symbolize liberation.
A hat known as a “pileus” was the traditional headwear of gay Christmas, Saturnalia.
Some ways Saturnalia participants celebrated were … less than traditional. The holiday is rumored to have featured “lads running naked about the place, cross-dressing for dinner, tops becoming bottoms, masters waiting on their servants … sausages, wine, cunnilingus and fruitcake.”
I MEAN.
So, depending on how you live your life, maybe these are regular Christmas traditions for you, too. We don’t judge!
In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.
The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.
After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
"That’s right, folks. The president failed to mention the name of Jesus during his address. He gave a shout-out to Muslims and Buddhists, but not the Son of God," Starnes wrote online.
"He did, however, reference 'a child Christians believe to be the son of God."
A church in the United Kingdom has decided to take Jesus and the Nativity out of Christmas, instead promoting a message for the "queer and questioning."
Summit News explains it is All Saints with Holy Trinity Church in Loughborough and it held a service Monday.
It was in a social media statement that trainee priest Rachael Brind-Surch boasted of alterations made to the traditional "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."
"Flipping love my church," claimed Brind-Surch, as the first verse of the hymn was revealed to be: "God rest you, queer and questioning, your anxious hearts be still, Believe that you are deeply known and part of God's good will For all to live as one in peace the global dream fulfilled. O tidings of comfort and joy…"
A unique piece by Ludwig van Beethoven is finally set to be returned to the heirs of its original owners.
A Ludwig van Beethoven's music manuscript, is seen in the Moravian Museum's collection in Brno, 30 November 2022 - CopyrightŠálek Václav/CTK via AP
By Euronews with AP
A unique piece by Ludwig van Beethoven is finally set to be returned to the heirs of its original owners.
The manuscript ended up in the archives of the Moravian Museum in the Czech city of Brno to protect it from being stolen by the Nazis, as the Petscheks, once the richest family in pre-World War II Czechoslovakia, fled the country to escape the Holocaust.
The museum kept the autograph of the 4th movement of the string quartet in B-flat Major, op. 130 — a highly valued late quartet by the German composer — in its collections for more than 80 years.
Now, a local restitution law on the property stolen by the Nazis is making the return possible.
For the first time, the Moravian Museum curators have put the score on display for five days before it is set to be handed over to the Petschek family.
"The item itself has a fascinating collecting story," says curator Simona Sindlarova. "The whole story reflects the history of Central Europe in the last 200 years."
High-stakes lie to Nazis works, saves the manuscript
Details about how the family, whose wealth came mainly from the mining industry and business in the banking sector, acquired the piece after the Great War are unknown.
Beethoven composed the six-movement quartet in 1825-26, as part of his work on a series of late quartets commissioned by Russian Prince Nicholas Galitzin.
It premiered in March 1826 in Vienna's Musikverein.
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) -- Ahead of opening a burial cave dedicated to Salome, the midwife of Jesus, to the public, archaeologists have recently uncovered a number of priceless artifacts from its courtyard, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. The tomb is a centuries-old Christian pilgrimage site, located in the Lachish region in central Israel.
“According to a Christian tradition, Salome was the midwife from Bethlehem, who was called to participate in the birth of Jesus,” said IAA archaeologist Zvi Firer. “She could not believe that she was asked to deliver a virgin’s baby, and her hand became dry and was only healed when she held the baby’s cradle.”
The burial cave was discovered in 1982 by antiquities looters and subsequently excavated in 1984 by Prof. Amos Kloner of the IAA. But, despite ample proof of its use as a sacred Christian site, it was never opened to the public.
