TESTING THE FAITH

JUST 6 COMMANDMENTS? CHRISTIANS FEEL 4 NO LONGER IMPORTANT

Many think some of God's rules not crucial 'principles to live by'

Joe Kovacs

In a famous scene from “History of the World: Part I,” Mel Brooks portrays Moses descending Mount Sinai carrying three stone tablets after receiving God’s laws.

Moses then proclaims to the people: “The Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen …”

He then accidentally drops and shatters one of the tablets, and declares: “Oy … ten! TEN Commandments! For all to obey!”

Now, a brand-new survey in real life is showing a somewhat similar scenario, with many Christians willing to drop four of the Ten Commandments from their life.​

According to a poll by YouGov, only six of the ten are important to British Christians, with most saying the other four are not “important principles to live by” in the 21st century.

RELATED: Why does Jesus say to ‘shake the dust off your feet’? Intriguing phrase from Bible gets clear explanation

The six that folks are more inclined to follow are the ones that deal with relations with other people.

YouGov explains:

Unsurprisingly the commandment that the most Brits think is still important to live by is thou shalt not kill, at 93 percent, joint with thou shalt not steal. In the case of both commandments, they were seen as still important by 94 percent of Christians and 93 percent of those with no religion.

Not bearing false witness (telling lies) about others came third among all groups, with 87 percent of all Brits, 90 percent of Christians, and 86 percent of those without a religion saying that it is still important to live by.

Close to three quarters (73 percent) of the population at large say that not committing adultery is still a top life principle, including 69 percent of non-religious Brits and 76 percent of Christians.

Honoring thy father and thy mother is still an important rule to follow for 69 percent of all Britons, including 78 percent of Christians and 60 percent of the non-religious.

The final commandment that holds majority support is the Christian God’s instruction that people not covet the possessions of others. Six in ten (61 percent) of the public as a whole say this is still a good rule to live by, including 72 percent of Christians and 52 percent of those with no religion.

The four commandments which many Christians feel are less relevant today are the first four in the Decalogue, specifically those that deal with mankind’s relationship with God.

The survey indicates:

Fewer than a third of Britons (31 percent) say that people should not worship idols (defined in the survey as statues or symbols). Christians are split on whether they still consider this to be an important commandment, with 43 percent saying it is and 44 percent saying it is not. Meanwhile, only one in five non-religious Brits (20 percent) say it is still an important rule.

Most people no longer mind taking the Lord’s name in vain. Just under a quarter (23 percent) of the overall population say that you may not use the word “God” in or as a curse, including 38 percent of Christians and just 7 percent of the non-religious.

The first of the Ten Commandments – that I am the Lord thy God, You shall have no other God before me – is one of the least important according to the public. Only one in five Britons (20 percent) still believe that the Christian God’s monopoly on worship is still relevant in modern Britain (including 36 percent of Christians and just 5 percent of non-religious Brits).

Keeping the Sabbath Day holy is seen as the least relevant of the commandments in the modern era.

YouGov says fewer than than one in five (19 percent) Brits say keeping the Sabbath holy is still an important principle to live by, including fewer than a third of Christians (31 percent) and 7 percent of the non-religious.

Charlton Heston as Moses prepares to smash the first set of God’s law in 1956’s “The Ten Commandments.”

The bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, told London’s Daily Telegraph: “In an age as busy, frantic and feverish as ours I would have thought that keeping the Sabbath, or at the very least observing a balance between work and rest and play was more important than ever. Sabbath is both a radical idea and a practically useful idea for it simply acknowledges that we need to rest and we need to play. Indeed, it says this is what we are made for.”

Cottrell also complained about Christians abandoning the instruction about idolatry, telling the paper: “Whether it is celebrity, wealth, a certain designer label pair of jeans jeans or a make of car, we have all construct a sense of worth in the desire to own and possess certain things that we believe will give value.

“None of it works; or perhaps more accurately we should say it works just enough to get you hooked. Without being warned of the dangers of idolatry, we just become a society of junkies.”

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Other religious leaders in the Church of England were somewhat encouraged by the results of the poll.

“This survey shows that the practical morality which has lain at the heart of the Judeo-Christian tradition for the last 3500 years still finds favor with most British people today, even where explicitly religious commandments gain less support,” David Walker, the bishop of Manchester told the Telegraph.

“Believers and non-believers alike support the simple, ancient statements which continue to provide the foundations of our legal system and our shared sense of right and wrong.

