Protestant Internet site says the Muslim claim that Allah is the God of the Bible and that Islam arose from the religion of the prophets and apostles is refuted by solid, overwhelming archeological evidence.

A temple of the Moon-god has been excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley. He dug up many examples of moon worship in Ur and these are displayed in the British Museum to this day. Harran was likewise noted for its devotion to the Moon-god. In the 1950’s a major temple to the Moon-god was excavated at Hazer in Palestine. Two idols of the moon god were found. Each was a stature of a man sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved on his chest . The accompanying inscriptions make it clear that these were idols of the Moon-god. Several smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the “daughters” of the Moon-god. What about Arabia? As pointed out by Prof. Coon, “Muslims are notoriously loath to preserve traditions of earlier paganism and like to garble what pre-Islamic history they permit to survive in anachronistic terms.”

In Old Testament times, Nabonidus (555-539 BC), the last king of Babylon, built Tayma, Arabia as a center of Moon-god worship. Segall stated, “South Arabia’s stellar religion has always been dominated by the Moon-god in various variations.” Many scholars have also noticed that the Moon-god’s name “Sin” is a part of such Arabic words as “Sinai,” the “wilderness of Sin,” etc. When the popularity of the Moon-god waned elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the Moon-god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the Kabah in Mecca, the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca was in fact built as a shrine for the Moon-god.

The Muslim’s claim that Allah is the God of the Bible and that Islam arose from the religion of the prophets and apostles is refuted by solid, overwhelming archeological evidence. Islam is nothing more than a revival of the ancient Moon-god cult. It has taken the symbols, the rites, the ceremonies, and even the name of its god from the ancient pagan religion of the Moon-god. As such, it is sheer idolatry and must be rejected by all those who follow the Torah and Gospel.

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Editor’s note – According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”³³⁰

842 The Church’s bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the human race:

All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy city. . .³³¹

843 The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as “a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.”³³²

844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:

Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.³³³

Submitted by AndyP/Doria2

The “feminist” agenda demands perfect worship at the altar of abortion.

Why must women’s sexual choices be subsidized by everyone else? How does that promote women’s independence? What happened to freedom? Didn’t anyone ever tell you that freedom isn’t free?

You and your boss may gladly pay homage to Baby-Killers-R-Us, Inc., but I will not. I recognize that abortion does not empower women; it enslaves them. Abortion is not freedom; it is violence. I look objectively and see that the abortion culture teaches young girls that sex is power and they are primarily “sexual beings”; it teaches them to let themselves be used and discarded by men, and to see their own child as the enemy of their lives. It makes it easy for men to use, abuse, and violate women, and get rid of the “evidence” of their abuse. It leaves women shouldering the entire burden of childbearing alone. It allows the scumbags to walk away, and it forces the good guys to stand powerless while their children are slaughtered.

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Crossroads pro-life walker was praying the Rosary when he was hit by a car and killed.

July 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews,com) – A young man praying the rosary while participating in the Crossroads Pro-Life walks across America was killed when struck by a car in Indiana early Friday morning.

Andrew Moore, 20, of California, was walking along U.S. 40 near Stilesville, Indiana at 5 a.m. when the incident occurred, according to IndyStar.com. Moore died at the scene.

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Editor’s note: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Lies, Damned Lies, and a Spirit of Confusion

“He is a liar and the father of lies,” said Jesus of Satan (John 8:44). They who are committed to holiness must be committed to clarity of intention and speech: “Let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil” (Matthew 5:37).

The lie is the distinguishing feature of evil, because of its self-devouring commitment to what is not: it is an inner vacuity. Shakespeare’s villain Parolles identifies himself as a “corrupter of words,” and the sardonic Porter in Macbeth remarks wryly upon the liar who equivocates his way down the primrose path to perdition.

Orwell’s dystopian regime in 1984 rests upon a ground floor of terror and violence, but its bedrock foundation is the lie: witness the hero Winston Smith’s work at the “Ministry of Truth,” sending precious archival materials down the “memory hole,” where they will be lost forever. It is why Dante situates fraud below violence in the Inferno’s decrepit descent into non-being and idiocy; so we find the giant Nimrod, builder of the heaven-aspiring Tower of Babel, sputtering gibberish, and the consummate liar Satan uttering not a single word, but telling the same old lie again and again with every flap of his bat-like wings, “I rise by my own power.”

