End Times and Current Events
March 29, 2024, 12:52:20 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39 (KJB)
 
  Home Help Search Gallery Staff List Login Register  

The Antichrist Conspiracy: Barack Obama

Shoutbox
March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
View Shout History
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: The Antichrist Conspiracy: Barack Obama  (Read 9107 times)
FervorForFaith
Sr. Member
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 356


View Profile
« on: March 13, 2014, 06:29:29 pm »

Hey everyone,

I mentioned before that I had made a video that shows exactly why Barack Obama is not the Antichrist, and why I believe he's a false flag. I've finally been able to upload the film (in parts) on YouTube.

Here's a link to the playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU-PNpzCHQH9QzingAEJmhxqKYpiIUTwZ

Hope you enjoy it!
Report Spam   Logged

God gave us minds, let's use them.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2014, 10:10:28 pm »

FFF, I just finished watching it - I thought it was not only very good, but very well researched.

I posted my thoughts in most of your YT comments section(so won't repeat them here). But will say this - those YT videos who claim dreams of Obama being the AC, and how scripture somehow shows proof of them so...I've seen some of them, and they come off like these sensationalized infomercials b/c they try to play on your emotions, instead of showing even a tid bit of research. IOW, they come off as your typical Churchianity pastor who spends their entire sermon lecturing based on a mere few lines of scripture in the bible.

Yes, that whole white horse nonsense in 2008 at the DNC above Obama(when he was speaking) was silly - good catch in that it was held at the NFL DENVER BRONCOS stadium(where that white broncos mascot has always been there)!

And yes, it's not so much that Obama has polarized America himself, but his HANDLERS(and the Illuminati minions) have used him to polarize America in MANY aspects(ie-good catch on them portraying Catholics as Christians in this "war on religious freedom").
Report Spam   Logged
Kilika
Guest
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2014, 03:43:35 am »

Quote
Yes, that whole white horse nonsense in 2008 at the DNC above Obama(when he was speaking) was silly

Yes it is, especially since the real issue is with this stage set...Remember this?



Come on people! Obama is NOT the Antichrist. He's just one of many antichrists.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2014, 06:35:25 pm »

Here's another example over where the Puppet Masters are painting Catholics as "persecuted Christians" during the Obama era...

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/ukrainian-catholics-experiencing-total-persecution-in-crimea/
Ukrainian Catholics experiencing 'total persecution' in Crimea

Kyiv, Ukraine, Mar 18, 2014 / 04:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the Russian president signed a bill to annex Crimea Tuesday, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the peninsula has been experiencing what a Church official calls “total persecution.”

 “At this moment all Ukrainian Greek Catholic life in Crimea is paralyzed,” Fr. Volodymyr Zhdan, chancellor of the Stryi eparchy in western Ukraine, told CNA March 18.
 
 From 2006 to 2010, Fr. Zhdan served as chancellor of the Odesa-Krym exarchate, which encompassed both the mainland port city of Odesa and the Crimean peninsula.

 Since late February the peninsula has seen the emergence of pro-Russian troops, who have taken control of its airports, parliament, and telecommunication centers.

 Referring to the kidnapping of three Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests in Crimea by pro-Russian forces over the weekend, Fr. Zhdan stressed that one such case could be called a mistake, but that “multiple kidnappings are not an accident.”

 On March 15 Fr. Mykola Kvych, a naval chaplain stationed in Sevastopol, was detained immediately after celebrating a “parastas,” a memorial prayer service for the dead. The following day Fr. Bohdan Kosteskiy of Yevpatoria and Fr. Ihor Gabryliv of Yalta were also reported missing.

 Later that night all three were said to be alive and safe, with Fr. Kvych confirming that he had escaped to the mainland of Ukraine with the help of parishioners.

 Fr. Kvych told the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s information department that he was held and questioned for eight hours by representatives of the Crimean self-defense force and Russian intelligence officers.

 According to Fr. Kvych, they accused him of “provocations” and of supplying the Ukrainian navy with weapons. Fr. Kvych maintained that he helped organize the delivery of food to a blockaded naval base, and that he gave two bulletproof vests to journalists.

 Upon seeing a Ukrainian flag at his home and portraits of Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera – Ukrainian nationalists who fought against both the Nazis and the Soviets in the 1940s and 50s -- inside, Fr. Kvych’s captors accused him of being in the “SS Army,” a reference to Nazi Germany.

 Followers of Bandera are colloquially called “Banderites,” a label that has been heavily circulated by Russian authorities and media in recent months and whose reported presence in Ukraine, many analysts say, has been used to justify Russian intervention in the country.

 Fr. Kvych has been charged with “extremism,” which in the Russian Federation can carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

 Fr. Kvych does not know how the trial will be conducted, since the national status of Crimea is in dispute.

 A referendum was held in the territory March 16 regarding union with Russia. Crimean authorities claim that 97 percent of voters favor seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia, and March 18 Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Crimean leaders signed a treaty declaring the territory absorbed by Russia.

 Western nations and the government in Kyiv have condemned both the referendum and the annexation.

 In addition to the arrests in Crimea, several other problems at Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches throughout the country have been reported in recent days.

 According to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, an important 130-foot electrical cable was stolen from a small chapel in the Kherson region north of Crimea over the weekend. On March 15 a parish in Kolomyya was vandalized and another in Dora was burned to the ground, reportedly from arson. Both damaged parishes are in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, which borders Romania in the west of Ukraine.

 In Crimea, clergy have received threatening phone calls and messages. At the home of one apprehended priest, a note was left that read this should be “a lesson to all Vatican agents.”

 “This is not new,” Bishop Vasyl Ivasyuk, who served as Exarch of Odesa-Krym from 2003 to 2014, told CNA.

“During Soviet times, we were always accused of being ‘agents’ of the Vatican,” Bishop Ivasyuk continued. “Of course not all people in Crimea think we are spies, but there is a very active pro-Russian group there that does.”

**Uhm...the Vatican AND the RCC are one and the same. Roll Eyes

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was heavily persecuted during the Soviet era; it was considered illegal, and operated completely underground until 1989.

“The Church emerged from the underground 25 years ago, having been the largest illegal church in the world for 45 years prior,” Bishop Boris Gudziak, Eparch of Paris, explained to CNA last month.

“The UGCC was the biggest social body of opposition to the Soviet ideology and totalitarian system. It was completely illegal, but in the catacombs, it was spiritually free because it was not collaborating.”

**Then what about those FRIENDLY visits by Gorbachev(and all of the other Soviet leaders) to the Popes? Roll Eyes

Bishop Ivasyuk confirmed that such freedom is important in Crimea, where the relationship between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the local government has always been complicated.

“Many Crimeans respect the UGCC for not taking part in elections, for staying out of politics,” he said. “Our priests do not run for political office and this has granted them a kind of moral authority.”

Of the five priests normally serving Ukrainian Greek Catholics in the peninsula, two reportedly remain.

 When asked their motivation for staying, Bishop Ivasyuk explained that they want to be with the people as long as possible.

“Life is the most important thing, so we shouldn’t go looking for the mouth of the lion … but we’ll stay with the people wherever they are.”

On March 18 the Department of Religious and Ethnic Affairs in Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture issued a statement condemning the persecution of clergy in Crimea.

“Recently, in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea cases of persecution of the clerics of various denominations have been documented. There has been an unprecedented violation of rights in the field of freedom of conscience and religion,” the statement read.

“We demand there be a stop to the practice of terror and for rights and liberties to be respected.”

With the signing of the Russia-Crimea treaty, it is unclear what will happen to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the region. It is estimated there are roughly 5,000 Ukrainian Greek Catholics on the peninsula.

“What we saw this weekend was a disturbing signal of a future political direction,” Fr. Zhdan concluded.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be ye not deceived! This has ALL but SCRIPTED from the get-go!
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2014, 12:16:56 pm »

Here's another example - don't be fooled by this - this Health Law Birth Control part of Obamacare that's being brought to the USSC this week...it's being done by "Christian" corporations.

FYI, corporations are artificial persons, b/c they have to register with the state, and when they do, they are under a STATE CHARTER...meaning that they have NO 1st amendment rights, and have to obey all of the laws and guidelines of the state. It's no different from these 501c3 entities, b/c they too are treated as corporations.

I'm not trying to sound mean or nasty - but this is part of the deception they are putting out(while they're acting like we have to fight for our "religious freedom").

http://screen.yahoo.com/health-law-birth-control-coverage-082056777.html
Video: Health Law Birth Control Coverage Before Justices

The Obama administration and its opponents are renewing the Supreme Court battle over President Barack Obama's health care law in a case that pits the religious rights of employers against the rights of women to the birth control of their choice. Two years after the entire law survived the justices' review by a single vote, the court is hearing arguments Tuesday in a religion-based challenge from family-owned companies that object to covering certain contraceptives in their health plans as part of the law's preventive care requirement. Find more Wochit videos on Yahoo Screen.

Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2014, 05:45:37 pm »

This is a long, albeit a pretty good read NY Times article - apparently, Obama's roots since his early Chicago days ARE Catholic.(and likely was groomed from there to be where he is)

Yeah, pretty much all this "warring" b/w the Obama admin and the RCC is just that - nothing but a puppet show(and the NY Times all but hints this to be the case).

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/us/the-catholic-roots-of-obamas-activism.html?hp&_r=1
3/22/14
The Catholic Roots of Obama’s Activism

CHICAGO — In a meeting room under Holy Name Cathedral, a rapt group of black Roman Catholics listened as Barack Obama, a 25-year-old community organizer, trained them to lobby their fellow delegates to a national congress in Washington on issues like empowering lay leaders and attracting more believers.

“He so quickly got us,” said Andrew Lyke, a participant in the meeting who is now the director of the Chicago Archdiocese’s Office for Black Catholics. The group succeeded in inserting its priorities into the congress’s plan for churches, Mr. Lyke said, and “Barack Obama was key in helping us do that.”

By the time of that session in the spring of 1987, Mr. Obama — himself not Catholic — was already well known in Chicago’s black Catholic circles. He had arrived two years earlier to fill an organizing position paid for by a church grant, and had spent his first months here surrounded by Catholic pastors and congregations. In this often overlooked period of the president’s life, he had a desk in a South Side parish and became steeped in the social justice wing of the church, which played a powerful role in his political formation.

Mr. Obama's organizing job was paid for by a church grant, and he spent his first months in Chicago surrounded by Catholic pastors and congregations.

This Thursday, Mr. Obama will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican after a three-decade divergence with the church. By the late 1980s, the Catholic hierarchy had taken a conservative turn that de-emphasized social engagement and elevated the culture wars that would eventually cast Mr. Obama as an abortion-supporting enemy. Mr. Obama, who went on to find his own faith with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s Trinity United Church of Christ, drifted from his youthful, church-backed activism to become a pragmatic politician and the president with a terrorist “kill list.” The meeting this week is a potential point of confluence.

A White House accustomed to archbishop antagonists hopes the president will find a strategic ally and kindred spirit in a pope who preaches a gospel of social justice and inclusion. Mr. Obama’s old friends in the priesthood pray that Francis will discover a president freed from concerns about re-election and willing to rededicate himself to the vulnerable.

But the Vatican — aware that Mr. Obama has far more to gain from the encounter than the pope does, and wary of being used for American political consumption — warns that this will hardly be like the 1982 meeting at which President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II agreed to fight Communism in Eastern Europe.

“We’re not in the old days of the great alliance,” said a senior Vatican official who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about the mind-set inside the Holy See. While Mr. Obama’s early work with the church is “not on the radar screen,” the official said, his recent arguments with American bishops over issues of religious freedom are: Catholic leaders have objected to a provision in the administration’s health care law that requires employers to cover contraception costs, and have sharply questioned the morality of the administration’s use of drones to fight terrorism.

As in many reunions, expectations, and the possibility for disappointment, run high.

Working in Holy Rosary Church, Mr. Obama would sneak smoking breaks on the roof with the Rev. William Stenzel.

A Fast Learner

In 1967, as the modernizing changes of the Second Vatican Council began to transform the Catholic world, Ann Dunham, Mr. Obama’s mother, took her chubby 6-year-old son occasionally to Mass and enrolled him in a new Catholic elementary school in Jakarta, Indonesia, called Santo Fransiskus Asisi. At school, the future president began and ended his days with prayer. At home, his mother read him the Bible with an anthropologist’s eye.

Pious he was not. “When it came time to pray, I would pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room,” Mr. Obama wrote in his memoir “Dreams From My Father.” “Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words.”

In 1969, Mr. Obama transferred to a more exclusive, state-run school with a mosque, but a development in the United States would have a greater impact on his future career. American Catholic bishops responded to the call of the Second Vatican Council to focus on the poor by creating what is now known as the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an antipoverty and social justice program that became one of the country’s most influential supporters of grass-roots groups.

By the early 1980s, when Mr. Obama was an undergraduate at Columbia University, the campaign was financing a project to help neighborhoods after the collapse of the steel mills near Chicago. The program’s leaders, eager to expand beyond Catholic parishes to the black Protestant churches where more of the affected community worshiped, sought an African-American for the task. In 1985, they found one in Mr. Obama, a fledgling community organizer in New York who answered a want ad for a job with the Developing Communities Project. The faith-based program aimed to unify South Side residents against unsafe streets, poor living conditions and political neglect. Mr. Obama’s salary was less than $10,000 a year.

Mr. Obama had a small office on the ground floor of the church.

The future president arrived in Chicago with little knowledge of Catholicism other than the Graham Greene novels and “Confessions” of St. Augustine he had read during a period of spiritual exploration at Columbia. But he fit seamlessly into a 1980s Catholic cityscape forged by the spirit of Vatican II, the influence of liberation theology and the progressivism of Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin, the archbishop of Chicago, who called for a “consistent ethic of life” that wove life and social justice into a “seamless garment.”

On one of his first days on the job, Mr. Obama heard Cardinal Bernardin speak at an economic development meeting. He felt like a Catholic novice there, he wrote in his memoir, and later decided “not to ask what a catechism was.” But he was a quick study.

“He had to do a power analysis of each Catholic church,” said one of his mentors at the time, Gregory Galluzzo, a former Jesuit priest and disciple of the organizer Saul Alinsky. Mr. Obama, Mr. Galluzzo said, soon understood the chain of command and who had influence in individual parishes.

Mr. Obama had a small office with two cloudy glass-block windows on the ground floor of Holy Rosary, a handsome red brick parish on the South Side, where he would pop down the hall to the office of the Rev. William Stenzel, raise a phantom cigarette to his lips and ask, “Want to go out for lunch?” Besides sneaking smoke breaks with the priest on the roof, Mr. Obama listened to him during Mass. “He was on an exposure curve to organized religion,” Father Stenzel said.

The future president’s education included evangelizing. Mr. Obama often plotted strategy with the recent Catholic convert who had hired him, Gerald Kellman, about how to bring people into the program and closer to the church. The effort to fill the pews “was what Bernardin really bought into,” Mr. Kellman said.

To expand congregations as well as the reach of his organizing program, Mr. Obama went to Holy Ghost Catholic Church in South Holland, Ill., to ask Wilton D. Gregory, an African-American bishop and a rising star in the hierarchy, for a grant for operating costs. Archbishop Gregory, who now leads the Archdiocese of Atlanta, recalled Mr. Obama as a persuasive man who “wanted to engage the people of the neighborhood.” He recommended that Cardinal Bernardin release the funds.

As the months went on, Mr. Obama became a familiar face in South Side black parishes. At Holy Angels Church, considered a center of black Catholic life, he talked to the pastor and the pastor’s adopted son about finding families willing to adopt troubled children. At Our Lady of the Gardens, he attended peace and black history Masses and conferred with the Rev. Dominic Carmon on programs to battle unemployment and violence. At the neo-Gothic St. Sabina, he struck up a friendship with the Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, the firebrand white pastor of one of the city’s largest black parishes. The two would huddle in a back room and commiserate about the liquor stores and payday loan businesses in the neighborhood.

But even as Mr. Obama effectively proselytized for the church and its role in improving the community, and even as he opened meetings in the backs of churches with the Lord’s Prayer and showed a comfort with faith that put the people he hoped to organize at ease, Catholic doctrine did not tempt him. He was not baptized Catholic, priests said. But it was amid the trappings of Catholicism, according to his fellow organizers, that the future president began to express a spiritual thirst.

As Mr. Obama helped expand the program from Catholic parishes to megachurches and Protestant congregations, he felt that need slaked by the prevailing black liberation theology, inspired by the civil rights movement and preached by African-American ministers like Mr. Wright of Trinity. The notion that Jesus delivered salvation to communities that expressed faith through good deeds suited Mr. Obama’s instincts — and perhaps his interests.

For an ambitious black politician, Mr. Galluzzo said, “it was not politically advantageous to be in a Catholic church.”

Mr. Obama nevertheless maintained his Catholic connections, so much so that when he turned up in the basement of the Holy Name complex in 1987, “there was a need to clarify” that he was not a member of the flock, said the Rev. David Jones, who was at the meeting. And some members still tried to draw him in, in more ways than one.

“He was a man of integrity, very much to my disappointment,” joked Cynthia Norris, then the director of the Chicago Archdiocese’s black Catholics office, who found the young Mr. Obama appealing. The future president, who was dating another woman, did turn to Ms. Norris for a Harvard Law School recommendation, and kept in touch during a trip to Europe in 1988.