“Britain today may be a more culturally and religiously diverse country than ever before, but across that diversity these pillars of wisdom are holding firm.”

http://www.wnd.com/2017/10/just-6-commandments-christians-feel-4-no-longer-important/

MORE STUDENTS, YOUNG AMERICANS TURN TO PAGANISM

More students, young Americans turn to paganism

As millennials continue to leave traditional Christian religions, interest in Wiccan and pagan practices have seen increased interest in recent years, a trend also spotted among young people and on college campuses.

Pagan or Wiccan student groups are present on a number of college campuses — both secular and religious — across the nation. The growing normalization of such practices, albeit still a minority, corresponds with the decline in Christian believers, some observers note.

A recent report in Market Watch headlined “Why millennials are ditching religion for witchcraft and astrology” argues as much, for example.

“Whether it be spell-casting, tarot, astrology, meditation and trance, or herbalism, these traditions offer tangible ways for people to enact change in their lives,” Melissa Jayne, owner of the Brooklyn-based “metaphysical boutique,” which has seen a big increase in 20-something customers in recent years, told Market Watch.

“For a generation that grew up in a world of big industry, environmental destruction, large and oppressive governments, and toxic social structures, all of which seem too big to change, this can be incredibly attractive,” she said.

The article goes on to cite several businesses that have successfully latched on to this trend, from online purveyors of tarot cards to popular astrology apps.

The article also cites recent Pew Research Center data that found 25 percent of Americans now identify with no religion, as opposed to 2011’s 18 percent. Underscoring that, a 2014 National Science Foundation poll found nearly half of all Americans say astrology is either “very scientific” or “sort of scientific,” UPI reports.

With that, it may be no surprise to see interest in paganism is also alive and well on campus.

Today a number of universities around the country have officially recognized Pagan or Wicca student groups, usually housed under their respective religious student activities departments.

In 2010, Syracuse University appointed its first “Pagan Chaplain” of Hendricks Chapel, its interdenominational place of worship. Others, like Air Force, have followed suit, including designating specific areas on campus for pagan or spiritual worship.

In 2014, Loyola University Chicago — a Catholic institution — christened a new pagan student club. Also that year, the University of Washington’s student newspaper launched a column dedicated to delving into Wiccanism.

A 2015 report in Inverse argued that the increase in interest might also be traced to a passion for the environment, as well as a decreased interest in organized religion among young people.

The piece, headlined “As Students Tackle Privilege and the Environment, Paganism Grows on Campus,” went on to note that: “In 1998 the Pagan Educational Network received its first request from a student who wanted to start her own on-campus pagan group. Now colleges from the University of Texas to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have their own student pagan groups, while institutions such as the University of Arizona allow Pagan-identified students to be excused from class on Wiccan holidays.”

“I think one of the things that really helped solidify for me that Paganism was the path for me was the almost complete freedom I had,” the vice president of the Pagan Student Union at the University of Baltimore told Inverse. “There is no one holy text we all must read, there is no organized church service which is mandatory to attend, there is no concept of original sin or any pressure to be perfect people. Paganism is exactly what you want it to be.”

While many news reports note the rise in interest in paganism or wiccanism among millennials, they are also quick to note it’s not a huge or overwhelming one.

Indeed, a search by The College Fix found a number of student Wicca organization websites are defunct or haven’t been updated in over a decade, suggesting they dissolved or no longer exist.

The University of Chicago, Rutgers, Syracuse, The Air Force Academy, Illinois State University, University of Southern Maine, Concordia University, Drew University, and Chapman University all have or have had functioning clubs, according to an Internet search.

The College Fix reached out to all of the student groups listed above, none could be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the growing interest in paganism and Wicca can be traced back to at least 2002, when a Fox News headline noted: “Wicca Casts Spell Over College Students.”

“Members of Syracuse University’s Pagan Society lighted candles in the campus chapel, while curious students signed up for a new class on witchcraft,” Fox News reported. “Anthony Paige, a recent SUNY Purchase College graduate who started a pagan student group there, said Wicca appeals to some college students because ‘there is no sense of sin.’”

By most accounts, Wiccan and pagan beliefs have at least become more mainstream.

Catherine Edwards Sanders chronicles this in her 2005 book “Wicca’s Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality.”

In it, she loosely defines Wicca as “monistic and pantheistic beliefs that all living things are of equal value. … Humans have no special place, nor are they made in God’s image. … Wiccans believe that they possess divine power within themselves and that they are gods and goddesses. …Consciousness can and should be altered through rite and ritual.”

Sanders also notes most Wiccans do not believe in Satan, but they do believe evil exists.

“Wiccans, as a rule, are not consciously or deliberately worshiping Satan,” she writes. “Whether they are unconsciously worshipping him is an issue on which Wiccans will differ with Christians.”

