How old is your church?

Recently, our church has been cooperating with a rather new congregation/church called Rock City.  I'd never heard of it until about 5 years ago when I went to an early movie at the Lenox Center, and found that the church had rented the theater and had about 5 services before noon! It was created in 2011 from a Bible study group. They were so loud, we could actually hear them in some of the other theater spaces.  Now they've grown, and are also having services on Sunday at our local high school and expanding to other suburban locations.  So, as far as I know, this is a pastor-based, rock music service, Christian church, not tied to classic Protestantism like Lutherans, or Presbyterians or Methodists, and not having any authority but its pastor and his advisors, but I'll do a bit more research.  It's the everyone's a pope phenomenon of American Christianity.

Here's an interesting outline--I'd seen something similar on Facebook, although not as complete. Of course, all Christian churches/sects will say they were "founded" by Jesus Christ, and for some reason God let the church go dark (his word says this can't happen), and then their particular founder or group (whose names are not given in the Bible) rediscovered the various truths of the church. This list doesn't include groups like Vineyard or Mormons or the various Wesley off-shoots.  But then, there are about 35,000 just in the U.S., so I suppose it would get too complicated. I've added some in italics that are not part of the web site.

Name: The Catholic Church
Founded in: 33 AD
Founded by: Jesus Christ

Name: Orthodox
Founded in: 1054
Founded by: A separation from the Catholic Church

Name: Lutheran Denominations
Founded in: 1517
Founded by: Martin Luther and his disciples

Name: The Church of England
Founded in: 1534
Founded by: King Henry VIII

Name: Presbyterian
Founded in: 1560
Founded by: John Knox (in Scotland) and John Calvin

Name: Congregationalist (most now UCC)
Founded in: 1582
Founded by: Robert Brown

Name: Baptist
Founded in: 1605
Founded by: John Smyth

Name: Dutch Reformed
Founded in:1628
Founded by: Michaelis Jones

Name: Quakers
Founded in: 1652
Founded by: George Fox

Name: Amish
Founded in: 1693
Founded by: Jacob Amman

Name:  Church of the Brethren/Brethren Church
Founded in: 1708
Founded by: Alexander Mack

Name: Methodist
Founded in: 1744
Founded by: John and Charles Wesley

Name: Unitarian
Founded in: 1774
Founded by: Theophilus Lindley

Name: Episcopal
Founded in: 1789
Founded by: Samuel Seabury

Name: Disciples of Christ (Christian Church)
Founded in: 1804
Founded by: Group of Presbyterian Ministers (Campbell movement, Restoration movement)

Name: Seventh Day Adventist
Founded in: 1860
Founded by: Ellen White

Name: Salvation Army
Founded in: 1865
Founded by: William Booth

Name: Christian and Missionary Alliance
Founded in: 1865
Founded by: Albert Simpson

Name: Assemblies of God
Founded in: 1914
Founded by: A group of Pentecostal preachers

Name: United Church of Christ
Founded in: 1957
Founded by: Union of several groups (including those birthed by the Puritans)

Name: Calvary Chapels
Founded in: 1965
Founded by: Chuck Smith

Name: Vineyard
Founded in: 1975
Founded by: Kenn Gulliksen, John Wimber

Name: Rock City Church
Founded in: 2011
Founded by:  a Columbus Bible study group

The real war on women--sex selective abortions

During election years, the Democrats make a big deal about the "war on women," but they are the ones who support abortion for any reason, any time, including sex selection. You might think that's a problem just in Asian countries, but it's a huge problem also in the U.S. among our immigrants or even career couples who desire only one child. American mothers of Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, Cuban and Japanese ethnicity had the highest sex ratio of any American demographic. God has already provided for more male conceptions and births than female, because males are less viable, but aborting a living child in the womb because tests can now show she is a less desired female truly is war. Women have always been the biggest victims of war.

 http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/congress-gets-earful-on-ultimate-war-on-women/#!

 https://www.pop.org/content/worlds-vanishing-children

 http://liveaction.org/gendercide/

 http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Democratic_Party_Abortion.htm

How does any Christian support these people?

