Is the Pope a heretic?
He blesses practices that are "an abomination unto the Lord" (Leviticus 18:22). There have been other bad Popes
Conservative Catholic bishops in various countries have objected to Pope Francis’ recent permission on blessings for gay couples, underscoring the divisiveness of the issue in the global church.
The bishops of Zambia, Malawi and the principal archdiocese of Kazakhstan prohibited their priests from offering such blessings. The bishops of Ukraine lamented what they called a recent Vatican declaration’s wording, which they warned could suggest approval of gay behaviour.
Meanwhile, bishops in some European countries including Germany, Austria and Switzerland welcomed the new policy.
On Monday, the Vatican issued guidelines for the blessing of gay couples, saying that such ceremonies are permitted as long as they don’t imply that same-sex relationships are the equivalent of heterosexual marriage. Monday’s declaration confirmed and elaborated on a letter by the pope released in October.
The Zambian bishops declared in response that they would not implement the new Vatican guidelines, “in order to avoid any pastoral confusion and ambiguity as well as not to break the law of our country which forbids same sex unions and activities, and while listening to our cultural heritage which does not accept same sex relationships.” In his Christmas speech to Vatican officials on Thursday morning, Francis didn’t mention the policy on blessings, but called for vigilance “against rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward.”
Francis has taken a conciliatory approach to LGBTQ people, without formally changing church teaching, which holds that gay acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.” In 2021, he approved a Vatican statement prohibiting blessings on the grounds that God “cannot bless sin,” but he reversed the ban this year.
Catholic priests in Germany and some other northern European countries have for years held ceremonies to bless same-sex couples, in defiance of the Vatican’s earlier ban.
In March, Germany’s Catholic bishops voted in favour of adopting formal ceremonies to bless same-sex relationships. Bishop Georg Bätzing, head of the German bishops’ conference, expressed gratitude for the new Vatican guidelines this week, even though they specify that blessings of gay couples must be spontaneous and not part of the official liturgy.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which largely opposes Francis’ liberalising agenda, issued a terse response to Monday’s guidelines from the Vatican, stressing that the document didn’t change the church’s teaching on marriage.
Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., described the declaration as speaking “about offering blessings to people who currently live outside of the way of life commanded by Jesus.” Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, one of the progressive minority in the US episcopate, said: “Here in the Archdiocese of Chicago, we welcome this declaration, which will help many more in our community feel the closeness and compassion of God.” Some Catholic prelates have warned that the issue could provoke a schism, or permanent split in the church, pointing to the more stark divergences over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion.
Conservative Anglican churches, including some in Africa that include nearly half of the world’s estimated 100 million Anglicans, have broken off relations with sister churches that espouse liberal teaching and practice on homosexuality, including the Episcopal Church in the US.
In February, a dozen leading Anglican archbishops, mostly from the global South, called for a break with the Church of England, the historical progenitor of the denomination, after it decided to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships.
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Children of conservative parents are at lower risk of mental illness, study finds: Just 55 percent of adolescents with liberal guardians report 'good or excellent' mental health - compared to 77 percent of those from a right-wing household
Leftists are angry people who hate the world they live in. No wonder their children are unhappy too
A new report shows children raised by conservative parents are at a lower risk of having mental problems than those with progressive upbringings.
The nonpartisan study was conducted by the Brookings Institution, Gallup and the Institute for Family Studies and notes that while, ultimately, a parenting style most determines a relationship with kids, there are differences in liberal and conservative parents.
When asked, only 55 percent of the adolescents of liberal parents reported good or excellent mental health, whereas 77 percent of those with conservative or very conservative parents said they had good or excellent mental health.
'Adolescents with very conservative parents are 16 to 17 percentage points more likely to be in good or excellent mental health compared to their peers with very liberal parents' as a result,
There's is also a gap of 14 percentage points between 'very liberal' and 'very conservative' parents when it comes to whether they are in a good relationship with their adolescent child.
'Very conservative parents, on average, enjoy the strongest relationships with their adolescent children, and liberals experience the worst,' Rothwell claims.
The study tried to research the parent-child relationship from both sides, asking both parents and children survey questions.
'This relationship between conservativism and parenting remains significant even after controlling for an extensive list of parental demographic and socio-economic measures,' he writes.
Rothwell claims conservative parents are more likely to use more traditionally effective parenting strategies than liberals. Conservatives are more likely to 'effectively discipline their children, while also displaying affection and responding to their needs.'
The study believes conservative parents also value their own marriages more which provides a better relationship with kids as they grown into teens.
Parents who use an 'authoritative' parenting style have more mentally healthy kids, which conservatives are more likely to use.
There are two parenting styles that Rothwell says leads to bad outcomes, defined as 'authoritarian' and 'permissive.'
'Authoritative' is described by the study as 'warm, responsive, and rule-bound, disciplined parenting.'