MORE: Catholic university launches pagan student club

https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/38436/

My comments: Satan is preparing the Whole World to receive his son, the Beast of Revelation, the Antichrist, as their "god," and they will worship him  and receive his "mark," Damning themselves to and Eternal Hell. (Revelation 13)

DEPRESSION RISING FOR YOUNG U.S. TEENS

Depression rates rising fast for young U.S. teens

It’s enough to give you the blues: Depression is on the rise in the U.S., and young teens are most susceptible.

That’s the eye-opening finding of a new Columbia University study, said to be the first to identify trends in depression by gender, income and education. Researchers analyzed depression rates of Americans age 12 and up over a 10-year period ending in 2015.

In general, the rate rose from 6.6% to 7.3%. The rise among those ages 12 to 17 increased from 8.7% in 2005 to 12.7% in 2015.

The study is led by mental health expert Renee Goodwin of the Department of Epidemiology at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia and based on findings from 607,520 respondents to the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey includes people ages 12 and up.

Smartphone apps can help treat mild depression: study

Major depression is associated with “significant disability, morbidity and mortality,” authors note in the journal Psychological Medicine.

“Depression appears to be increasing among Americans overall, and especially among youth,” Goodwin said. “Because depression impacts a significant percentage of the U.S. population and has serious individual and societal consequences, it is important to understand whether and how the prevalence of depression has changed over time so that trends can inform public health and outreach efforts.”

Authors added that depression “frequently remains undiagnosed, yet it is among the most treatable mental disorders.”

Further research into understanding the “macro level, micro level, and individual factors that are contributing to the increase in depression, including factors specific to demographic subgroups, would help to direct public health prevention and intervention efforts,” researchers concluded.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/depression-rates-rising-fast-young-u-s-teens-article-1.3599718

HOW TRUMP CAN SHUT DOWN MUELLER'S INVESTIGATION

Begging Your Pardon, Mr. President

How Trump can shut down the special counsel probe and leave the Russia investigations to Congress.

By 

David B. Rivkin Jr. and

 

Lee A. Casey

Oct. 29, 2017 2:38 p.m. ET

The Trump presidency has been consumed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s efforts to uncover collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Mr. Mueller reportedly has secured one or more indictments that he will announce Monday. Some Republicans now seek a new special counsel to investigate if the Clinton Campaign “colluded” with Russians to smear Candidate Trump, along with other aspects of the Clintons’ relationship with Russia and Russian nationals. But one special counsel already is one too many.

Clockwise from top left, Presidents Ford, Washington, Lincoln and Carter all used the pardon power in politically charged cases.PHOTO: WHITE HOUSE COLLECTION/WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

During the 1980s and ’90s, American politics was repeatedly distorted, and lives devastated, through the appointment of independent counsels under the post-Watergate Ethics in Government Act. These constitutionally anomalous prosecutors were given unlimited time and resources to investigate officials, including President Clinton, and scandals, such as Iran-Contra. Once appointed, almost all independent counsels built little Justice Departments of their own and set out to find something—anything—to prosecute. Hardly anyone lamented the expiration of this pernicious law in 1999.

But special counsels, appointed by the attorney general and in theory subject to Justice Department oversight, haven’t proved any better in practice. Mr. Mueller’s investigation has already morphed into an open-ended inquiry. It is examining issues—like Donald Trump’s private business transactions—that are far removed from the Russian question. It also has expanded its focus beyond the original question of collusion with the Russians to whether anyone involved in the Russia investigation has committed some related offense. That is evident from investigators’ efforts to interview White House aides who were not involved in the 2016 campaign, and from leaks suggesting that Mr. Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey might have “obstructed” justice.

That claim is frivolous, and it damages America’s constitutional fabric even to consider it. A president cannot obstruct justice through the exercise of his constitutional and discretionary authority over executive-branch officials like Mr. Comey. If a president can be held to account for “obstruction of justice” by ending an investigation or firing a prosecutor or law-enforcement official—an authority the constitution vests in him as chief executive—then one of the presidency’s most formidable powers is transferred from an elected, accountable official to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats and judges.

Mr. Mueller’s investigation has been widely interpreted as partisan from the start. Mr. Trump’s opponents instantaneously started talking of impeachment—never mind that a special counsel, unlike an independent counsel, has no authority to release a report to Congress or the public. Mr. Trump’s supporters count the number of Democratic donors on the special-counsel staff. The Mueller investigation is fostering tremendous bitterness among Trump voters, who see it as an effort by Washington mandarins to nullify their votes.

