Wahkon
11-29-2005, 02:59 PM
All we U.S. citizens have to do is blindly conform to a popular expression of our country’s mainstream culture, whether it be cultural mainstream Catholicism, cultural mainstream Lutheranism, cultural mainstream Presbyterianism etc., and we will be following the principle that leads to everlasting life, or so say the ministers of mainline U.S. denominational Christian Churches. And I believe that the vast majority of U.S. “Christians” are following this evil principle. I believe that they are blindly going in the way of the majority and that it leads to “destruction”, as Jesus is quoted as saying in Mathew 7: 14...“Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to DESTRUCTION and many go that way”.
The Catholic perspective:
A person can make an error in judgment and choose not to practice the only true religion (Christianity) and still (at least eventually) go to Heaven after they die. In other words, a person can become a Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem etc. and can go to Heaven after they die. The reason why it is possible for them to go to Heaven after they die is because God forgives honest mistakes. It is not what religion you believe in and practice that determines if you will go to Heaven after you die, it is whether you have developed a good conscience and then follow the dictates of your conscience, these are the only factors that determine if God will grant you access into Heaven.
It is obvious that if a U.S. citizen chooses to not practice the Christian religion and chooses rather to practice either Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam etc. they have chosen not to go blindly in the way of a popular express of our country’s mainstream culture, or, in other words, blindly in the way of the majority. They, therefore, would obviously not be choosing to go through the “wide gate” (or blindly conforming to a popular expression of mainstream U.S. culture) and down the “broad way” (the way of the majority) the way that, if blindly chosen to go in, leads to “destruction”.
But because eighty four percent of U.S. citizens, the MAJORITY of U.S. citizens, profess to be Christians and the MAJORITY of these “Christians” belong to a mainline denominational “Christian” Church, a U.S. citizen could choose to blindly go in the way of the MAJORITY, a way that leads to “DESTRUCTION”, and still profess to be a Christian and also belong to a mainline denominational “Christian” Church.
Therefore, all U.S. Christians who belong to a mainline denominational Christian”Church should see a RED FLAG warning them that they better be very concerned and suspicious that they might have chosen to blindly go in the way of the majority, a way that leads to “DESTRUCTION”. Or, in other words, they better be very concerned and suspicious that they might have developed a bad conscience and that by following its dictates they’re going in the way that leads to “destruction” and then make sure that they are open to the possibility that Jesus might be calling them to take a lot of positions on social justice issues that are different positions than the ones that the majority of their fellow mainline denominational “Christian” brothers and sisters have chosen to take. Or, in other words, make sure that they have a good moral conscience, and then follow the dictates of their conscience. And by doing so, find themselves going in the way that leads to everlasting life.
In respect to the question: “How do we develop a good moral conscience?” Jesus is quoted in Matthew 7:14 as saying…“Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to everlasting life and few go that way”. In other words, having a good moral conscience means that you will go in the way of the minority (or become counter-cultural to your denomination’s mainstream culture) if the minority’s way (or being counter-cultural to your denomination’s mainstream culture) is the right way to go.
In the 1960’s, a generation of youth began to not just blindly take the positions on social justice issues that we were being taught to take in our mainstream denominational “Christian” Churches and started to think for ourselves. And when we did so, we ended up taking a lot of different positions on social justice issues. Or, in other words, we develop good moral consciences and then began following the dictates of our newly formed good consciences. And in doing so, we, for the first time in our lives, began going in the way that leads to everlasting life.
But when we started trying to persuade our parents and grandparents to both take a look at our counter-cultural positions on social justice issue as well as to examine why we had taken these counter-cultural positions, most of them would not even lessen to us. They had been taught not to question the majority’s position on social justice issues and to just go with the flow of the majority; and that if they were to continue to follow this principle they would be doing the will of God; and that if anyone were to try to persuade them to take their counter-cultural positions on social justice issue they should not lessen to them because they were “false prophets”, and that if they were to lessened to these “false prophets” and then take their counter-cultural position on social justice issues they would burn in Hell. Or, in other words, they had been taught and believed that if they were to NOT go blindly go in the way of the majority, the way that leads to “EVERLASTING LIFE”, they would burn in Hell.