'Authoritarian' is seen as more 'cold or harsh.'
The study was done after the Children's Hospital Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry declared 'a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health' in 2021.
They found that 42 percent of all high school students experienced 'persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness,' including 60 percent of teen girls.
From 2007 to 2021, youth suicide skyrocketed a staggering 62 percent.
They also argue that COVID has been detrimental to adolescent mental health, with teenagers dying 18 times more from despair than the virus between 2020 and 2023.
'Mental health problems in early adolescence predict mental health problems in adulthood, with wide-ranging implications for individuals, families, communities, and society,' Rothwell writes.
'One's capacity for developing and maintaining relationships and participating productively and competently in social affairs' is largely dependent on that individual's mental state during adolescence.'
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The Rise of Black Support for Trump
Fearing backlash, some black people feel they can only whisper, "I'm voting for Trump." But others are becoming louder and prouder in voicing support for former President Donald Trump.
Mark Fisher, co-founder of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) group in Rhode Island, made waves recently with his endorsement of the former president. "I knew I was going to pay a price for it," Mr. Fisher told The Epoch Times, "but I felt like the benefit of doing it far outweighed the cost of me playing it safe."
Mr. Fisher said he felt obligated "to clear a path" for those who think the way he does. He and other pro-Trump black people are considered renegades.
That's partly because President Trump's foes have tried to brand him as a racist unworthy of votes from black Americans. But it's also because he's a Republican.
For generations, black leaders and churches have encouraged black people to vote for Democrats, including President Joe Biden.
But the tide seems to be turning. Opinion polls are showing that more black people are willing to break rank, as Mr. Fisher did.
Since President Trump's win in 2016, black support for him has more than tripled, now exceeding 20 percent in some surveys.
Polling suggests that black people and other minorities who once spurned President Trump now appear willing to give his candidacy a fresh look—a trend that could help spell the difference between victory and defeat in the 2024 election.
Three main factors appear to be spurring black people to pivot toward President Trump, according to Mr. Fisher and others who spoke to The Epoch Times: the economy, the criminal justice system, and the influence of other black people going public with their support.
Americans are continuing to feel the pinch of economic conditions under President Biden. Just about everyone, regardless of skin color, feels the weight of higher prices for groceries, gasoline, housing, and other essentials; for months, polls have been showing that a vast majority of citizens disapprove of the president's economic policies, dubbed "Bidenomics."
People are also noticing the justice system's seemingly unjust treatment of President Trump—a fate many black people have experienced.
"They're saying to themselves: 'Now wait a minute; this looks very familiar,'" Mr. Fisher said. "Subconsciously, that's a powerful thing."
Black people also lament that authorities are letting violent crime and illegal immigrants run amok, while they're targeting President Trump and others for alleged nonviolent offenses.
Having prominent black people, including musicians, revealing pro-Trump opinions, has emboldened others to do the same.
Mr. Fisher said these endorsements made him feel he wasn't alone; those trailblazers inspired him to come out of the shadows.
"I saw other black people expressing themselves, displaying courage and independent thought, not being afraid of what other people think about them," he said. "And I felt that my community needed me to do that too."
Strong Reactions
Although Mr. Fisher said he "took a lot of heat" for endorsing President Trump, he also got "a lot of powerful, impactful, and profound messages from people all around the world," along with interview requests from as far away as Japan.
President Trump thanked Mr. Fisher with a surprise phone call and a dinner invitation. Some people excoriated the former president for doing so, considering Mr. Fisher's history with BLM.
President Trump and BLM have accused each other of sowing seeds of hatred and violence.
"I feel like the white racists hate me and the black racists hate me," Mr. Fisher said. "But what I'm doing is separating the wheat from the chaff. I'm creating a safe space for all those who want to be on the right side of history, who want to come together for the betterment of America and improvement of the people of America.
"People are welcome to join in on that vision, or walk away from it. It's that simple."
This fall, before Mr. Fisher revealed his support for President Trump, black rapper Waka Flocka Flame posted a profile picture of himself alongside President Trump on X, formerly Twitter. Separately, he posted: "TRUMP2024."
The photo attracted at least 13.5 million views. It also sparked controversy for the rapper, who had previously made derogatory remarks about the former president.
Top Trump adviser Bruce LeVell told The Epoch Times that the musical artist had quietly begun shifting toward the former president some time ago; Mr. LeVell and Waka Flocka Flame met in 2022 and posed for a photo together.
Being Informed
Other black people, whether prominent or not, are starting to realize that Big Tech companies and government agencies worked together to suppress and twist information about President Trump, other political figures, and many hot-button issues in society, Mr. LeVell said.
“This is, as I call it, ‘The Season of Exposure,’" he said. "And the great lies are being exposed."