The result is, literally, confusion—pouring together, a disorderly mélange, a chaos. I believe, in our day, that we see this linguistic and moral confusion in almost everything that is uttered about the subjects that have us most perplexed: man and woman; marriage and children.

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Confused about your faith, Bunky? This may help!

The Great Heresies By Hilaire Belloc

This free e-book consists of seven chapters:

• Introduction: What is a Heresy?
• Scheme of This Book
• The Arian Heresy
• The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed
• The Albigensian Attack
• What Was the Reformation?
• The Modern Phase (A must-read!)

All of these chapters are provided courtesy of EWTN.

The Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

On June 28, Pope Benedict officially recognized Archbishop Sheen as someone who had lived a life of “heroic virtue,” and declared him “Venerable.” The devout priest from Peoria who became the first televangelist, commanded a weekly audience of 30 million, and appeared on the cover of Time, is now just one step away from beatification, and a second from sainthood, pending two respective miracles. The Vatican is already studying the case of a stillborn child who—having shown no vital signs for 60 minutes—astonishingly came back to life, after his mother prayed for the Archbishop’s intercession.

The advance of Sheen’s cause has elated his many supporters, especially three priests who’ve had a special devotion to it.

Monsignor Hilary Franco, who served as the Archbishop’s assistant when he headed the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in America—and is the only surviving member of his New York household—told me how thankful he was for the announcement: “I am a living witness to Archbishop Sheen’s holiness.”

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Woman dies shortly after having an abortion at Chicago Planned Parenthood facility.

An autopsy done Saturday listed the woman’s cause of death to be hemorrhage, with a cervical dilation and evacuation, as well as an intrauterine pregnancy as contributing causes, according to the medical examiner’s office. Her death was ruled an accident.

Link

Editor’s note: Pray for the poor woman, for the baby, and for everyone else involved in this all too common type of personal tragedy.  Also notice how quickly the pro-abortion Chicago authorities label this an “accident”.

Newly installed Colorado Archbishop and nearly two dozen priests offer memorial Mass for dead and injured theater goers and their families

Aurora, Colo., Jul 20, 2012 / 08:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In his homily following a July 20 mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila reminded a crowd of faithful that though there is evil in the world, there is also mercy.

“Sin, evil and death do not have the last word,” he said, citing Jesus’ victory over death through his resurrection.

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Editor’s note: This is the Catholic Church at its best, doing precisely what it should be doing, at exactly the right time and place. God bless the newly installed Archbishop … all the priests who concelebrated the Mass with him … all those who participated … and of course, all the dead and injured!

6 Traditional Steps to a Proper Catholic Home

1. The King of the Catholic Home

It has been said that the Catholic home should be seen as “The Domestic Church”. With this being said, the Father is the head, the Mother is the beloved spouse, and the children are brought up learning to love and serve the Blessed Trinity. The true head of the Catholic home is Christ, just as the Head of the Church is the Supreme Pontiff, His Holiness. Christ should be known and recognized in each Catholic home as King; the family’s week should be centered around the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and prayer is a must.

2. Proper Prayers

Parents should encourage their children to pray to the Lord Our God, The Blessed Virgin, and the Saints in their own words as well as the traditional prayers of the Church.

Prayers of the Rosary: Sign of the Cross, Apostles’ Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and Fatima Prayer

The Nicene Creed

Blessing before and after meals

Prayer to Guardian Angel

Act of Contrition

Act of Faith

Act of Hope

Act of Charity

Hail, Holy Queen

St. Michael prayer

The Eternal Rest Prayer

The parents are encouraged to also teach these prayers to their children in Latin as well.

“The day the Church abandons her universal tongue [Latin] is the day before she returns to the catacombs” — Pope Pius XII

3. Holy Water

Prayer can be encouraged through the most minor of things, such as placing Holy Water fonts in bedrooms and ones main door. All Catholics should know the use and purpose of Holy Water, St. Teresa of Avila says:

“…There is nothing like holy water to put devils to flight and prevent them from coming back again. They also flee from the cross, but return; so holy water must have great value.”

Parents too should bless their own children with Holy Water, by signing them on their foreheads. Lastly, each child should have a Blessed (by a priest) Crucifix in their bedrooms above their beds. The child should be taught to kneel when rising and going to bed and say their prayers with their parents.