We, at the time, found that most of our parents and grandparents did not care what was right or wrong and that the only thing they cared about was that they were living in conformity to the majority and that they, therefore, did not have good moral consciences, something necessary to get into Heaven. And most of them (I am referring to the ones that are still living) still, to this present day, follow this principle that leads to “destruction”.
And that is why the U.S. has become such a cesspool of evil. Alcohol and drug abuse runs rampant causing health epidemics and related social atrocities. The U.S. is the biggest exporter of pornography at a time when there is a world wide venereal disease pandemic. The USA has also spawned more world-wide evil cults that go by the name "Christianity" than any other nation in the world. And the U.S. has legalized abortion, and since it did, a great multitude of pre-born babies have been killed. And in the name of "freedom", "democracy" and "Christianity" the USA is spreading, by war and economic coercion, an evil hedonistic so-called "freedom loving" culture throughout the world. U.S. pollution kills great multitudes of people and animals and threatens the continuation of all live on earth by way of global warming, acid rain etc.. And because of the U.S.’s materialistic greed for oil, it is now waging a war in Iraqi, an injustice war that has kill 176, 000 Iraqis and over 2000 U.S. military people. And then there is the so-called U.S. "freedom" to become obese by pigging out on food, to the degree that it creates a very serious national health epidemic. There are more obese church-going "Christians" in the U.S. than there are in the U.S.‘s general population, and obesity is an U.S. health epidemic that causes over 300,000 deaths a year. In some Islamic nations alcohol, tobacco, abortion, pornography, adultery, “free love” (fornication) , obesity, health and earth destroying pollution, etc. are illegal, but by U.S. "Christian" sanctioned imperialistic and colonialist efforts these evil so-called U.S. "freedoms" are being spread throughout the world.
And the U.S. has many toxic waste dumps, including nuclear waste dumps that will remain toxic for 10,000 years. And the U.S. is helping other nations to build nuclear power plants so that they too can have the so-called "freedom" to pollute the earth with toxic nuclear waste. And the U.S. - by helping nations all around the world to build nuclear power plants - is also giving those nations the "freedom" to use the spent nuclear fuel to build nuclear bombs or “dirty” nuclear bombs. And by doing so, the U.S. is contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. All this evidence indicates that cultural mainstream "Christianity" in the U.S. is really apostate "Christian" hedonism and that these hedonistic people are spreading their evil health and earth destroying religion and culture throughout the world.
The U.S. is a war making, earth and health destroying nation that is corrupting the whole earth by her immoral imperialistic behavior, a nation that is trying to usher all nations and tribes into a one world corrupt mentality that promotes corporate greed and rejects good moral values. And in spite of this terrible situation, most mainline U.S. denominational “Christian” ministers still teach their congregations to blindly conform to the (apathetic) majority, a principle that leads to “DESTRUCTION”.
A former Governor of Minnesota (Jesse Ventura) made the following statement in a popular national magazine: “Organized religion (or mainline denominational “Christianity”) is a sham and a crutch for weak minded people who need strength in numbers.”
When the Star and Tribune asked Minnesota’s religious leaders to answer the question: “Where is religious outrage for the poor?”, Bishop Peter Rogness, a Lutheran Bishop, answered the question. He wrote: “We are awash in a culture of individualism, with powerful forces at work that bombard us with the message to take care of our own needs as much as we want”.
And the situation is getting worse. In a recent Star Tribune newspaper report there were the words: “New Houses are bigger”…average square footage has increased from 1,500 in 1970 to 2,349 in 2004. 37 percent of new houses in 2004 had four bedrooms, compared with 24 percent in 1970.
And in a recent Time Magazine article, Melinda Henneberger wrote: “In 1979, Pope John Paul II bluntly compared Americans to the rich man in the Bible story who is dammed for all eternity after a life spent feasting - contentedly oblivious to Lazarus, the beggar who longed for the scraps from the table. ‘It is not right,’ the pope preached in English at a mass in Yankee Stadium, ‘that the standard of living of the rich countries should seek to maintain itself by draining off a great part of the reserves of energy and raw materials that are meant for the whole of humanity.’ It was the pope’s pronouncements on sexual issues - from birth control to homosexuality - that got all the media attention, of course. Yet John Paul never stopped decrying our ‘excesses of capitalism.’ Last summer, the pope lectured American bishops that their people were ‘hypnotized by materialism, teetering before a soulless vision of the world.’”