“I wander around Paris, the most beautiful, alluring, maddening city I’ve ever seen; one is tempted to chuck the whole organizing/political business and be a painter” on the banks of the Seine, Mr. Obama scribbled to Ms. Norris, along with “Love, Barack,” on one side of a postcard. On the other was a picture of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

A Partnership Falters

Mr. Obama entered Harvard in 1988, the same year he was baptized at Trinity, the power church of Chicago’s black professional class. Trinity served Mr. Obama well through his dizzying political ascent, which coincided with a period in which black Catholic churches in Chicago closed and the hierarchy shifted away from the progressive social engagement that had characterized Mr. Obama’s early years here.

Cynthia Norris, then the director of the Chicago Archdiocese’s black Catholics office, wrote Mr. Obama a Harvard Law School recommendation, and kept in touch during a trip to Europe in 1988.

In 1997, the year Mr. Obama was sworn in as an Illinois state senator, Cardinal Francis George succeeded Cardinal Bernardin as archbishop of Chicago. One of the church’s leading conservative intellectuals, called “Francis the Corrector” by local liberal priests, Cardinal George was emblematic of the bishops installed by John Paul II and his successor, Benedict XVI. Some of them looked with skepticism at the social justice wing that had financed Mr. Obama’s organizing efforts, and later sought to block his election as president by suggesting that Catholics could not in good conscience vote for a candidate who supported abortion rights.

Mr. Obama still won the Catholic vote in 2008. In his campaign, he had held out the goal of finding common ground between supporters and opponents of abortion rights, chiefly by reducing unintended pregnancies and increasing adoptions. Cardinal George quickly dashed those hopes. “The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,” he said in November 2008 in his opening address as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Mr. Obama, seeking to avoid confrontation with the church, invited Cardinal George to the White House in March 2009; said at a news conference that April that abortion rights were “not my highest legislative priority”; and told graduates at the University of Notre Dame in May, after some initial boos from the crowd, that Cardinal Bernardin had touched “my heart and mind.” He recalled his years in Chicago’s Catholic parishes and said that after branching out to work with other Christian denominations, “I found myself drawn not just to the work with the church; I was drawn to be in the church.”

Two months later, speaking to reporters from Catholic publications, he said again that the Campaign for Human Development and Cardinal Bernardin had inspired him. “I think that there have been times over the last decade or two where that more holistic tradition feels like it’s gotten buried under the abortion debate,” he said.

Church leaders were unimpressed. A week after his session with Catholic reporters, Mr. Obama met with Benedict, who pointedly offered him a Vatican document on bioethics that condemned abortion and stem cell research. The relationship deteriorated further during Mr. Obama’s push for health care reform, specifically the provision on contraception, which will be argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Mr. Obama sent a postcard to Ms. Norris when he visited Paris in the summer of 1988.

Still, Mr. Obama had not lost all his friends in the church. As the president’s relations with Catholic leaders reached their nadir, Father Stenzel, Mr. Obama’s old smoke-break friend, visited the White House. As they walked into the Oval Office, Mr. Obama joked to his staff that the priest had given him his first office in Chicago. Father Stenzel reminded him that his old surroundings were far humbler: “The office I gave you had two rows of glass-block windows!”

Pope Francis’ Impression

Mr. Obama’s parish days seemed far behind him when he won re-election in 2012 with a slimmer margin of Catholic votes. Not only did Catholic conservatives view him as a secularist forcing them to pay for contraceptives, but some of his old allies in the church’s left wing criticized his use of drones and lack of emphasis on the poor.

But the election of Pope Francis last March seemed to breathe new life into the Catholic Church and, potentially, into the relationship between Mr. Obama and the institution that gave him his start. While far from an ideological progressive, Francis does sometimes appear cloaked in Cardinal Bernardin’s “seamless garment.” His de-emphasis of issues like abortion and same-sex marriage and his championing of the poor and vulnerable — articulated in his mission statement, “The Joy of the Gospel” — have impressed a second-term president who argues that income inequality undermines human dignity.

“Whether you call that the ‘seamless garment’ or ‘the joy of the Gospel’ or what, I’ve said to the president I consider that a pretty Catholic way of looking at the world,” said Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, who is Roman Catholic. Mr. McDonough added that the community-organizer-turned-president had expressed admiration to him about “how important it is for the Holy Father to be so in the community.”

Last month, Catholic activists made their case for social justice on Capitol Hill. Afterward, relaxing over beers and a buffet in the Russell Senate Office Building, they discussed whether Cardinal George, who is retiring as archbishop of Chicago, would be replaced by Archbishop Gregory, who helped secure Mr. Obama’s church grant application in the 1980s. Among them was Mr. Lyke, the man who had received coaching from Mr. Obama years earlier in the basement of Holy Name Cathedral. He characterized Francis and Mr. Obama as a match made in heaven.

Mr. Lyke’s view is not universal. Vatican officials have made clear Mr. Obama will not get special treatment, and leaders of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, also gathered in the Russell Building, saw the coming papal audience as a chance for Mr. Obama to return to the church’s social justice values, not the other way around.

Dylan Corbett, one of the Campaign for Human Development leaders, said the president was “welcome to the conversation” that the pope was driving about income inequality and poverty. He added with a grin, “We’re happy to have him back, actually.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So we can pretty much see too that the RCC's TWO "wedge" issues are abortion/sodomy marriage(to appease the "right"), and social justice(to appease the "left") - which they have been simultaneously been playing all along so that they really intensify the political debates from BOTH sides.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2014, 05:47:39 pm by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
FervorForFaith
Sr. Member
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 356


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2014, 09:28:23 pm »

Wow, great stuff BornAgain2!

That last article was a pretty interesting read.
Report Spam   Logged

God gave us minds, let's use them.
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2014, 12:05:36 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/many-rights-groups-something-stake-hobby-lobby-case-205738233.html
The Many Rights Groups with Something at Stake in the Hobby Lobby Case
3/24/14

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on Obamacare's requirement that insurers cover all methods of birth control, activists are starting to wonder what the case could mean for their causes. On Tuesday the court will hear cases from Hobby Lobby and Conestoga, two for-profit businesses that argue they should exempt from offering coverage for IUDs and emergency birth control because it violates their religious beliefs against abortion. The court's ruling could have important legal ramifications for LGBT, women's, and religious rights activists.

The companies argue that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which protects individuals from "substantial religious burden" unless it furthers a "compelling interest" of the government policy, according to the Pew Research Center. The government argues that accessible birth control is such an interest and, more importantly, the RFRA doesn't apply to businesses. Based on how the court decides — its decision is expected in June — the ruling could change the way courts understand the causes involved.

LGBT rights activists

Legal experts have argued that, if the court rules that RFRA applies to for-profit businesses, companies could argue that laws preventing discrimination against the LGBT community also be challenged, The New York Times reports. Even those who argue that the such claims are "unfounded," as Notre Dame law professor Richard W. Garnett put it, admit there are exceptions. Arizona's bill protecting businesses that refuse to serve gay couples — vetoed this month by the governor — might be such an exception.

Religious rights activists

As Pew notes, if the court decides that the RFRA doesn't apply to for-profit businesses, that would put an end to the other legal challenges to the contraception mandate pending in courts across the country. If the court decides that the contraception mandate isn't a "substantial religious burden," that would also affect non-profit suits, who would have a harder time proving that providing insurance that covers Plan B and similar drugs is a religious burden.

Women's rights activists

Recent studies have shown that Plan B doesn't actually prevent implantation, which challenges the argument that covering Plan B affects religious objections to "abortion-inducing" drugs, The Daily Beast's Tiffany Stanley reports. Less research has been done on Ella, a week-after pill, and the two IUDs also opposed in the case. The court won't argue over the validity of Hobby Lobby's religious objection, which is its own problem. But, as Stanley writes, it's the fact that the FDA has scientifically out-of-date information on its warning labels that led to the religious objection to Plan B.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2014, 03:02:41 pm »

Remember 2 years ago when they said how the USSC "sounds ready" to rule Obamacare as unconstitutional?

IOW, don't hold your breath - if anything, the whole thing is rigged and scripted from the top down - the minions' intent has been to get all religions on the same page by marketing "religious freedom". IOW, don't be fooled by these agendas...And to boot - they don't give out their ruling until late June - which means it gives them MORE time to drag out this Hegelian Dialectic game. And besides, if they "sound ready" to make this specific ruling, then why are they WAITING until late June? Roll Eyes

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-reportedly-sounds-ready-174042478.html
The Supreme Court 'Sounds Ready' To Throw Out A Controversial Part Of Obamacare
3/25/14

The Supreme Court sounded "ready" to throw out the part of the Affordable Care Act that requires certain religious corporations to offer employees contraceptive coverage, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.

The court's conservative justices were sharply critical of the provision in the law. The women justices, meanwhile — liberals Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — defended the law, according to the Times.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a swing voter with a libertarian bent, told U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who defended the mandate, that his reasoning "would permit requiring profit-making corporations to pay for abortions."

