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  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

I am trying to start fresh in life, but I am experiencing immense obstacles

Yeah ask someone at Church and I bet you can get some assistance. How is your son doing? Last I spoke to you he has a pretty gnarly ear infection. Praying for you and your intentions! :praying:

My son is doing well! He is completely over his ear infection now, thanks be to God!
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How is it that the Catholic Church is evil?

Wow. So you really do basically consider Mary to be basically God. So be it.

How do you figure?

God, who is omnipotent and exists outside time, decided for our Salvation to become Man.

Thus, He, in the person of the Holy Spirit, impregnated a virgin, carefully selected for she was descended from the most important Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament, to fulfill the prophecy, so our Lord would be descended from King David, and she gave birth to Him, in the person of the Word.

Since Jesus Christ is God, it is impossible for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is not God, to have given birth to Jesus Christ without giving birth to God.

No one is claiming that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to the Trinity. We say of the Trinity that the Father is unoriginate, and the Son and the Holy Spirit are uncreated, the Son begotten of the Father before all ages, and the Spirit proceeding from the Father. Western Christians also usually add that the Spirit proceeds from the Son as well; this is an issue which we don’t need to get into now, because what matters is the idea that the Father is unoriginate and outside of time begat but did not create the Only Begotten Son and Word of God, Jesus Christ, who is discussed in John 1:1-18, who bears the image of the Father, so that no one can see the Father and live, except through seeing Christ our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Our beloved Lutheran friends @MarkRohfrietsch @Ain't Zwinglian and @ViaCrucis have explained this issue quite well on a number of occasions, as has our beloved Anglican friend @Jipsah and our beloved Catholic friends @Xeno.of.athens and @RileyG and @chevyontheriver and our beloved Orthodox friends @prodromos and @FenderTL5

+

Also, in the specific case of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, we can use the feast being celebrated today in many of them, that of the Nativity of the Theotokos, to prove that we do not regard her as God but as a human being God selected to be His human mother, for if she were God, we would not venerate her parents Saints Joachim and Anna, both humans.

Additionaly, the Feast of the Assumption or Dormition, which was just celebrated (at the end of July by the Armenians, on August 22nd by the Copts, and on August 15th by everyone else, albeit some being on the Julian calendar, so the celebration was on August the 28th, further proves that we do not worship the Theotokos as a God, because the feast celebrates the fact that after the Blessed Virgin Mary reposed, she was miraculously taken up into Heaven bodily. But she did die, and this proves that she is not God but rather is a blessed woman, who all generations will call blessed (which I believe is what my friend @Valletta was also referring to, that since the Gospel of Luke is inspired by God, Luke was correct in saying recording her saying all generations would call her blessed in the hymn known as the Magnificat. At the same time, her extreme holiness, for the fact she was chosen by God to be His mother in His incarnation as Jesus Christ, warranted her being taken into heaven like St. Moses and St. Elijah and St. Enoch.
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MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be Deported to African Country of Eswatini

Setting aside the issue of deporting him, what is the reason or justification for deporting someone to a country other than the one they came from?
His life may be in danger sending him back from where he came from. Quite often it's the reason why someone originally left.
It's a matter of practicality. The Democrats let in millions of criminals which overwhelms our system. The most important thing is to save as many victims and potential victims as possible.
So he doesn't get punished for whatever crimes he might be accused of. Sounds like a great deal to me. Come to the US from El Salvador, join a gang, deal drugs, smuggle people and the worst that will happen is that the government will give you a free trip home.

Are you being serious? I don't think you've really thought it through, have you...
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the Latin versus the Teutonic Brain

culture is an atmosphere and a heritage... who said it? Back in the day, lots of tests showed the racial divides from blood-type to height and build to coloring and character, etc. ad nauseam.
Sorry, the human genome has been completely sequenced and it shows that there is more variation within any race you might define, than there is between races. There are no biological human races. Race is a cultural construct.
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MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be Deported to African Country of Eswatini

Wow, I wish people would stick up for the poor housewife who was thrown in jail by the Biden Admin for blocking access to an abortion clinic as they do for this guy.
You can’t block abortion clinics, which nobody disputes she did. You can’t threaten or intimidate people accessing legal medical care, either, which was what the bulk of her and her co-defendants sentences was for. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

She has nothing to bleat about, anyway. She got a movie sure to be watched by dozens of people.
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the Latin versus the Teutonic Brain

Are you confused into thinking that all of Africa was dark?