The Catholic perspective:
A person can make an error in judgment and choose not to practice the only true religion (Christianity) and still (at least eventually) go to Heaven after they die. In other words, a person can become a Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem etc. and can go to Heaven after they die. The reason why it is possible for them to go to Heaven after they die is because God forgives honest mistakes. It is not what religion you believe in and practice that determines if you will go to Heaven after you die, it is whether you have developed a good conscience and then follow the dictates of your conscience, these are the only factors that determine if God will grant you access into Heaven.
It is obvious that if a U.S. citizen chooses to not practice the Christian religion and chooses rather to practice either Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam etc. they have chosen not to go blindly in the way of a popular express of our country’s mainstream culture, or, in other words, blindly in the way of the majority. They, therefore, would obviously not be choosing to go through the “wide gate” (or blindly conforming to a popular expression of mainstream U.S. culture) and down the “broad way” (the way of the majority) the way that, if blindly chosen to go in, leads to “destruction”.
But because eighty four percent of U.S. citizens, the MAJORITY of U.S. citizens, profess to be Christians and the MAJORITY of these “Christians” belong to a mainline denominational “Christian” Church, a U.S. citizen could choose to blindly go in the way of the MAJORITY, a way that leads to “DESTRUCTION”, and still profess to be a Christian and also belong to a mainline denominational “Christian” Church.
Therefore, all U.S. Christians who belong to a mainline denominational Christian”Church should see a RED FLAG warning them that they better be very concerned and suspicious that they might have chosen to blindly go in the way of the majority, a way that leads to “DESTRUCTION”. Or, in other words, they better be very concerned and suspicious that they might have developed a bad conscience and that by following its dictates they’re going in the way that leads to “destruction” and then make sure that they are open to the possibility that Jesus might be calling them to take a lot of positions on social justice issues that are different positions than the ones that the majority of their fellow mainline denominational “Christian” brothers and sisters have chosen to take. Or, in other words, make sure that they have a good moral conscience, and then follow the dictates of their conscience. And by doing so, find themselves going in the way that leads to everlasting life.
In respect to the question: “How do we develop a good moral conscience?” Jesus is quoted in Matthew 7:14 as saying…“Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to everlasting life and few go that way”. In other words, having a good moral conscience means that you will go in the way of the minority (or become counter-cultural to your denomination’s mainstream culture) if the minority’s way (or being counter-cultural to your denomination’s mainstream culture) is the right way to go.
In the 1960’s, a generation of youth began to not just blindly take the positions on social justice issues that we were being taught to take in our mainstream denominational “Christian” Churches and started to think for ourselves. And when we did so, we ended up taking a lot of different positions on social justice issues. Or, in other words, we develop good moral consciences and then began following the dictates of our newly formed good consciences. And in doing so, we, for the first time in our lives, began going in the way that leads to everlasting life.
But when we started trying to persuade our parents and grandparents to both take a look at our counter-cultural positions on social justice issue as well as to examine why we had taken these counter-cultural positions, most of them would not even lessen to us. They had been taught not to question the majority’s position on social justice issues and to just go with the flow of the majority; and that if they were to continue to follow this principle they would be doing the will of God; and that if anyone were to try to persuade them to take their counter-cultural positions on social justice issue they should not lessen to them because they were “false prophets”, and that if they were to lessened to these “false prophets” and then take their counter-cultural position on social justice issues they would burn in Hell. Or, in other words, they had been taught and believed that if they were to NOT go blindly go in the way of the majority, the way that leads to “EVERLASTING LIFE”, they would burn in Hell.
We, at the time, found that most of our parents and grandparents did not care what was right or wrong and that the only thing they cared about was that they were living in conformity to the majority and that they, therefore, did not have good moral consciences, something necessary to get into Heaven. And most of them (I am referring to the ones that are still living) still, to this present day, follow this principle that leads to “destruction”.