The rule at stake under the health-care overhaul is a provision in the ACA  that requires all new health insurance plans to pay for contraceptives. The issue is whether for-profit corporations — in this case, the lead plaintiff  Hobby Lobby Inc. — can refuse to provide all or some contraceptive services.

Verrilli argued that for-profit corporations should not have a right to religious liberty that supersedes federal law. He told Chief Justice John Roberts it would potentially open the floodgates for for-profit corporations to claim exemptions.

But Roberts said Congress passed the 1993 Religious Freedom Act for that reason, and he hinted at a possible narrower ruling that focuses on more closely held companies, according to The Wall Street Journal:

Chief Justice Roberts appeared to tip his hand when he told Mr. Verrilli that the parade of horribles — all kinds of religious exemptions being claimed by all sorts of employers, punching holes in the uniform application of the laws — could be avoided by a ruling limited to closely held enterprises, like S corporations that pass their earnings through to their shareholders. That would leave the issue of, say, an Exxon claiming religious freedom rights to another day. Later, Justice [Stephen] Breyer suggested he might be open to that type of resolution.

In somewhat typical fashion, Kennedy seems to be the key swing vote. According to the Journal, he asked skeptical questions of both sides. Both Verrilli and Paul Clement, the lawyer representing Hobby Lobby, reportedly aimed at him in their closing arguments.

This is the most significant Obamacare-related case argued before the Supreme Court since the high court upheld the law's individual insurance mandate two years ago, in the heat of the 2012 presidential election. A ruling is expected to come in June.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2014, 03:22:48 pm »

Quote
Chief Justice Roberts appeared to tip his hand when he told Mr. Verrilli that the parade of horribles — all kinds of religious exemptions being claimed by all sorts of employers, punching holes in the uniform application of the laws — could be avoided by a ruling limited to closely held enterprises, like S corporations that pass their earnings through to their shareholders. That would leave the issue of, say, an Exxon claiming religious freedom rights to another day. Later, Justice [Stephen] Breyer suggested he might be open to that type of resolution.

Well, this is rather weird. Don't know their reasoning why - but nonetheless a Limited Liability Company like an S-Corp is a hybrid, meaning that it has beneficial characteristics of a corporation(limited liability), and beneficial characteristics of a non-corporation(no double taxation). While a full corporation means while they have limited liability, but they have to pay double taxation(have to file a C-Corp form, and the owners have to pay taxes on their dividends on their 1040s). Maybe they feel closely held corporations like LLCs get too many "benefits" to begin with, while regular corporations do not?

 Huh Again, Roberts' and Breyer's reasonings are very weird on this.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2014, 11:26:53 pm »

It seems like the whole Health Care Contraceptives Mandate, Abortion, Sodomy, etc are ALL tied in together - and ultimately its AGENDA is to promote "religious freedom" at the EXPENSE of uniting all of the "faiths". And it seems like Obama is the PERFECT fall guy for this - forget about all of the Christian persecution that has been happening in ME/African countries since the 1980's b/c of wars started by Amerika. Forget about Ronald Reagan re-establishing ties with the Vatican. Forget about Bush II affirming 501c3 is the law of the land. Forget about Rick Warren's Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan countries like Rwanda that continue to have human rights abuses(including Christian persecution).

http://news.yahoo.com/abortion-fight-haunts-u-top-court-hearing-healthcare-214540940--sector.html
3/25/14
Abortion fight haunts U.S. top court hearing on healthcare law

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court arguments over federal healthcare policy were nearly finished on Tuesday when Justice Anthony Kennedy challenged Obama administration lawyer Donald Verrilli on abortion rights.

"Under your view, a profit corporation ... could be forced in principle to pay for abortions," said Kennedy, often the deciding vote on the nine-member court.

**Uhm...Justice Kennedy, YOU were the one who CHANGED your vote in 1992 that lead to a 5-4 decision to uphold Roe V Wade!

While defending the part of the 2010 healthcare law known as Obamacare that requires companies to cover birth control as part of employee health insurance, Verrilli said it was unlikely the government would demand corporations pay for abortions.

"I thought that's what we had before us," John Roberts, the conservative chief justice at the center of the mahogany bench, told Verrilli, who stood at the lectern below.

By the end, it was clear that clouding the legal test of whether for-profit corporations have religious rights was the country's enduring fight over abortion, a factor that could influence the outcome on the conservative court.

The case argued on Tuesday was brought by two family-owned companies who objected on religious grounds to the Obamacare mandate that employer-sponsored insurance cover certain emergency birth control methods, such as the "morning-after pill.

Roberts said the companies fighting the birth-control requirement believe some of those methods amount to abortions. The companies contend that some of the methods do more than prevent conception but destroy fertilized eggs.

"It is their sincere belief and we don't question that," Verrilli answered. But he said that federal and state laws barring public funding for abortions did not consider the disputed forms of contraception to be abortion.

Tuesday's 90-minute session, lengthened from the usual 60 minutes to account for the many issues at stake, was tense and hard fought.

PROXY FIGHT FOR ABORTION

The conservative justices most likely to form a majority are the same five who in 2007 upheld a federal ban on a procedure called "partial birth abortion," marking the first time the court had approved a prohibition on a specific procedure.

Tuesday's case in the filled-to-capacity courtroom offered a rematch of two high-profile adversaries, lawyers who have squared off repeatedly, including in 2012 when the Obama-sponsored healthcare law faced a broad challenge - and survived.

**And remember how this very attorney defending the Obama admin in 2012 ended up getting EXPOSED during the trial - but ultimately it didn't mean anything as the game is rigged anyways.

Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general under Republican President George W. Bush, defended Oklahoma-based arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby, controlled by evangelical Christians, and Pennsylvania-based cabinet-manufacturer Conestoga Wood Specialties, owned by Mennonites.

Verrilli again represented the Democratic Obama administration. He stressed that the court had never before allowed for-profit corporations to claim a religious exemption to federal law and emphasized the public health interests at stake in the comprehensive healthcare law enacted in 2010.

SNOW OUTSIDE, HOT INSIDE

While hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the light snowfall outside the marble columned building, many carrying signs in support of women's equality and chanting support for birth control, the tone inside the red velvet and white marble courtroom was heated. The justices have what is known as a "hot" bench because of their active questioning and even interruptions of one another.

When Clement was at the lectern, arguing that the for-profit corporations should be covered by the 1993 law known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were among the most scrutinizing.

Sotomayor suggested that if Clement prevailed, corporations with religious owners might try to object to insurance coverage for blood transfusions or vaccines. Added Kagan: "You would see religious objectors come out of the woodwork with respect to all of these laws."

When Clement returned to the lectern for his last few minutes of rebuttal, he bypassed such liberal assertions and seized on the conservatives' abortion colloquy with Verrilli.

Clement said that abortion-related conscience clauses in federal law exempt even for-profit medical providers from being forced to perform abortions.

"But we learned today that ... if Congress changes its judgment and says that a for-profit medical provider has to provide an abortion, (the Religious Freedom Restoration Act) doesn't apply. That, with all due respect, cannot be what Congress had in mind when it passed" the law, he said.

None of the justices interrupted him on that point. A ruling in the case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius is expected by the end of June.

(Editing by Howard Goller and Grant McCool)
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2014, 11:37:59 pm »

FWIW, was just reading about David Green(founder of Hobby Lobby) - if anything, this guy seems very suspect. He seems to have a Churchianity mindset, and is closely connected with NWO figures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Green_(entrepreneur)

Religious views[edit]

Green is the son of a preacher and comes from a family of preachers.[4] Green claims to have built his business squarely on biblical principles[2] and attributes his success to his faith in God. He has taken a public stance against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because of its inclusion of a provision allowing access to the morning-after pill.[5]

Green takes half of Hobby Lobby's total pretax earnings and commits it directly to a portfolio of evangelical ministries and as of 2012 it has donated an estimated $500 million.[6] This includes a $10.5 million gift to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in 2004, and $70 million to bail out Oral Roberts University in 2007. He has also put nearly 1.4 billion copies of gospel literature in homes in more than 100 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia.[7]

Green and his wife Barbara have also signed up to The Giving Pledge.[4]

Personal life[edit]

Green lives in southwest Oklahoma City with his wife Barbara. One son, Mart Green, is the founder and CEO of Mardel Christian and Educational Supply and of Every Tribe Entertainment while his other son Steve Green is President of Hobby Lobby. His only daughter, Darsee Lett, is Creative Director for the Hobby Lobby stores.[2]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I go to Mardel bookstore every now and then - yes, it's yet another Churchianity-corrupted "book"-store. A bunch of "Christian" books that are really New Age. So many corrupted bible versions, CCM, unedifying children's toys and games, t-shirts with crafty occult symbols on them, etc.

FWIW, my take on this? The Hobby Lobby is part of the world system, so the world system is watching its back - given everything that's come out today from the USSC hearing, they could very well rule this portion of the mandate ONLY for full corporations, while leaving the LLCs in the dust. B/c quite simply, they're looking after their friends.
Report Spam   Logged
Kilika
Guest
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2014, 02:47:16 am »

Quote
He seems to have a Churchianity mindset, and is closely connected with NWO figures

Ya think?!

