For skeptics --My Own Experience

For the skeptic who just doesn't know what to believe --not because he's scornful and arrogant --but because it's so confusing to hear all the competing religious philosophies

Jesus said, if we seek, we shall find. God wants to be known.
He said, "Draw near to me and I will draw near to you." I used to be a doubter --a frightened one --and I became convinced in my mind first --through a Christian college's excellent Bible classes --who taught a rationale for faith in Christ --like C.S. Lewis does --and then, (enter space odyssey music) I DID have a spiritual experience -- Jesus described it as being "born of the Spirit." No, I am not a charismatic, per se.
But I had a spiritual awakening--a life-changing encounter with the Divine --a washing of my soul --a certainty of God's reality literally "flooded" my being.

like the fellow who wrote for national Geog --"walk across America" --he went into a church and had an experience of God also which he described for his readers --

There is an experience beyond the assent to believe --as Jesus said, "I'll give you living water" --"I am the living bread" --that quenches the hunger and thirst in our souls.

We are to seek and find --
But we are also to beware of false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing --who will stray from the traditional Word of the prophets and apostles and Jesus Himself and claim themselves to be prophets with a new direction --a new message differing from the One who spoke from the authority of a Resurrected sacrificial lamb who died for the sins of the world.

Jesus said we should test religious leaders to be sure their lives are exemplary and not phony--NOT wolves in clerical garb molesting anyone in the Good Shepherd's flocks --regardless of age.

and back to RELEVANCE FOR THIS THREAD --

Pagan Roman's view expressed here is truly believed in by those who march in the Gay Pride parades under the banner of NAMBLA. There are grown ups who DO believe that kids are fair game --and some of these grown-ups are in our churches and schools and neighborhoods and families. Sin abounds --and for that reason, we need a Savior --and churches who truly teach and demonstrate biblical precepts on morality --that the only legitimate sex is that between man and wife.

2:31 PM EST


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The Toledo City Paper's cover story thi sweek is entitled, "Holy War." The article begins: "The Roman Catholic Church has been suspected of keeping secrets throughout its storied history. Some, like Father Thomas Doyle have written about this, and subsequently been censured, slandered or subjected to other retaliation from church hierarchy. According to Doyle, co-author of “Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes,” and advocate for victims of Catholic clergy sexual abuse, secrecy is literally written into the canon law.
The church in the state of Ohio and the Catholic Diocese of Toledo do not represent exceptions to this rule. For this reason, the claimed victims of sexual abuse by priests, where the statute of limitations for bringing their claim to court has expired, find themselves in dismay over Ohio’s recent passing of the civil registry, rather than the victim driven Senate Bill 17. The civil registry became law under the considerable influence of the Ohio’s Conference of Catholic Bishops." -------------------- I have written often about the cover-up in the Catholic Church and, specifically, the Diocese of Toledo's cover-up of many many cases. The Catholioc [GOP] members of the Ohio House were pressured by their Catholic bishops and priests to close the window, the so-called 'look back law,' to save the Catholic Church embarrassment. It is noteworthy that, today, the archdiocese of San Diego declared bankruptcy in order to avoid clergy abuse trials. The Toldo Diocese bobs, weaves, and does backdoor deals to avoid such trials. My previoous stories are here here here here
posted by liberal_dem at 11:27 AM on Feb 28, 2007