Mr. Trump can end this madness by immediately issuing a blanket presidential pardon to anyone involved in supposed collusion with Russia or Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign, to anyone involved with Russian acquisition of an American uranium company during the Obama administration, and to anyone for any offense that has been investigated by Mr. Mueller’s office. Political weaponization of criminal law should give way to a politically accountable democratic process. Nefarious Russian activities, including possible interference in U.S. elections, can and should be investigated by Congress.

Partisan bitterness will not evaporate if lawmakers take up the investigation. But at least those conducting the inquiry will be legitimate and politically accountable. And the question of whether Russia intervened in the 2016 election, and of whether it made efforts to influence U.S. policy makers in previous administrations, is first and foremost one of policy and national security, not criminal law.

The president himself would be covered by the blanket pardon we recommend, but the pardon power does not extend to impeachment. If Congress finds evidence that he was somehow involved in collusion with Russia, the House can determine whether to begin impeachment proceedings. Congress also is better equipped, as part of its oversight role, to determine whether and how the FBI, Justice Department and intelligence agencies might have been involved in the whole affair, including possible misuse of surveillance and mishandling of criminal investigations.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/begging-your-pardon-mr-president-1509302308

THE LEFT UNHINGED

THAT OTHER PLOT – TO BRING DOWN TRUMP

Pat Buchanan: 'The real indictment here is of the American political system'

Well over a year after the FBI began investigating “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Vladimir Putin, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has brought in his first major indictment.

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been charged with a series of crimes dating back years, though none is tied directly to President Donald Trump or 2016.

With a leak to CNN that indictments were coming, Mueller’s office stole the weekend headlines. This blanketed the explosive news on a separate front, as the dots began to be connected on a bipartisan plot to bring down Trump that began two years ago.

And like “Murder of the Orient Express,” it seems almost everyone on the train had a hand in the plot.

The narrative begins in October 2015.​

Then it was that the Washington Free Beacon, a neocon website, engaged a firm of researchers called Fusion GPS to do deep dirt-diving into Trump’s personal and professional life – and take him out.

A spinoff of Bill Kristol’s The Weekly Standard, the Beacon is run by his son-in-law. And its Daddy Warbucks is the GOP oligarch and hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer.

From October 2015 to May 2016, Fusion GPS dug up dirt for the neocons and never-Trumpers. By May, however, Trump had routed all rivals and was the certain Republican nominee.

So the Beacon bailed, and Fusion GPS found two new cash cows to finance its dirt-diving – the DNC and the Clinton campaign.

To keep the sordid business at arm’s length, both engaged the party’s law firm of Perkins Coie. Paid $12.4 million by the DNC and Clinton campaign, Perkins used part of this cash hoard to pay Fusion GPS.

Here is where it begins to get interesting.

In June 2016, Fusion GPS engaged a British spy, Christopher Steele, who had headed up the Russia desk at MI6, to ferret out any connections between Trump and Russia.

Steele began contacting old acquaintances in the FSB, the Russian intelligence service. And the Russians began to feed him astonishing dirt on Trump that could, if substantiated, kill his candidacy.

Among the allegations was that Trump had consorted with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel, that the Kremlin was blackmailing him, that there was provable collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

In memos from June to October 2016, Steele passed this on to Fusion GPS, which passed it on to major U.S. newspapers. But as the press was unable to verify it, they declined to publish it.

Steele’s final product, a 35-page dossier, has been described as full of “unsubstantiated and salacious allegations.”

Steele’s research, however, had also made its way to James Comey’s FBI, which was apparently so taken with it that the bureau considered paying Steele to continue his work.

About this “astonishing” development, columnist Byron York of the Washington Examiner quotes Sen. Chuck Grassley:

“The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for president in the run-up to the election raises … questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends.”

The questions begin to pile up.

What was the FBI’s relationship with the British spy who was so wired into Russian intelligence?

Did the FBI use the information Steele dug up to expand its own investigation of Russia-Trump “collusion”? Did the FBI pass what Steele unearthed to the White House and the National Security Council?

Like the reporting you see here? Sign up for free news alerts from WND.com, America’s independent news network.

Did the Obama administration use the information from the Steele dossier to justify unmasking the names of Trump officials who had been picked up on legitimate electronic intercepts?

In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed they did not know that Perkins Coie had enlisted Fusion GPA or the British spy to dig up dirt on Trump.

Yet, when Podesta testified, the lawyer sitting beside him in the committee room was Marc Elias of Perkins Coie, who had engaged Fusion GPS and received the fruits of Steele’s undercover work.