And that is why the U.S. has become such a cesspool of evil. Alcohol and drug abuse runs rampant causing health epidemics and related social atrocities. The U.S. is the biggest exporter of pornography at a time when there is a world wide venereal disease pandemic. The USA has also spawned more world-wide evil cults that go by the name "Christianity" than any other nation in the world. And the U.S. has legalized abortion, and since it did, a great multitude of pre-born babies have been killed. And in the name of "freedom", "democracy" and "Christianity" the USA is spreading, by war and economic coercion, an evil hedonistic so-called "freedom loving" culture throughout the world. U.S. pollution kills great multitudes of people and animals and threatens the continuation of all live on earth by way of global warming, acid rain etc.. And because of the U.S.’s materialistic greed for oil, it is now waging a war in Iraqi, an injustice war that has kill 176, 000 Iraqis and over 2000 U.S. military people. And then there is the so-called U.S. "freedom" to become obese by pigging out on food, to the degree that it creates a very serious national health epidemic. There are more obese church-going "Christians" in the U.S. than there are in the U.S.‘s general population, and obesity is an U.S. health epidemic that causes over 300,000 deaths a year. In some Islamic nations alcohol, tobacco, abortion, pornography, adultery, “free love” (fornication) , obesity, health and earth destroying pollution, etc. are illegal, but by U.S. "Christian" sanctioned imperialistic and colonialist efforts these evil so-called U.S. "freedoms" are being spread throughout the world.
And the U.S. has many toxic waste dumps, including nuclear waste dumps that will remain toxic for 10,000 years. And the U.S. is helping other nations to build nuclear power plants so that they too can have the so-called "freedom" to pollute the earth with toxic nuclear waste. And the U.S. - by helping nations all around the world to build nuclear power plants - is also giving those nations the "freedom" to use the spent nuclear fuel to build nuclear bombs or “dirty” nuclear bombs. And by doing so, the U.S. is contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. All this evidence indicates that cultural mainstream "Christianity" in the U.S. is really apostate "Christian" hedonism and that these hedonistic people are spreading their evil health and earth destroying religion and culture throughout the world.
The U.S. is a war making, earth and health destroying nation that is corrupting the whole earth by her immoral imperialistic behavior, a nation that is trying to usher all nations and tribes into a one world corrupt mentality that promotes corporate greed and rejects good moral values. And in spite of this terrible situation, most mainline U.S. denominational “Christian” ministers still teach their congregations to blindly conform to the (apathetic) majority, a principle that leads to “DESTRUCTION”.
A former Governor of Minnesota (Jesse Ventura) made the following statement in a popular national magazine: “Organized religion (or mainline denominational “Christianity”) is a sham and a crutch for weak minded people who need strength in numbers.”
When the Star and Tribune asked Minnesota’s religious leaders to answer the question: “Where is religious outrage for the poor?”, Bishop Peter Rogness, a Lutheran Bishop, answered the question. He wrote: “We are awash in a culture of individualism, with powerful forces at work that bombard us with the message to take care of our own needs as much as we want”.
And the situation is getting worse. In a recent Star Tribune newspaper report there were the words: “New Houses are bigger”…average square footage has increased from 1,500 in 1970 to 2,349 in 2004. 37 percent of new houses in 2004 had four bedrooms, compared with 24 percent in 1970.
And in a recent Time Magazine article, Melinda Henneberger wrote: “In 1979, Pope John Paul II bluntly compared Americans to the rich man in the Bible story who is dammed for all eternity after a life spent feasting - contentedly oblivious to Lazarus, the beggar who longed for the scraps from the table. ‘It is not right,’ the pope preached in English at a mass in Yankee Stadium, ‘that the standard of living of the rich countries should seek to maintain itself by draining off a great part of the reserves of energy and raw materials that are meant for the whole of humanity.’ It was the pope’s pronouncements on sexual issues - from birth control to homosexuality - that got all the media attention, of course. Yet John Paul never stopped decrying our ‘excesses of capitalism.’ Last summer, the pope lectured American bishops that their people were ‘hypnotized by materialism, teetering before a soulless vision of the world.’”