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/the-rise-of-black-support-for-trump-5515133
**********************************************Mealy-mouthed slacktivists fail Israelis and Palestinians
On the night of April 14, 2014, Islamic terrorists stormed a government girls’ secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria, kidnapping 276 mostly Christian young girls aged between 16 and 18. This horrendous act gave rise to a global movement identified primarily by the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Oh, it was a thing all right. All of Hollywood and its hangers-on lent their names to the cause.
In a shocking plot twist, the terrorist group Boko Haram did not capitulate when confronted with the full force of highly stylised Instagram posts. #BringBackOur girls was a campaign stellar in visibility, negligent in terms of impact. It was also a powerful example of slacktivism at its finest. As of 2021, 112 of the Chibok schoolgirls were still missing.
Slacktivism: The appearance of standing for something but with absolutely nothing of substance at play and zero cost to the individual or organisation. It usually comes with a healthy dose of signalling virtue.
This is what we’re seeing play out in Australia and across the world as the war against Hamas continues. From a range of social media and reality TV stars who fancy themselves as geopolitically savvy, whose ignorance is matched only by hubris, to governments who talk a big game but can’t back it up.
Free Palestine. From the river to the Sea. All lives matter (more on that one in a moment).
Israel paid the greatest price on October 7 and continues to do so. What nobody seems to have the courage to say is that Israel is doing what the West has been to weak, possibly too lazy and too cowardly to do for decades – confront and eliminate Hamas. The same Hamas that hasn’t held an election in Gaza since 2006. The same Hamas that this government declared to be a terror organisation last year.
Free Palestine? Yes! From the tyranny of a terrorist government and if you think that will happen via diplomacy or without conflict, you are no student of history.
Israel is doing the world’s heavy lifting. To deny that is to deny the truth and by extension to say that countries such as Australia, Britain, New Zealand, the US, liberal Western democracies, would willingly invite Hamas to our shores, into our schools, homes and parliaments.
If that is your view, then you are not my countryman. You have a different hope for Australia’s future than I do.
Imagine if in the days following October 7 the global community had immediately demanded Hamas return all hostages, surrender those responsible and have them tried in The Hague for war crimes. This war would be long over and so many civilian lives in Gaza saved.
But slacktivism. The world said: we condemn this brutality. It also said: Israel, go easy on them because all lives matter. Sure, they do. Until of course they don’t. Do the lives of the 138 hostages still hidden in Gaza matter more than those of the Hamas animals keeping them captive? Did the lives of the slain Nova concertgoers matter more than those of the savages who gleefully filmed themselves committing wholesale rape and slaughter?
Does the life of a Palestinian child matter more than terrorists who use his school as a cover? I could go on.
Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people, displaced more than two million in the past decade. In Syria, the Assad regime systematically murders its citizens without so much as a hashtag to contend with.
According to the Syrian network for Human Rights, 501 civilians, including 71 children and 42 women were murdered by documented events of torture in the first half of this year. That’s before you go back over the past decade and count the thousands of victims, many being Palestinians.
Their lives mattered, but not enough to spark a global movement against Syria. No boycott, divestment and sanctions movement; no protests. Nobody saying that Syria shouldn’t exist.
Obviously, Palestinian lives matter. But Palestinian lives in Gaza matter more than the ones in Syria, and more than the Christian girls taken hostage in Nigeria – am I doing it right? The only lives that have been devalued are Israeli dead and the still languishing hostages.
It is unquestionably clear that there is a singular reason the professional activist class has galvanised behind Palestinian Gaza, post-October 7.
I want to propose it’s not for the love of a people, it’s because of an incomprehensible hatred of Israel. A free Palestinian people cannot happen without the end of Hamas and the only nation committed to that outcome is Israel.
Oh, but the fear and (self) loathing in Australia and elsewhere (Ie, writ large in word, deed and indefensible actions of hatred and anti-Semitism. The absolute nonsense, historically illiterate silliness coming out of the mouths of so many. It’s easy, I suppose, when there’s no price to pay.
This is a level of blindness that has nothing to do with the biological function of sight. This is what it looks like. It’s what causes people to say that Israel has no right to defend itself. What great price, their freedom.
There is always a cost, for everything. It’s like the person who wants to run a marathon but instead of training, lies on the couch eating chips, or the person who wants a loving healthy relationship but won’t face their own heart and do the work.
Life is full of these complex situations but rarely has one been so clear in the line between right and wrong. An email I received this week, one of many, broke my heart and I share it with permission.
“My kids have grown up thinking it’s normal to have armed guards and policemen manning the doors of our synagogue. How shocking is that in Australia? … Now I lie awake at night wondering how to keep my children safe. Racists will always be around. But when our government, academic, artistic and education institutes start apologising and enabling intolerance … it’s terrifying.”
Each day this war continues, there is more collateral damage like this family. Half a world away, innocent Palestinians are failed by an international community that has chosen words over action at every step.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See
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