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Quiz: What do Catholic Relief Services and Melinda Gates have in common?

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), “the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops” has recently given millions to an organization that doles out contraceptives, including abortifacient ‘emergency contraception.’

The most recent CRS annual returns (2010) indicate that the largest CRS grant — $5.3 million — went to CARE, an international “relief and development organization,” that actively promotes and provides contraceptives for women in developing countries, and supports pro-abortion groups and legislation.

According to the 2010 990s, CRS gave $5,380,466 to CARE, which is noted on page 86 of the filing.

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An American Nun Responds To Vatican Criticism

On abortion

“I think the criticism of what we’re not talking about seems to me to be unfair. Because [Women] Religious have clearly given our lives to supporting life, to supporting the dignity of human persons. Our works are very much pro-life.

(Ed: Except when you actively condone and promote the destruction of unborn babies, which is what many of these “sisters” are known to do.)

We would question, however, any policy that is more pro-fetus than actually pro-life. If the rights of the unborn trump all of the rights of all of those who are already born, that is a distortion, too if there’s such an emphasis on that.

(Ed: The only other way to do this is to support abortion on demand. And that is what many of these “sisters” are all about.)

However, we have sisters who work in right-to-life issues. We also have many, many ministries that support life. We dedicate to our lives to those on the margins of society, many of whom are considered throwaway people: the impaired, the chronically mentally ill, the elderly, the incarcerated, to the people on death row.

(Ed: What she’s saying is that it’s OK to kill babies if you do other good work. Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood wholeheartedly agree!)

We have strongly spoken out against the death penalty, against war, hunger. All of those are right-to-life issues. There’s so much being said about abortion that is often phrased in such extreme and such polarizing terms that to choose not to enter into a debate that is so widely covered by other sectors of the Catholic Church and we have been giving voice to other issues that are less covered but are equally as important.

“Our concern is that right-to-life issues be seen across a whole spectrum and are not narrowly defined. … To single out one right-to-life issue and to say that that’s the only issue that defines Catholic identity, I think, is really a distortion.”

(Ed: There are no issues that are “equally as important” as the wanton destruction of human life in the womb. The old “Seamless Garment” strategy was a shabby political construct of the 1970’s and 80’s. It is no better, and equally disingenuous today!)

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Editor’s note: The carefully crafted liberal doublespeak employed by this woman is blatantly obvious, as are the motives of NPR. Let’s be honest: the policies and practices of the LCWR are much more in keeping with the Socialist Democratic Party of the United States than the Roman Catholic Church.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s investigation determines Obama birth certificate is a fake.

Mike Zullo, the posse’s chief investigator, said numeric codes on certain parts of the birth certificate indicate that those parts weren’t filled out, yet those sections asking for the race of Obama’s father and his field of work or study were completed.

Zullo said investigators previously didn’t know the meaning of codes but they were explained by a 95-year-old former state worker who signed the president’s birth certificate. Zullo said a writer who published a book about Obama’s birth certificate and was aiding investigators let them listen in on an interview he conducted of the former state worker.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on Arpaio’s allegations.

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The Obama administration is essentially engaging in a witch hunt against pro-lifers.

From the moment the new administration took office, the DOJ has been targeting peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors.  They have come out guns blazing on several occasions often bringing allegations that could later not be substantiated or in some cases clearly proven to be false.  Their weapon of choice – the FACE act.  The DOJ is using tactics that amount to legal extortion.  They have filed these frivolous claims against innocent people who don’t have the finances to hire big shot attorneys.  The DOJ then kindly offers to settle the case if the counselor simply agrees to stay so many yards away and pay a couple thousand dollar fine.

Pro-bono legal foundations like LLDF, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Liberty Counsel have taken a stand to defend these innocent pro-lifers.  Thankfully the sidewalk counselors have either had witnesses or video evidence to defend their actions.  The DOJ has outright dismissed charges in two cases, walking away with egg on their face.  In one case, a federal court judge issued a scathing opinion questioning the motives of the DOJ for bringing such unsubstantiated charges in the first place.  The judge suggested that there might have been a conspiracy between the government and the abortion clinic to violate the free speech rights of the pro-life advocates.

Read more from Jill Stanek

Catholic family business sees “growth” in being unabashedly pro-life

CINCINNATI, Ohio, July 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A huge national food manufacturing company in the U.S. does more than just deliver great-tasting prepackaged meals – it delivers them with a pro-life flair.