North Africa was home to the white Libyans... Petrie called them Tahennu or Tamahu

Racial photographs from the Egyptian monuments​


And the Amorites are The White Race of Palestine, says Sayce.


That said, I believe the Cro-Magnons of France are the progenitors of indigenous Western Europeans.
_________________________
Yep... the titles of both books contain the word RACE.

Wow, a source from the 1800s using the term race! Not shocking in the slightest. Though your first link returns an "item not found" message so you might want to check that.

So let's have you actually answer my question: Are you personally offended by the idea that you share ancestry with someone from Africa?
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Fewer international tourists are visiting the U.S. — economic losses could be ‘staggering,’ researchers estimate

That make zero sense sense. A Canadian Dollar is worth 38% less than an American dollar look at the link
My main point about the CAD not changing much against the dollar (except recently as Trump's actions have weakened the dollar) still stands as an answer to your original question.

But on this point, perhaps an example helps where we can compare to a product with a more or less stable price in either country.

Canadian Bob MacKenzie has an ounce of precious metal, and before his upcoming trip to the US, he sells it in Canada for its value of CAD 1380.

He crosses the border and converts his CAD 1380 into USD 1000.

In the US, he buys an ounce of that precious metal for USD 1000.

[If the price wasn't US$1000, then people could make money by simply buying precious metals in one country and selling them across the border.]

All of these monetary values are the same, regardless of the numeral. Instead of re-buying the precious metal, he could have bought other things on his trip to the US, and his overall buying power would have stayed the same. Prices of some things, like gasoline, are very different in the two countries, but this has nothing to do with the currency. Indeed Bob would be able to afford a lot more gas in the US than he could at home.

It is only changes in this exchange rate that can make things relatively more or less costly. And the exchange rate has not changed much for the past few years. (except Bidenomics strengthening the dollar right at the end of his term and Trumpomics weakening the dollar over Trump 2.0 so far.)
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How is it that the Catholic Church is evil?

I'm not asking you to believe my claims, which is exactly why I quote so very many sources and will continue to do so.

The problem being the sources you quote are sources which have been shown to be unreliable.

If you are objecting to Roman Catholic doctrine, I would argue you shouldn’t even be talking about their history. And if you are writing about ecclesiastical history, you need to be citing a robust array of sources. Professional historians will quote Catholics, Protestants and third party witnesses and cite archaeological evidence.

By using a robust methodology, you can avoid obvious errors like the claim the Romans killed 100-200 million people in the Middle Ages, which is a problematic claim since that exceeds the population of Western Europe during that timeframe, and also exceeds the combined bodycount of the genocides of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, and thus it is difficult to accept such an extreme claim with credulity. I do recognize you are not the first to make that claim, but are rather repeating what you have read; what I am urging you to do is to not merely repeat what you have read from sources you feel are friendly towards your denomination, but rather engage in a robust dialogue with the historical material.
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A conversation about unity.

Acts 9:17 records that Ananias laid hands on Saul (Paul) after his Damascus Road conversion.
Acts 13:3 describes the Church at Antioch laying hands on Paul and Barnabas before sending them on mission
And he laid hands on. Paul so that mightiest receive the Holy Spirit. and was in. the Singular , mean

it happened to Paul ONE TIME !!

DAN P
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MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be Deported to African Country of Eswatini

In this case a U.S. judge would not allow him to be deported to his home country. A number of countries won't take their citizens back.
Thank you. Isn't that just handing our problem to someone else?
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A conversation about unity.

Quite frankly my brother you can’t even tell who is part of the body even in the members of your church.

While someone could lie, we can take reasonable precautions; we can’t don’t what their spiritual health is, but at least we know we’re admitting to the Eucharist someone who ostensibly believes, or was taught to believe, and is supposed to believe, and has been taught not to receive if they cease to believe, in the Incarnation, the Trinity and the Real Presence (since we believe partaking of our Eucharist not discerning the Body and Blood would be extremely dangerous). Likewise members of the LCMS know that a member of the Missouri Synod believes or should believe in the Nicene Creed and the Real Presence. And in both cases, that Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran members believe in other doctrines that we believe are important, most of which the three churches agree on, disagreeing on only a few, for example, the role of the Bishop of Rome or the issue of monergism (but enough to where we are not yet in full communion with each other; this will take time).

Additionally in the Orthodox Church, many churches take the added precaution of requiring members to attend the sacrament of reconciliation, also known as auricular confession, before the Eucharist. Likewise, Orthodox, Lutherans and Anglicans include a congregational confiteor, where the whole congression prays for forgiveness of their sins (separately from auricular confession).