My Pony--Friday Family Photo

Are any of my Columbus/central Ohio acquaintances camera collectors? I have a Kodak Pony 135 Camera model C with flash attachment (all pieces including cover and screws) leather case, and instruction book. Just come and get it or pay UPS shipping. I bought it in Fresno, CA in 1957 when I was in Brethren Volunteer Service. So this model is about 60 years old. Don't remember why I thought I just had to have it, but probably only used 2 or 3 rolls of film and the last time I used it was about 1972. This is what they look like.

I

I also bought these neat shoes.

Quite amazing these internet resources

Why buy a book or commentary on scripture written last year by a flash in the pan when you can have one written by Thomas Aquinas? Free.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews by
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Latin and English here. 

And, The Golden Chain is also quite spectacular.  In this Thomas Aquinas pulls together all the early church fathers' commentaries on the four gospels.

50 shades of gender

If progressives have their way with us, men will have no say in what happens to their unborn children, and women will have no say in what happens in the stalls of the restrooms. Last week the head of Planned Parenthood told men to sit down, shut up, and just write the checks when it comes to abortion and Bruce Springsteen told women to shut up and find another place to take of business.


   

http://freedomdaily.com/creepy-man-dressed-woman-arrested-spying-mall-bathroom-stall/

When you see statistics about HIV in women, keep this in mind. In New York City, from 2007-2011, there were 191 new diagnoses of HIV infection among transgender people, 99% of which were among transgender women. This is "self-identification" according to the CDC and the external genitalia doesn't matter. But in gathering data on diseases, they are called "women." Two-Spirit is not yet a category for health.

If you go to the CDC website on treating STDs of transgendered people, you'll see the definition does not include what the genitalia look like or whether they've had hormone shots and breast implants like Bruce Jenner, but it is how they feel about their gender assignment. Springsteen's not siding with "freedom fighters," he's siding with potential perverts. He lost some money in this deal, probably covered by insurance, but mostly it was the fans and the small vendors who have to eat the costs of his ignorance and hypocrisy. Some one percenters are just that inconsiderate.

I didn't think about the airlines collecting data on gender. How long will this be legal, does it discriminate against transgender or questioning and does Bruce Springsteen fly commercial? "Recent research by Javier Donna, assistant professor of economics at Ohio State, examines a large dataset with 6.4 million flight bookings in 2014 to analyze gender differences in the demand for planning business travel. The research finds female travelers book two days earlier than their male counterparts on average. Female travelers save about $17 per trip, or about 2% of the average ticket price."

Vera-Ellen

I am watching On the Town tonight with Vera-Ellen and Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, and I'm thinking, boy! she is thin.  Wonder if that's anorexia.  But it was to get worse. "Vera-Ellen has been thought to have suffered from anorexia before much was known about the disease. The transformation in her appearance is particularly stark between her appearances in On The Town (1949) and White Christmas (1954). In the latter movie, her legs appear less than half the size of just 5 years before." (Wikipedia)

One side effect of anorexia is rapid aging. Many people have asked why Vera-Ellen always covers her neck in "White Christmas" - it is assumed that her neck is where she started to visibly age. She also had a daughter, Victoria Ellen Rothschild, who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Understandably, this was a very traumatic event, and helps to understand why she withdrew from public life. She would divorce her second husband, Victor Rothschild a few years later in 1966. He died in 2008 at the age of 85. It should be stated that while Vera-Ellen did definitely age, as she dropped out of sight, she aged with grace. http://greatentertainersarchives.blogspot.com/2012/12/vera-ellen-later-years.html

It's interesting to read the commenters debating whether she was just slim and gorgeous or anorexic. 