He's totally churchianity.

Quote
He has also put nearly 1.4 billion copies of gospel literature in homes in more than 100 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia

So he's a supporter of the spreading of lies.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2014, 02:09:32 pm »

http://ephesians511blog.net/2014/03/24/global-religious-freedom-spiritual-globalization-satan-turning-matthew-712-14-on-its-head/
3/24/14
Global Religious Freedom = Spiritual Globalization, Satan turning Matthew 7:12-14 on its head

Matthew 7:12-14 – “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

America leading the charge for International Religious Freedom

This article came about after prior research and most recently observing the satanic Freemason/Jesuit “religious liberty/freedom” movement that originally began on July 4, 1776 by the Freemason/Jesuit Founding Fathers. (SOURCE)

July 4th is an observed day assigned to the “Cult of the Divinity of Peace” starting on July 4, 13 B.C. “Because on this day of the consulship of Nero and P. Quinctilius (13 B.C.) the altar of Peace was founded by Augustus.”

This is from the book “Records of the Past, Volume 5, page 105″ 1906 -



https://archive.org/stream/recordspast03socigoog#page/n124/mode/2up

When you consider Freemasonry and Roman Catholicism, they are identical.

Freemasonry = Pseudo Christianity + All other religions (pagan) = The Great Architect or god

Roman Catholicism = Pseudo Christianity + paganism = god

Really, Roman Catholicism is just Freemasonry 2.0 or type B or visa verse, there is no fundamental difference spiritually.

They both have pseudo Christianity and paganism combined. They both work for the same master, Satan. They both offer the “broad way” that leads to destruction. We saw how the Vatican openly embraced all religions back on October 28, 1965.

Just a side observation, have you ever noticed that many cities in America have a street called “Broadway”? You never see, “Narrow Way” do you?

So, when reading Matthew 7:12-14 we can observe what Satan has done with the global satanic Freemason/Jesuit “religious freedom/liberty” movement.

Exodus 34:14-16 – “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.”

It’s very clear after reading Exodus 34:14-16 there is absolutely no idea of “liberty” or “freedom” given to mankind to worship anyone or anything except the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Bible, the Word of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus said “narrow is the way”, Satan says “religious freedom/liberty” to worship all gods.

The “religious freedom/liberty” bribe in America

What makes this anti-Biblical scheme so seductive is the exchange of truth for peace.

In America, anyone who was prepared to overcome Satan by not loving their lives unto death (Revelation 12:11) was immediately disarmed from doing so. The “religious freedom/liberty” started on July 4, 1776 was truly a, “Cult of the Divinity of Peace” move to disarm Christians from the third component of overcoming Satan found in Revelation 12:11 –

Revelation 12:11 – “And they overcame him (Satan) by (1.) the blood of the Lamb, and by (2.) the word of their testimony; and (3.) they loved not their lives unto the death.”

Removing the third component was essential because now nobody will need to powerfully display their faith as Stephen did in Acts 7:51-60.

Acts 7:51-60 – “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

Did you observe Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost and calling unbelievers “stiff necked”? In the blinded apostate church in America one might say “Stephen doesn’t sound too loving by calling unbelievers stiff necked” when in fact Stephen was loving them with the truth.

Loving someone with the truth is what matters. It’s the truth that sets men free even though it will slice open our sinful flesh.

Stephen loved them with the truth AND did not love his life unto death.

We need to remember that Satan was the “god of this world” on July 4, 1776 as he still is today, nothing has changed as to Satan’s global authority that he tempted Jesus with in Luke 4:4-5.

This phony baloney satanic “religious freedom/liberty” has pampered our sinful flesh in America and now in the world as the American birthed “international religious freedom/liberty” Act was launched in 1998.

The global “religious freedom/liberty” movement will be finalized when the son of perdition arrives.

It began in America as a “prototype” back in 1776 and all the “bugs” have been worked out. Satan has convinced the “Government Church” in America, you know the church that embraces “religious freedom/liberty” (sinful flesh offending truth in exchange for peace) and receives a bribe for being 501C3 (sinful flesh offending truth in exchange for money), that America is a “Christian nation” when it’s actually the complete opposite.

While the “Government Church” promotes the “Broad Way” under the guise of “religious freedom/liberty” they turn around and tell everyone about the “Narrow Way”. A true spiritually conflicting “Christian Psychosis”.



“Celebrate” Religious Freedom/Liberty in America





http://books.google.com/books?id=6gDQfnMUI6gC&pg=PP5&lpg=PP5&dq=DEPARTMENT+OF+THE+ARMY+PAMPHLET+NO.+165-13&source=bl&ots=wb2vahEDGi&sig=pb-hNIG38KFOvoDCXqWUCQmDozI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cPouU5aQEMmtqAH0_oDwDw&ved=0CCQQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q&f=false



Ole’ Pat Robertson, a real Freemason at heart, promoting the satanic “religious freedom/liberty“.

So we can see what’s happened to the church in America. Much of the church in America has become a “Government Church”, clinging to the BROAD WAY anti-Biblical “religious freedom/liberty” lie that leads to destruction while they claim Jesus is the only way. It’s a horrible Christian witness to a society doomed to Hell.

It’s such a lie, such a deception, and a setup for the son of perdition.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 - “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

Ephesians 5:14-17 - “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

Matthew 24:4 - “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.”
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2014, 03:01:42 pm »

Supreme Court declines to hear new contraception cases
http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-declines-hear-contraception-cases-135532893--sector.html
3/31/14

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up preliminary appeals brought by Roman Catholic groups that want an exemption from part of President Barack Obama's healthcare law requiring employers to provide insurance that covers contraception.

The cases were brought by a series of Roman Catholic-affiliated nonprofit groups based in Washington, D.C., including Catholic University.

The legal issue is different from one involving for-profit companies that also object on religious grounds to the so-called contraception mandate, which was argued before the high court last week.

**So it's different b/w non-profit and for-profit companies? Again, how? B/c both NFP and FP corporations(corporations, that is) both have to register with the state, and hence are under state charter. So therefore they've given over their 1st amendment rights.

The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the two cases at this stage means that the federal appeals court in Washington will proceed to decide the issue. If the groups lose, they would have another chance to seek Supreme Court review.

The Obamacare law requires employers to provide health insurance policies that cover preventive services for women, including contraception and sterilization. The act makes an exception for religious institutions such as houses of worship that mainly serve and employ members of their own faith, but not for schools, hospitals and charitable organizations that employ people of all faiths.

**Yeah, there's a reason why they're using this particular agenda to drag this out. Again, a 501c3 means they've given up their 1st amendment rights, as they are under state charter.

As a compromise, the administration agreed to an accommodation for non-profits affiliated with religious entities that was finalized in July 2013. But the various Catholic groups said the compromise process still violated their religious rights, prompting a new wave of litigation.

**Don't see how(as explained above), and especially considering Congress shall make no law favoring one religion over another.

Courts across the country have granted the groups injunctions which prevent the administration from enforcing the mandate during the litigation.

The cases are Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington v. Sebelius and Priests for Life v. U.S., U.S. Supreme Court, 13-891 and 13-829.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and James Dalgleish)
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #15 on: April 01, 2014, 09:22:26 pm »

Woe to ye Pharisees, scribes, HYPOCRITES...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2014/04/01/hobby-lobby-401k-discovered-to-be-investor-in-numerous-abortion-and-contraception-products-while-claiming-religious-objection/
04/1/14
Hobby Lobby Invested In Numerous Abortion And Contraception Products While Claiming Religious Objection

In what just may be the most stunning example of hypocrisy in my lifetime, Mother Jones has uncovered numerous investments on the part of Hobby Lobby’s retirement fund in a wide variety of companies producing abortion and contraception related products.

Hobby Lobby is currently seeking relief from certain contraception benefit requirements of Obamacare in a United States Supreme Court case that promises to be a landmark decision on the rights of corporations and the extension of personal religious protections to corporate entities. In the case of the Hobby Lobby corporation, the company is closely held by the Green family who purport to have strong religious objections to certain types of contraceptive devices and are suing to protect those religious rights.

Remarkably, the contraceptive devices and products that so offend the religious beliefs of this family are manufactured by the very companies in which Hobby Lobby holds a substantial stake via their employee 401(k) plan.

As I suspect many readers will find this as hard to believe and digest as I, the data can be confirmed by reviewing the company’s 2012 Annual Report of Employee Benefit Plan as filed with the Department of Labor.

This according to Mother Jones’ Molly Redden:

“Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012 (see above)—three months after the company’s owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k).

Redden additionally notes that, in a brief submitted to the Court in support of Hobby Lobby’s position in the case, the company specifically names contraceptive products such as Plan B, Ella, and IUDs as violating their religious beliefs because they work by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman’s uterus.