Here one is tempted to cite Bismarck that, if you wish to enjoy politics or sausages, you should not inquire too closely how they are made.

Thus we have Free Beacon neocons, never-Trump Republicans, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC, a British spy and comrades in Russian intelligence, and perhaps the FBI, all working with secret money and seedy individuals to destroy a candidate they could not defeat in a free election.

If future revelations demonstrate that this is what went down, it is not only the White House that has major problems.

If you wish to know why Americans detest politics and hate the “swamp” that has been made of their capital city, follow this story all the way to its inevitable end. It will be months of unfolding.

The real indictment here is of the American political system, and the true tragedy is the decline of the Old Republic.

 http://www.wnd.com/2017/10/that-other-plot-to-bring-down-trump/

FRANCE: COURT ORDERS CROSS ON STATUE OF ST. JOHN PAUL II REMOVED

French Sharia: Court Orders Cross on Statue of Saint John Paul II Removed

By Grizzly Joe - on October 30, 2017

If Muslim jihadists have their way, the entirety of Europe will one day be part of the savage global caliphate. This year Europe has seen a jihad terror attack attempt every nine days. France alone has witnessed the savagery of the Charlie Hebdo attack, with twelve killings as well as the Bataclan Eagles of Death Metal slaughter that resulted in the deaths of 80 concert goers. 

France also is home to Muslim-infested no-go zones, where even the bravest gendarme dare not tread without massive back-up, if they enter the area at all.

Instead of resisting the Muslim threat, French authorities pave the way for the invasion by rolling over, playing dead, and appeasing Muslim “sensibilities” by enforcing the sharia. 

A French court has ordered a cross above a statue of Saint John Paul II removed due to the threat posed by, wait for it, Christian symbols!

From Breitbart:

The French administrative court has ordered the removal of a cross from a monument to Saint John Paul II in a public square in the northwest of France, saying it violates the secular nature of the state.

Italian media noted the irony of the ruling, remarking that the cross-removal is not taking place “in Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State in Syria, but in Brittany, in the heart of Western Europe.”

The Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest administrative court, ruled last week that the statue of the Polish Pope in Ploërmel, Brittany, could remain but the large cross above the monument must be eliminated.

“Since the cross is a religious sign or emblem within the meaning of Article 28 of the Law of 9 December 1905 and its installation by the municipality does not fall into any of the exceptions provided by this article, its presence in a public location is contrary to this law,” argued the French court.

The law of 1905, which separates Church and State, forbids “raising or affixing any symbol or religious emblem on public monuments or in any public place,” with the exception of museums, cemeteries and places of worship.

The 25-foot high monument was donated to mayor Paul Anselin by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli in 2006 and erected in a town square. The sculpture depicts Pope John Paul standing in prayer with his hands clasped, with a simple arch above him, surmounted by a cross.

In 2015, the Rennes tribunal had already ordered the removal of the entire statue but upon appeal, the high court allowed the statue to remain, provided the offending cross disappears.

The city of Ploërmel now has six months to eliminate the cross, and must pay €3000 to the National Federation of Free Thought (Fédération nationale de la libre-pensée), which has been leading the legal battle to have the statue removed since 2015.

Over the weekend social networks in France lit up with the viral hashtag #MontreTaCroix (“Show your cross”), with which many Internet users have shared images of crosses taken everywhere around the country. Many have used the campaign to recall France’s Christian roots, calling the symbol inseparable from the history of France.

Gilles Pennelle, the president of the National Front party in Brittany’s Regional Council, pointed out the paradox that “the French court allows burkinis on the beaches but bans a cross over the statue of John Paul II in Ploërmel.”

For his part, the current mayor of Ploërmel, Patrick Le Diffon, did not rule out bringing the case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

“The statue is part of the landscape of Ploërmel for twelve years, and it does not disturb the inhabitants,” he said. “On the contrary, it is an undeniable tourist asset for the municipality. The mayor added that “this monument is a work of art and it requires the authorization from the artist to modify it.”

The Polish Prime Minister, Beata Szydło also weighed in on the argument, complaining of “censorship” and saying that if the cross must come down the statue should be transferred to Poland where it will be appreciated.

“The Polish government will try to save the monument of our compatriot from censorship, and we will propose to transfer it to Poland, if French authorities and the local community agree,” she said, adding that Pope John Paul “is a symbol of united Christian Europe.”

Poland may have some competition, however. A Hungarian elementary school has also stepped forward to request the cross if the French remove it.

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https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/france-remove-saint-cross.html/

My comments: France is committing National Suicide, as is most of Europe.