Two white politicians joking about colored people

Colored People's Time, or CPT, or CP Time (also referred to as Black People Time) is an American expression referring to a negative, racist stereotype of African Americans as frequently being late. Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and candidate for president and Bill DeBlasio, mayor of NYC, used the term in a scripted "comedy" routine. Now, black comedians use it (I wasn't familiar with it), and get laughs because it's an insider joke. But where's the outrage? No one announced it on Twitter with the phony mob scene.  The two white folks on stage were rich Democrat politicians, so just look away. Nothing to see.

My friend Joan says, "the news report I read (a story that the media has barely touched, so I would not have even read except that I looked it up phrased the story as mildly as possible, something like "(Clinton and de Blasio) told a joke that MAY HAVE BEEN interpreted as racially insensitive." Then the article went on to explain that it was a scripted joke, which is okay because de Blasio's wife is black. The article seemed to think it was ridiculous for anyone to see the skit as racially demeaning. Such a far cry from media reactions to virtually ANYTHING else involving an interaction between a non-leftist white person and a black person, the black community, or any non-leftist-approved idea - all proof-positive of vicious racial hatred. Remember just yesterday when writing the words "ALL lives matter" expresses racial hatred? Remember how anything negative expressed about the president exemplifies racial hatred?"

DeBlasio's wife is also a former Lesbian.  Can we have some LGBQT jokes next time?

Fundamental transformation

Today’s climate activism “exists to promote the Democratic agenda, whatever it may be this week,” writes Wall St. Journal columnist Holman Jenkins. And that agenda does not include “policies that might actually alter the course of climate change. The president’s power-plant rules, even if climate models are accurate [a huge IF], would affect global temperature a century hence by 0.03 degrees Celsius. His fuel mileage rules, though costly to Detroit and a life-support for Tesla, would have even less effect.” Fundamentally transforming America while helping no one.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/history-of-a-climate-con-1460502164

http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/04/climate-scientists-rip-apart-epas-global-warming-rule/

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-will-not-be-dangerous-for-a-long-time/

The election gets stranger and stranger

And probably more dangerous for us all. Trump not only hasn't read the Constitution, he seems to not understand the basics of the primaries' rules. Admittedly, they are arcane, and virtually impossible to understand, but doesn't he have staff? The locals have been preparing for this for over a year, and he blithely decides he's been cheated because he didn't win.

Socialist Sweden?

Bernie thinks we should be socialists, like Sweden? Not so fast, says this Swede Johan Norberg. Sweden was wealthy before Socialism he assures us, and has fallen in rank, and had to undo much of it. Americans of Swedish heritage are even more successful than the Swedes of Scandinavia. Genes have a lot to do with the success of Sweden. They work hard, and don't like to take hand outs. Let Johan set the record straight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lbRkfsrt1E

 Many of the Swedish services which all enjoy he says are supplied by a fairly brutal system which taxes the poor the most (VAT). The best benefits go to the rich, otherwise they'd leave the country. Late comers (like immigrants) don't have the Swedish values of hard work and trust in government. In the 1980s the tax rates were so high in Sweden, a famous children's author, Astrid Lindgren, owed 102%; the founder of Ikea, billionaire Ingvar Kamprad, left the country due to taxes. So they had to cut taxes and introduce free markets.

Oh, and all have school vouchers so they can choose private or public or religious schools.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/sorry-leftist-americans-your-swedish-utopia-does-not-exist/article/1000785 

"The descendants of Scandinavian migrants in the US combine the high living standards of the US with the high levels of equality of Scandinavian countries. Median incomes of Scandinavian descendants are 20 per cent higher than average US incomes. It is true that poverty rates in Scandinavian countries are lower than in the US. However, the poverty rate among descendants of Nordic immigrants in the US today is half the average poverty rate of Americans – this has been a consistent finding for decades. In fact, Scandinavian Americans have lower poverty rates than Scandinavian citizens who have not emigrated. This suggests that pre-existing cultural norms are responsible for the low levels of poverty among Scandinavians rather than Nordic welfare states. - See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/06/scandinavian-unexceptionalism.html#sthash.ZEBQTBZ0.dpuf

Dashed dreams all around

Dennis Prager said on his show today that in 2008 when Obama was elected, 7 out of 10 Americans thought it was good for race relations, but for different reasons. Whites thought, finally we've proven we're not a racist nation, and Blacks thought, finally our issues will be addressed. Both were wrong, and I don't remember a time in recent history when racial tensions have been worse.