JTM Food Group, which boasted $100 million in sales just last year, delivers their meals to schools, restaurants, the military, and government organizations using 20 semitrailers, each displaying a prodigious image of a beautiful smiling baby on the rear panel with the words “Life, what a beautiful choice.” The bottom reads: “JTM: A Right to Life Company.”

“It’s our opportunity to witness,” said Tony Maas, CEO of the business, which has been family owned and operated for three generations, to LifeSiteNews in an interview. Maas owns and runs JTM along with his three brothers who all share the same pro-life convictions.

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On the histority, dating, and veracity of the Gospel accounts

Given the fact that the study of history must be biased, it is much better therefore if the pretense of objectivity is dropped. Much clearer if we know ahead of time that a historical study is written from a particular point of view. We can then make allowances for the bias and read other works from other perspectives to achieve balance. If I know that a particular historian is a Marxist or a feminist or a post-modern atheist I will understand their bias on history and the more they are open about it, while still trying to be as objective as possible, the better will the exercise be.

So, to return to the gospels, we have before us documents that purport to record historical events. The gospel says they are written “so that you might know that Jesus is Christ the Son of God.” They are derived from the experience of the first Christian community and written to help convert people to the Christian faith. Therefore we are well aware of the bias and the intention of the documents. Does this disqualify them completely?

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Pro Life Student Awards – 2012 Chicago Banquet

We have some amazing students! It is with great pride that we were able to honor some of them at this year’s banquet.

Text/photos/video

Poles honor Reagan, John Paul II with new statue

GDANSK, Poland (AP) — Polish officials unveiled a statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II on Saturday, honoring two men widely credited in this Eastern European country with helping to topple communism 23 years ago.

The statue was unveiled in Gdansk, the birthplace of Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement, in the presence of about 120 former Solidarity activists, many of whom were imprisoned in the 1980s for their roles in organizing or taking part in strikes against the communist regime.

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The trends unleashed in the 1960’s threw all of American Christianity into crisis.

Yet instead of attracting a younger, more open-minded demographic with these changes, the Episcopal Church’s dying has proceeded apace. Last week, while the church’s House of Bishops was approving a rite to bless same-sex unions, Episcopalian church attendance figures for 2000-10 circulated in the religion blogosphere. They showed something between a decline and a collapse: In the last decade, average Sunday attendance dropped 23 percent, and not a single Episcopal diocese in the country saw churchgoing increase.

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A study in differences: The state of the Catholic Church – and the world – before Vatican II – and after.

Before Vatican II:

Faith, reason, and grace-giving sacraments … in addition to almost 2,000 years of Catholic tradition, philosophy and scholarship … served to assist Catholics in making rational and morally upright life decisions … for their own sake, for the glory of God, for the good of the Catholic Church, and for the common good of all mankind.

After Vatican II:

Change has come to the Catholic Church. Virtually all that came before is now irrelevant.

Personal conscience … enlightened by modern secular thought … is king.

A disoriented/disordered Magisterium fails to provide a suitable and practical replacement for that which they permitted to be summarily discarded.

Many Catholics no longer have a sound basis for making rational and morally upright life decisions. Ditto for the rest of the world. Corruption abounds … in the Church … and at every level of society. The earth rapidly descends into chaos.

Welcome to the Brave New World!   

Editor’s note: There are some signs of a turn-around. Where there is grace … there is hope!

Catholic doctor explains importance of having babies God’s way vs man’s way

Dr. Anthony J. Caruso is a Chicago-area Catholic physician who has an ambitious and praiseworthy plan: to establish the St. Anne Center for Reproductive Health, whose mission “is to promote the health and well-being of the local population by providing accessible, high-quality medical care for people of all ages, following the model set forth by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.”

Dr. Caruso writes:

“I am a board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist who practiced in the [in vitro fertilization] world for 15 years. After seeing the damage that these treatments were causing couples and the complete commodification of life, fueled by a deeper understanding of my Roman Catholic faith, I left the field in 2010. I am currently praying for an end to the culture of death, and hoping to one day have the funding to open the St. Anne Center for Reproductive Heath, to provide options for people with challenges to conceive with support and care to follow God’s will.”

Read more from Matt C. Abbott