According to the Green family, interfering with an already fertilized egg is tantamount to abortion—an act unacceptable to the family and one they refuse to participate in no matter what the Affordable Care Act may require .

However, it turns out that the owners of Hobby Lobby do not appear to have any problem with profiting from the companies that manufacture the very products that so grievously offend their religious principles.

The following is a summation of the companies manufacturing these products that are held by the Hobby Lobby employee retirement plan, as set forth by Ms. Redden’s remarkable reporting:

“These companies include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Plan B and ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis ACT +1.64%, which makes a generic version of Plan B and distributes Ella. Other holdings in the mutual funds selected by Hobby Lobby include Pfizer PFE -0.53%, the maker of Cytotec and Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions; Bayer , which manufactures the hormonal IUDs Skyla and Mirena; AstraZeneca AZN +0.77%, which has an Indian subsidiary that manufactures Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions. Several funds in the Hobby Lobby retirement plan also invested in Aetna AET +0.11% and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in many of the health care policies they sell.

When added up, the nine funds holding the stated investments involve three-quarters of Hobby Lobby’s 401(k) assets.

You may be thinking that it must have been beyond Hobby Lobby’s reasonable abilities to know what companies were being invested in by the mutual  funds purchased for the Hobby Lobby 401(k) plans—but I am afraid you would be wrong.

No only does Hobby Lobby have an obligation to know what their sponsored 401(k) is investing in for the benefit of their employees, it turns out that there are ample opportunities for the retirement fund to invest in mutual funds that are specifically screened to avoid any religiously offensive products.

“To avoid supporting companies that manufacture abortion drugs—or products such as alcohol or pornography—religious investors can turn to a cottage industry of mutual funds that screen out stocks that religious people might consider morally objectionable. The Timothy Plan and the Ave Maria Fund, for example, screen for companies that manufacture abortion drugs, support Planned Parenthood, or engage in embryonic stem cell research.

Apparently, Hobby Lobby was either not aware that these options existed (kind of hard to believe for a company willing to take a case to the Supreme Court over their religious beliefs) or simply didn’t care.

For me, this story will forever be filed under the heading of “no good deed goes unpunished”.

While I have disagreed with Hobby Lobby’s legal position in their case before the Supreme Court on a number of levels, I have gone out of my way—both in print and on radio & television—to advise others not to vilify the Greens as individuals just because you might disagree with their position on contraceptive coverage via the Affordable Care Act. I say this because, from what I had previously been able to learn, these were  decent people who have long taken appropriate care of its employees by paying in excess of minimum wage and providing all employees with healthcare benefits.

But to now discover that these people are seeking to avoid their obligation under the law to provide their employees with a contraceptive benefit at the same time they are allowing their 401(k) to invest in—and profit from—these very products is, in my view, completely unforgivable.

For those wondering if the family is personally participating in the 401(k) program, I have been unable to get anyone at Hobby Lobby to confirm or deny the same. However, it would be highly unlikely that, as officers of the company, the Greens would not be participating in the 401(k) plan as they are employees of the corporation.

While these revelations will likely have no impact on the outcome of the case pending in the Supreme Court, the sheer and stunning hypocrisy of these people will forever stain any finding by the Court in favor of Hobby Lobby—should this come to pass.

While I may not agree with the legal position Hobby Lobby has taken in their lawsuit, I always stand in admiration of those willing to fight for their constitutional rights when they believe they are being taken.

Hobby Lobby is entitled to no such admiration—only contempt. You simply can’t say that you will give your all in defense of your closely held beliefs when it suits you while seeking to make money in violation of those beliefs. You also cannot pretend you were simply negligent in learning what investments you hold if you are going to hold yourself out as an example of righteousness.

By setting this perfectly awful example, Hobby Lobby’s hypocrisy will do little to aid—and much to deter—others willing to stand up for the Bill of Rights in the future. All they have accomplished is to provide more air to the cynicism that already envelops the nation, cynicism that exists precisely because of entities like Hobby Lobby.
Report Spam   Logged
Kilika
Guest
« Reply #16 on: April 02, 2014, 03:49:57 am »

Hey BA, your the CPA in the bunch, explain this to us.

How does Hobby Lobby not know what their funds are investing in? Is that possible?

All I know is that you elect for a portion of your paycheck to be invested, like a company stock plan, or some other financial instrument. But employees haven't got a clue what those funds invest in, and rarely do employees even know what the funds are that the company is vested in.

Personally, I think somebody that opposes Hobby Lobby is just trying whatever they can to turn up some dirt on HL.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #17 on: April 02, 2014, 11:01:01 am »

Hey BA, your the CPA in the bunch, explain this to us.

How does Hobby Lobby not know what their funds are investing in? Is that possible?

All I know is that you elect for a portion of your paycheck to be invested, like a company stock plan, or some other financial instrument. But employees haven't got a clue what those funds invest in, and rarely do employees even know what the funds are that the company is vested in.

Personally, I think somebody that opposes Hobby Lobby is just trying whatever they can to turn up some dirt on HL.

Yes, you are correct - but nonetheless Hobby Lobby DOES profess themselves to be Christians, and therefore should be held to higher standards. FYI, the source of this came from that New Age Mother Jones magazine outlet. But nonetheless, if you do a search on this on Yahoo, pretty much a lot of the MSM news sources(no, not just the "liberal" ones, but even the "conservative" ones like Forbes) are exposing this by using the MJ source.

And this is from the expose article...

Quote
No only does Hobby Lobby have an obligation to know what their sponsored 401(k) is investing in for the benefit of their employees, it turns out that there are ample opportunities for the retirement fund to invest in mutual funds that are specifically screened to avoid any religiously offensive products.

“To avoid supporting companies that manufacture abortion drugs—or products such as alcohol or ****ography—religious investors can turn to a cottage industry of mutual funds that screen out stocks that religious people might consider morally objectionable. The Timothy Plan and the Ave Maria Fund, for example, screen for companies that manufacture abortion drugs, support Planned Parenthood, or engage in embryonic stem cell research.

So yes, they have other alternatives.

Personally - I'm tired of these Hobby Lobby(and other "prominent evangelicals") getting this treatment like it's ONLY THEM that's being attacked. While on the contrary, we see both working/middle class Christians struggling to make ends meet, and poor Christians in 3rd world countries that are getting persecuted daily - but en yet nigh a word about them in the MSM.

No, I'm not trying to complain - but having been in these Babel church buildings for many, many years - I've seen it all(ie-the previous pastor I had showed preferential treatment toward Louisiana's Catholic governor Bobby Jindal, while he thumbed his nose at the pews).

Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #18 on: April 02, 2014, 01:49:42 pm »

How does Hobby Lobby not know what their funds are investing in? Is that possible?

All I know is that you elect for a portion of your paycheck to be invested, like a company stock plan, or some other financial instrument. But employees haven't got a clue what those funds invest in, and rarely do employees even know what the funds are that the company is vested in.

Personally, I think somebody that opposes Hobby Lobby is just trying whatever they can to turn up some dirt on HL.

Edit: Just to clarify - scroll up a tad bit(to yesterday) to see the Forbes article that tried to put out a hit piece on HL using this lying MJ source. And now this very same Forbes news site today tries to refute this same MJ source.

Well, Forbes just put out another article on this - this time not only defending Hobby Lobby, but also calling this Mother Jones story source absurd.

Either way, I don't know what kind of game the MSM minions are playing here - one minute they write an expose on HL, the next minute they're calling out this absurd MJ source. Like I was saying - this is typical of them.

As for Hobby Lobby fighting back against Obamacare? What about the rest of the Christian folks like us? Do we count too? Personally, I'm thankful the Lord showed me discernment to stay away from this - but I still have to pay the fine, no biggie. Anyhow here goes the Forbes article(this time refuting the MJ source)...

Hobby Lobby Owners Can Have a 401(k) and First Amendment Rights
 
There’s been an absurd story from Mother Jones making the rounds this week.  Authored by Molly Redden (who has never signed the front of a paycheck, but does “spend too much time cooking and watching television,” according to her bio) and echoed here on Forbes.com by Rick Ungar, the argument is that Hobby Lobby can’t have religious convictions and a regular 401(k) plan for their employees at the same time.

Hobby Lobby (which is a closely-held corporation with a few family owners) is suing the Obama Administration over Obamacare’s requirement that Hobby Lobby pay directly for drugs which can and do lead to early-pregnancy abortions.  Being a material and proximate cooperator in such an action violates the business owners’ deeply-held religious views protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Apparently, this also means that Hobby Lobby can’t have a 401(k) plan for their employees?  Why?  Well, according to Redden and Ungar, the Hobby Lobby owners are religious kook hypocrites.  The company 401(k) plan has investments which themselves invest in companies that make the abortion drugs.