Except for Obama being a Democrat, I was happy in 2008 that a black had been elected. I was one of those naive white folks forgetting that we have a whole industry dependent on keeping the pot stirred.

More on my wonderful chocolate drink

Remember when I was blogging about the wonderful benefits of dark chocolate, for brain and body, including weight loss? Check back here, and here, and here, in case you've forgotten.  After reading about a drink to help cognitive function, I thought, how hard could that be to mix up, so I started making a dark 100% cacao drink (Hersey's brown ribbon container), one to one with Splenda.  But, also, peanut powder for cooking that is 85% less fat is now available, so today I mixed some of the peanut powder with my  chocolate drink, and Shazam!, it was good.  I don't know if it has any health or brain benefits; but I just love the chocolate peanut butter flavor.

Jif is not my peanut butter of choice (I buy Krema), however, it does have handy "to go" packages that are just right for my husband's trips to Haiti.  He misses the regular lunch time due to his schedule and eats peanut butter jelly in the dorm, and these are just perfect.

Highly religious Americans are happier and more involved with family

Pew Research has determined this--but also says highly religious Americans are also no more likely to exercise and eat right or recycle than the not so religious.  Well, go for what's important and work on the less important stuff.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 12, 2016) – A new Pew Research Center study of the ways religion influences the daily lives of Americans finds that people who are highly religious are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and generally happier with the way things are going in their lives.

For example, 47% of highly religious Americans – defined as those who say they pray every day and attend religious services each week – gather with extended family at least once or twice a month. By comparison, just 30% of Americans who are less religious gather as frequently with their extended families. Roughly two-thirds of highly religious adults (65%) say they have donated money, time or goods to help the poor in the past week, compared with 41% who are less religious. And 40% of highly religious U.S. adults describe themselves as “very happy,” compared with 29% of those who are less religious.

However, in several other areas of day-to-day life – including interpersonal interactions, attention to health and fitness, and social and environmental consciousness – Pew Research Center surveys find that people who pray every day and regularly attend religious services appear to be very similar to those who are not as religious.

For instance, highly religious people are about as likely as other Americans to say they lost their temper recently, and they are only marginally less likely to say they told a white lie in the past week. When it comes to diet and exercise, highly religious Americans are no less likely to have overeaten in the past week, and they are no more likely to say they exercise regularly. Highly religious people also are no more likely than other Americans to recycle. And when making decisions about what goods and services to buy, highly religious Americans are no more inclined to consider the manufacturers’ environmental records or whether companies pay employees a fair wage.

Additional key findings in the report include:

Three-quarters of adults – including 96% of members of historically black Protestant churches and 93% of evangelical Protestants – say they thanked God for something in the past week. And two-thirds, including 91% of those in the historically black Protestant tradition and 87% of evangelicals, say they asked God for help during the past week. One-third of religiously unaffiliated Americans say they thanked God for something in the past week, and one-in-four have asked God for help in the past week.

Nearly half of Americans (46%) say they talk with their immediate families about religion at least once or twice a month. About a quarter (27%) say they talk about religion at least once a month with their extended families, and 33% say they discuss religion as often with people outside their families. Having regular conversations about religion is most common among evangelicals and people who belong to churches in the historically black Protestant tradition. By contrast, relatively few religious “nones” say they discuss religion with any regularity.

One-third of American adults (33%) say they volunteered in the past week. This includes 10% who say they volunteered mainly through a church or religious organization and 22% who say their volunteering was not done through a religious organization.

Three-in-ten adults say they meditated in the past week to help cope with stress. Regularly using meditation to cope with stress is more common among highly religious people than among those who are less religious (42% vs. 26%).