Auricular confession in the Orthodox Church is something I love, because our clergy are not required to issue penances, and through that sacrament I have been assisted with a great many thing. For example, I no longer have what used to be a horrible fear and revulsion towards hearses. I now regard hearses as, for the most part, beautiful vehicles that we use to transport our loved ones to the place where their bodies will repose until it is time for the Resurrection. I only have a dislike of hearses that are tacky or grotesque in their appearance (recently I saw a hearse being exhibited at a funeral trade show that was disturbing; whoever designed it was sick, I think, but that is another matter). Many other assistances have been provided to me through this means of grace. So requiring it before partaking of the Eucharist is a good idea, and indeed the churches that do require it ensure there is time for this even for people unable to attend the Vigils the night before (which is the usual time), by offering the liturgy during the reading of Terce and Sext.

What all of this amounts to is that we take reasonable precautions. From the parable of the talents, it is clear Christ desires us to be responsible and will hold us to account, and while we confess to being unprofitable servants, we try; we make a best-faith effort to ensure that everyone receiving the Eucharist is a part of the Body of Christ in a proper disposition to receive the Sacrament.

All churches have those that profess to be but are not in the heart

In the Orthodox Church, unlike in some other denominations, no one is ever pressured into receiving the Eucharist (in some Roman Catholic parishes and some Anglican parishes, among others, people who sit out the Eucharist experience peer pressure not to, even if they have a good reason to not partake, but one will never experience this in the Orthodox Church.

I particularly like how the Syriac Orthodox arrange this at some parishes and cathedrals - they often distribute the Eucharist at the very end of the liturgy, after the dismissal, while the hymn Haw Nurone is sung, from the right or liturgical south side of the altar, while who have partaken or are not partaking will exit to the left or liturgical North side of the altar, collecting antidoron (the blessed bread, which is not the consecrated Body of Christ as I explained earlier but rather was historically given as a blessing to help attendees get home, and is a sacramental, like holy water, but not the sacrament itself) on the way out.

We don’t believe in casual communion.

Thus if someone doesn’t believe, and presents themselves for the Eucharist, its on them, since we have taken all reasonable precautions to ensure that those who have received the Eucharist are among us.

Additionally I would add if a non-Orthodox tried to partake of the Eucharist they would probably not be able to do so as their identity would easily be discernable. And they would not likely even be rebuked but assisted; the assumption would be they had approached in error and were confused, and they would be graciously shown to the antidoron. I’m not going to explain exactly why this is because I don’t want to empower people to approach our Eucharist without authorization, but suffice it to say, we are careful (and additionally some of our priests can discern someone approaching with ill intent). Unlike the Roman Catholics, all Orthodox priests are authorized to repulse someone from the sacrament, so instances of our Eucharist being stolen, for example, by those who engage in the occult, are I would say unheard of, for I am not aware of any instance where it has happened.

That said I have no personal objection to the Assyrian Church of the East’s approach, which is to allow anyone who believes in the real presence and the Nicene Creed to partake. There is frequent intercommunion between the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldaen Catholics due to the situation on the ground in Iraq where nearly all Chaldeans live and also the majority of Assyrians (Chaldeans are one of the largest of the seven Assyrian tribes historically associated with the Church of the East, which unlike the others wound up mainly speaking Arabic instead of Aramaic, and the Roman Catholics persuaded most Chaldeans to join the Chaldean Catholic Church, which was an archdiocese of the Church of the East which broke away from the rest and entered into communion with Rome). Thus there are areas which are predominantly Syriac Orthodox, areas which are predominantly Church of the East, and areas that are predominantly Chaldean Catholic.

Likewise, in Turkey, the Syriac Orthodox will give the Eucharist to Roman Catholics at their parish in Constantinople, because the nearest Catholic church is some distance away, and Catholics will always give the Eucharist to any Orthodox or Assyrian Christian disposed to receive it, and other sacraments as well.

So essentially where we are now is in the process of establishing trust with the Roman Catholics to where we can reciprocate their offer of what they call Eucharistic hospitality, just as we presently do in the case of relations between the Antiochians and Syriac Orthodox and the Copts and Alexandrian Greek Orthodox.
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How is it that the Catholic Church is evil?

So you didn’t read it. Your own catechism only states that scripture is inspired. If you would have looked it up you would have known that.
You are incorrect. So I guess it means next thread ^_^. Gotta love these armchair Catholics.
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