This is a ridiculous argument for several reasons, all of which would be obvious to Redden and Ungar if they had ever run a business in their lives:

401(k) plans are directed and invested by employees, not by employers.  It’s the Hobby Lobby employees that would be disenfranchised by the twisted logic employed by Redden and Ungar here.  They are the ones–not their bosses–who choose which mutual funds to invest in.  This is true both of the employee’s elective deferral and the employer’s match.

The menu of choices is primarily provided not by the Hobby Lobby employers, but by the 401(k) plan administrator, who helps select a wide menu of mutual fund (and, increasingly, exchange-traded fund) choices so that the fiduciary obligations of the plan are met.

401(k) plans don’t invest in company stock–they invest in mutual funds.  A mutual fund, to state the obvious, is an investment company which invests assets in actual stocks.  When you buy a share of a mutual fund, you are buying a very small indirect ownership of hundreds or even thousands of stocks.  The most common 401(k) plan mutual funds are index funds, which invest the fund shareholder in the entire stock market (or close to it) in one fell swoop.

401(k) plans have a limited number of choices, and that’s a good thing.  Redden in particular seems to think that you can invest your 401(k) dollars (actually, that your employer can invest your 401(k) dollars) in any mutual fund at all, including socially-conscious ones.  That’s not accurate.  Plan administrators contract with select mutual fund companies to provide basic investment products diversified by sector, asset class, duration, risk, etc.  This is the primary goal of diversification of fund choices, not socially-conscious investing.  Besides, it’s the employees who call the shots.  They may not share the same values as the Hobby Lobby owners, and might have a very different idea of what a “socially responsible” fund would invest in.

Furthermore, you don’t want to provide dozens to hundreds of investment choices for employees.  All the research I’ve ever seen on this has said that if you give employees too many choices, they will fear making a bad one and never deploy their cash toward any investment at all.  Additionally, each new mutual fund offered within a plan drives up 401(k) plan fees.  Surely Redden and Ungar agree with the Obama Administration that 401(k) fees are too high and should come down, right?

What does Mother Jones’ or Mercury Public Affairs’ 401(k) plan look like?  Those are the employers of Redden and Ungar, respectively.  Surely those 401(k) plans invest in stocks of oil and gas companies, defense contractors, private equity firms, and other evil conservative power bastions.  Have Redden and/or Ungar done a forensic investigation of the mutual funds they are invested in?  Should I call them hypocrites for daring to invest in a 401(k) which invests in a mutual fund which invests in a multinational company which happens to own an oil company?  If not, consider that the Hobby Lobby employers have one more degree of separation even from Redden and Ungar.  Our two intrepid reporters affirmatively chose to invest in merchants of death when they picked out their 401(k) choices.  All Hobby Lobby is doing is providing the platform for employees to make those same choices themselves in partnership with plan administrators.

It’s an absurd argument, and one which isn’t that hard to dispute if you’re familiar with how 401(k) plans actually work.  But it’s not surprising to see such a weak argument advanced.  The secular Left is doing everything they can to drive people of faith from the public square’s marketplace.  The ridiculous idea that a religiously-convicted employer can’t offer a reasonable 401(k) plan is really not that different from saying a religiously-convicted photographer can be ordered by the government to shoot a gay wedding.  Religious minorities are under assault from secular bullies, and unfortunately Redden and Ungar are in their ranks.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanellis/2014/04/02/hobby-lobby-owners-can-have-a-401k-and-first-amendment-rights/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No, I'm not trying to dispute what this article says - but nonetheless the language used in this article is typical Hegelian Dialectic we see from these minions when agendas are being pushed.

It's not like Forbes is calling out Dan Rather, Katie Couric, or CNN - it's calling out it's OWN journalists that (supposedly)reported falsely on this! Hello? Forbes is a PRO-corporate publication!


« Last Edit: April 02, 2014, 02:50:35 pm by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #19 on: April 02, 2014, 07:18:11 pm »

Don't mean to drag this out further - but posting this here b/c it's not just the "liberal" sources putting out a hit piece on Hobby Lobby. Even these (professing)"conservative" sources(like CNS news here) are joining in on the hit piece parade as well.

Hobby Lobby 401(k) invests in birth control makers
April 2, 2014 - 5:03 PM - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hobby-lobby-401k-invests-birth-control-makers#sthash.Qo8KBbwk.dpuf

WASHINGTON (AP) — The company leading the legal challenge against birth control coverage under the new health care law offers its workers a retirement plan that includes investments in companies making contraceptive and abortion drugs. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. has a 401(k) plan featuring several mutual funds investing in pharmaceutical firms that produce intrauterine birth control devices, emergency contraceptive pills and drugs used in abortion procedures, according to Labor Department documents and a review of fund portfolios. Hobby Lobby and the Green family that owns it say their religious beliefs prohibit them from offering health coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices that can work after conception. The retailer and others have sued the Obama administration, challenging the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employers provide coverage for all approved forms of birth control, including the morning-after pill and similar drugs that may work after an egg has been fertilized. The Supreme Court heard arguments last week and is expected to issue a ruling by June. "This is the height of hypocrisy," Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. "Hobby Lobby's CEO wants to deny the company's 13,000 employees access to affordable birth control, while investing in pharmaceutical companies that make it." Hobby Lobby spokeswoman Emily Hardman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The magazine Mother Jones first reported Hobby Lobby's retirement plan investment holdings. Hobby Lobby's 401(k) plan includes funds that invest in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, maker of Plan B, known as the morning-after pill, and ParaGard, an intrauterine device. Hobby Lobby objects to offering employee coverage for both forms of birth control. Other holdings include Pfizer, maker of the drugs Cytotec and Prostin E2 used to induce abortions, and Forest Laboratories, maker of Cervidil, which is also used to induce abortions. Some of the funds also invest in health insurance companies Aetna and Humana, which offer policies covering emergency contraception and surgical abortions. The pharmaceutical companies are among dozens of holdings by each mutual fund, and represent just a fraction of the overall investment. The investments were disclosed in December in an annual filing that Hobby Lobby made to the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Labor Department agency that oversees employer-sponsored retirement plans. Hobby Lobby offered to match employee contributions to the 401(k) plan, an amount totaling $3.8 million in 2012. The Green family says it believes life begins at conception, and lawyers for the Greens say following the provisions of the new federal health care law would either violate their religious beliefs or force them to pay millions of dollars in fines. The company's insurance plans do offer 16 other forms of birth control mentioned in the federal health care law. The Obama administration says a victory for Hobby Lobby and other companies challenging the law would prevent their female employees from making decisions about birth control based on what's best for their health, not whether they can afford it. - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hobby-lobby-401k-invests-birth-control-makers#sthash.Qo8KBbwk.dpuf

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Again, this is from a "conservative" news source, who also credited that MJ source like it was FACT. This is just me, but there seems to be a BIG stink about an agenda they're pushing in the dark.

Edit: AP reports the same thing too.
http://news.yahoo.com/hobby-lobby-401-k-invests-birth-control-makers-203810924--politics.html
« Last Edit: April 02, 2014, 10:27:14 pm by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #20 on: April 02, 2014, 08:57:07 pm »

A couple of comments here(over something that really stuck out)...

Hobby Lobby 401(k) invests in birth control makers
April 2, 2014 - 5:03 PM - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hobby-lobby-401k-invests-birth-control-makers#sthash.Qo8KBbwk.dpuf

Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. has a 401(k) plan featuring several mutual funds investing in pharmaceutical firms that produce intrauterine birth control devices, emergency contraceptive pills and drugs used in abortion procedures, according to Labor Department documents and a review of fund portfolios.

Quote
The company's insurance plans do offer 16 other forms of birth control mentioned in the federal health care law. The Obama administration says a victory for Hobby Lobby and other companies challenging the law would prevent their female employees from making decisions about birth control based on what's best for their health, not whether they can afford it. - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hobby-lobby-401k-invests-birth-control-makers#sthash.Qo8KBbwk.dpuf

So it was the LABOR DEPARTMENT that exposed this info? And all Mother Jones did(pretty much) was report from THIS very LABOR DEPARTMENT documents? Do you see all of the misdirection going on here? First they say how it was Mother Jones was the primary source, but what they DIDN'T say(for the most part) was that all MJ did was report what was said in the Labor Dpt documents? So pretty much the average reader/listener of this will come away thinking it was some rag source that put out a hit piece.

Yes, I understand how mutual funds work(as we explained above) - but nonetheless was just pointing out the big picture of how they were trying to pull some misdirection.

And look at the second quotation para above - Hobby Lobby's insurance plans DO offer other types of birth control, if I'm reading this right? And now they're complaining about their constitutional rights and "religious freedoms" being violated Huh
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #21 on: April 07, 2014, 08:25:34 pm »

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/04/07/chick-fil-a-fast-food-dan-cathy/7250871/
4/7/14
After anti-gay flap, Chick-fil-A wings in new direction

ATLANTA — Chick-fil-A is finally crossing the road.