Nine-in-ten adults say the quality of a product is a “major factor” they take into account when making purchasing decisions, and three-quarters focus on the price. Far fewer – only about one-quarter of adults – say a company’s environmental responsibility (26%) or whether it pays employees a fair wage (26%) are major factors in their purchasing decisions. Highly religious adults are no more or less likely than those who are less religious to say they consider a company’s environmental record and fair wage practices in making purchasing decisions.

Three-quarters of Catholics say they look to their own conscience “a great deal” for guidance on difficult moral questions. Far fewer Catholics say they look a great deal to the Catholic Church’s teachings (21%), the Bible (15%) or the pope (11%) for guidance on difficult moral questions.

When asked to describe, in their own words, what being a “moral person” means to them, 23% of religious “nones” cite the golden rule or being kind to others, 15% mention being a good person and 12% mention being tolerant and respectful of others.

These are among the latest findings of Pew Research Center’s U.S. Religious Landscape Study. Two previous reports on the Landscape Study, based on a 2014 telephone survey of more than 35,000 adults, examined the changing religious composition of the U.S. public and described the religious beliefs, practices and experiences of Americans. This new report also draws on the national telephone survey but is based primarily on a supplemental survey among 3,278 participants in the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative group of randomly selected U.S. adults surveyed online and by mail. The supplemental survey was designed to go beyond traditional measures of religious behavior – such as worship service attendance, prayer and belief in God – to examine the ways people exhibit (or do not exhibit) their religious beliefs, values and connections in their day-to-day lives.

Trigeminal Neuralgia

Another condition/disease I've never heard of, but am now praying about.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trigeminal-neuralgia/basics/definition/con-20043802

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/trigeminal_neuralgia/detail_trigeminal_neuralgia.htm

 http://www.ninds.nih.gov/find_people/voluntary_orgs/volorg245.htm

http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-TRIN.htm

Big name atheists

". . . most big-name atheists are ex-Protestants or products of Protestant cultures. For Protestants, you actually have a core, inner self – one who either believes or doesn’t believe. So a few days (or years) of doubt can convince you that your identity is “atheist.” A Catholic or Orthodox upbringing, on the other hand, tends to give you the impression that things are messier. You might doubt one day and believe the next, but if you keep going to Mass, then at least part of your identity is religious – because your identity isn’t some inaccessible, unchanging inner “self.” Instead, it’s is shaped and fundamentally defined by your context and social relationships. This way of doing things, while it has its own problems, is less likely to lead to disillusioned atheism than Protestantism is."

I'd never thought about it.

 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/scienceonreligion/2016/01/think-the-muslim-world-needs-to-reform-think-again/

Ignorance about abortion, on both sides

This was written by Abby Johnson who runs a non-profit, And then there were none, to help former abortion workers, of which she was one. She has also had abortions, and is also a Christian.

"Yes, in the United States, a woman can get an abortion until the date of birth. There are several providers who will perform abortions in the third trimester. Many believe that these abortion law only take place for severe fetal anomaly, but that is not the case.

We had a worker leave not too long ago from a late term abortion provider. She said that if they were going to do 10 abortions a day, 8 of them would be past 26 weeks. And out of those 8, 6 would be completely healthy babies.

The laws allow for abortion into the third trimester for physical AND emotional health. What that means is that a woman can walk into a late term abortion provider and state that she is emotionally distressed about her pregnancy and that will be a legitimate excuse (under the law) to terminate her pregnancy up until the date of birth. 

States can legislate to protect babies from abortion in the third trimester. However, there are several states that have absolutely no laws on the books regarding late term abortion.

The bottom line is that healthy babies are killed every day up until the date of birth in the United States. This is what our current laws allow. But in the end, there is no difference in the humanity of a child at 8 weeks compared to a child at 30 weeks. If we are willing to brutally murder an innocent child in the womb during the first and second trimesters without batting an eye, it should be no surprise that we can kill them at any age."

After reading this, are you still "pro-choice," and do you still support Planned Parenthood?

The Dark side of Progressivism

I have read that FDR gave up using the work "progressive" in favor of "liberal."  Today there is a swing back, but many do not recognize it's dark origin.

"Believing that social progress “required the individual to be controlled, liberated and expanded by collective actions,” progressive intellectuals perceived human persons as “lumps of human dough” to be formed on the “social kneading board.”

That molding, [Thomas] Leonard points out [in the book, Illiberal Reformers: race, eugenics, and American economics in the Progressive Era], was to be done “by the best and the brightest, those who, uniquely, ignored profit and power to serve the common good – which is to say, the progressives themselves.”

These experts denied inalienable rights. Their hero, Woodrow Wilson, called them “nonsense.” The editors of the progressive journal, The New Republic, spoke for the movement when it ridiculed individual liberties as “quaint and retrograde.” The leading progressive legal scholar, Roscoe Pound (1879-1964) author of Social Control Through Law, argued the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights “were not needed in the [founders time] and they are not desired in our own.”

Believing that the State superseded even God, progressives encouraged government officials to embrace eugenics – “the social control of human breeding” to rid the nation of perceived undesirables. . .


In addition to supporting literacy tests, forcible sterilization, abortion, and government control of human heredity, Progressives also called for a legal “minimum wage.”

They believed a minimum wage would deter “immigrants and other inferiors from entering the labor force” and would idle “inferior workers already employed.” In other words, given the choice of hiring a native Protestant or immigrant Catholic at the same pay, the employer would undoubtedly hire the superior Protestant. Unemployable inferiors would be institutionalized, sterilized, or banished to work in rural “celibate colonies.”

George J. Marlin

Fear

This is how apostolic authority and succession worked in the first century church

Acts 6:1-7

 

As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the Apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.

The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly;
even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGkS4QR26g 

This is a compilation, mostly from The Journal Home.

Obama's legacy

This can't be all Obama's legacy, but I fear it's what he will become known for as historians evaluate his eight years.

• Forced wedding cakes; 
• men sharing bathrooms with little girls; 
• jail time for not buying health insurance you can't afford; 
• legal marijuana;
• legal euthanasia of the sick and elderly; 
• veterans dying while waiting for treatment; 
• Iran becoming a nuclear power; 
• red lines and lines in the sand  in Syria and Ukraine
• millions dead in the middle east and immigrants swarming all over Europe; 
• phenomenal growth of ISIS; 
• global ridicule; 
• quick rise of crime rate to that of the mid 1990s (so far this is only happening in his home town, but wait til he opens the prisons); 
• opening Cuba for rich American tourists; 
• wealthiest 1% ever

Think this is Obama bashing?  Deny this.

When in your lifetime do you recall before Obama's terms that 

• a business person was required to participate in a celebration of religious intent or lose his business, do jail time, or pay a fine; 
• you were required to purchase a product by the federal government or pay a fine or go to jail; 
• it was legal to buy marijuana, a gateway drug; 
• states were passing laws to allow euthanasia of the elderly or sick; 
• a president campaigned on the tragedy of wait times for VA hospitals, and then did nothing about it; 
• America agreed to Iran becoming a nuclear power with no strings attached after years of sanctions; 
• lines in the sand in Syria, right next to the rubble of buildings, historical sites, and mass graves; 
• there was no ISIS before Obama and his faulty withdrawal from Iraq; 
• the US was a laughing stock around the world--no one would trust the word of our president or Congress;
• the crime rate which had fallen dramatically after the Omnibus Crime Bill of the mid 90s, blacks and other minorities benefited the most, but Obama intends to undo that with the help of his Attorneys General who think there are too many black criminals in prison; 
• the US would get nothing of his grand opening of Cuba, aside from the leisure industry--there are still American-Cubans in jail there and he made no deals, made no demands for human rights; 
• when before Obama did presidents make the top income earners, the wealthiest they've ever been while at the same time complaining about it and taking their contributions

Now, I could have added who, before Obama's terms, would have believed nuns would be forced by the federal government to buy birth control for their employees, but I forgot that one.