The iconic chicken chain, as well-known for its conservative heritage as its savory eats, is recalibrating its moral and culinary compass. It wants to go from old school to almost cool. It wants to evolve from a place where gays once picketed to a place where they'll feel comfortable going to eat. It wants to broaden the brand as it expands nationally and plows into the Millennial-driven urban arena. Above all: it wants to be a serious player on fast-food's biggest stage.

USA TODAY was exclusively invited inside to visit the company's sprawling, wooded campus, get the first look at its new test kitchen, tour its store-of-the-future development facility and interview Chick-fil-A's controversial CEO Dan Cathy. Cathy, whose comments condemning gay marriage in 2012 set off store picketing and a social media firestorm, has now fully backed away from such public pronouncements that mix personal opinion on social issues with corporate policy.

"All of us become more wise as time goes by," he says, apologetically, in a rare, one-hour sit-down interview. "We sincerely care about all people."

About two years ago, Cathy made headlines after conceding to being "guilty as charged," in confirming Chick-fil-A's support of the traditional family. Both ardent supporters and angry picketers showed up at stores. While Cathy's comments didn't hurt short-term business — and even helped it — Chick-fil-A executives recognize that the comments may have done longer-term damage to the brand's image at the very time it was eyeing major growth outside its friendly Southern market.

The national growth is about to go into overdrive — and it has a huge, new product platform behind it. Its biggest-ever new product roll-out will be announced Tuesday: a Millennial-targeting grilled chicken line for which the company has spent the past 12 years testing more than 1,000 grilled chicken recipes and developing such super-secret grilling equipment that executives won't let it be photographed.

Chick-fil-A's food, long-regarded as extra savory but nutritionally naughty, is going through an industry unprecedented "cleaning" cycle, with an ultimate aim of improving its brand image with trend-setting Millennials. Last month, it announced plans to sell only antibiotic-free chicken within five years. It's testing the removal of high fructose corn syrup from all dressings and sauces and artificial ingredients from its bun. Designers are trying to figure out how to remove fast-food's tell-tale plastic from Chick-fil-A stores — even from its serving trays.

**And be ye not deceived by this - they're only paying lip service by saying what everyone wants to hear. Ultimately, all of this "fast food" will LOSE its taste if they remove these poison ingredients like HFCS, and ultimately their profit$ will go down too.

The once-tiny, regional chain just surpassed giant KFC to become the nation's largest chicken chain in domestic sales. But along with this sales and geographical growth comes a new social consciousness. That's not by accident, says Christopher Muller, professor of hospitality at Boston University. "The politics of their Southern Baptist values will not transcend their core markets," he says.

Chick-fil-A's socially conservative agenda, which formally led the company to donate millions to charitable groups opposed to gay marriage, has been tempered. This, just as the company aims to quickly expand into Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Southern hospitality must give way to urban reality as the 1,800 store chain moves to compete with big city success stories like McDonald's, Panera Bread and Chipotle.

If nothing else, Cathy has listened. In 2012, Cathy not only heard from some unhappy consumers about his comments against gay marriage, but also from some store operators and employees. Now, he says, "I'm going to leave it to politicians and others to discuss social issues."

That's precisely what experts are advising. "He should put this as far behind him as fast as he possibly can," says Gary Stibel, CEO of New England Consulting Group.

One past critic has even become an unlikely fan. "Dan and I have an ongoing friendship," says Shane Windmeyer, executive director of the gay rights advocacy group Campus Pride. "I am appreciative for the common ground we have established in treating all people with dignity and respect — including LGBT people."

Which means Chick-fil-A can focus on what matters most: the food and growth. The privately-held company, whose sales last year reached $5.1 billion — up 9.3%, reports the research firm Technomic — may rank among the most intriguing growth stories in fast food. Imagine this: A typical Chick-fil-A racked up annual sales of about $3.3 million last year, while a typical McDonald's posted sales of about $2.5 million. Never mind that Chick-fil-A is closed Sundays.

"The next big thing is urbanization," says Cathy, 61, who tools around on his Harley-Davidson in his spare time. "That's where the future is heading."

**"urbanization"(or words similar to it) seem to be a growingly popular buzzword recently.

So, the company that has spent 68 years building its stores inside suburban malls and near big-box retailers is mostly tossing out those plans. Now it wants to focus on big cities and big-city dwellers.

It's working. There were lines out the door when it first entered the Chicago market about three years ago, and business is still strong, says Bob Goldin, executive vice president at Technomic. "They have a cult following no matter where they go," he says. Sure, big city real estate is more expensive and the competition will leave battle wounds, "but Chick-fil-A is a proven winner."

"The challenge in business is to stay ahead of the curve," Cathy says. For Boomers, fast food was all about taste and price, he says. But for Millennials, he notes, it's also about local sourcing, product quality and worker rights. For them, he says, "it's not just a product story any more — but the whole story."

Which is why Chick-fil-A removed yellow dye from its chicken soup late last year. And it's why the chain has just begun testing a line of fruit smoothies made with spinach and carrots.

This is the same company whose chief spokesman is a cartoon cow whose singular message for almost two decades has never changed: "Eat Mor Chikin." And it's the company in which 93-year-old founder, S. Truett Cathy, Dan's father, still keeps an expansive office, replete with photos of himself with George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Billy Graham and Pat Boone.

**Yoking up with high level Freemasons. Nuff said.

But if Chick-fil-A could frame a new photo of who matters most to the company, it might be someone such as 23-year-old Kelli Means-Cheeley. The Atlanta resident and recent college graduate stopped by a bustling Chick-fil-A near Atlanta's airport and offered a thumbs-up after sampling the new grilled chicken. Healthy food ingredients are critical to Means-Cheeley, but, she says, "what's also important to me is taste."

Chick-fil-A gets that. That's why the company just plopped down $10 million to open the test kitchen. "I think of it as a revenue generator," says David Farmer, vice president of product strategy and development. "How long will it take to generate $1 billion in sales out of here?" he asks.

Perhaps not too long. A new line of iceberg lettuce-less salads, developed right before the company opened its new test kitchen, boosted annual salad sales by 50% to $250 million, Farmer says.

Until now, the key rule for new products was that they had to be "cravable," Farmer says. While they still have to be cravable, he says, there's an increasing emphasis on them also being healthy.

**Again, be ye not deceived - either it's healthy, or not. You can't have it both ways.

"People aren't just worried about calories, but about clean ingredients, too," he says. "Our customers are asking questions they never asked before."

That, says Cathy, has prodded Chick-fil-A to be "more transparent." Last year it began offering "back stage tours" of its restaurants — where regular customers can request tours of the kitchens.

Ultimately, the chain plans to make that new transparency more literal.

That's the task of the chain's new design innovation center, known internally as The Hatch. It's only been open about 18 months, but it's filled with designers trying to mold new Chick-fil-A prototypes from styrofoam blocks. Among their chief goals: to open up the kitchens. They want consumers to be able to watch dough being rolled into biscuits and salads being freshly chopped.

Chick-fil-A will open 108 restaurants this year — most of them urban and a good chunk of them in New York City, says Woody Faulk, vice president of design and innovation. "If we can't do it in New York, we have no business going anywhere else."

The new urban locations will have much more natural wood. And some of the urban chefs are even replacing their old uniforms with snazzy chefs coats.

This new Chick-fil-A is striving to be very different from what was. "We're one foot out of fast food," Faulk says.

In its rush to grow up, perhaps the biggest challenge for Chick-fil-A will be crossing the road — without tripping over its own feet.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #22 on: April 09, 2014, 12:38:31 pm »

Look at all of the misdirection going on here - FYI, these Pentacostal and "money making" churches ARE branches of the Catholic Church! And to boot - Rwanda happens to be one of Rick Warren's Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan "Purpose Driven" countries, and guess what, the United Nations declared this very country to be under human rights abuses in recent years!

There's going to be NO "revival" in the last days of the Church Age!

http://news.yahoo.com/evangelism-booms-catholicism-suffers-post-genocide-rwanda-043338846.html
4/9/14
Evangelism booms, Catholicism suffers in post-genocide Rwanda

Kigali (AFP) - Jean-Claude Zamwita's family abandoned the solemn organ music and stained glass windows of the Catholic church in 2006, eight years after the genocide in Rwanda, and started visiting an evangelical church with tambourines and drumming.

Such churches have been springing up across Rwanda, partly because the traditional churches, notably the Catholic Church, were largely discredited by the role played by some of their clerics during the killings.

Since the end of the genocide, which left some 800,000 people -- essentially Tutsis -- dead, Rwandans have increasingly turned to pentecostal churches or in some cases to Islam.

Zamwita, who was 15 when his family changed churches, said it was an easy decision.

"When we used to attend mass there was no interaction between the priest and the congregation. I was like a slave, being told what to do and what not to do. Here I feel free," he said.

The new churches started when Rwandan refugees came back from neighbouring countries such as Uganda or the Democratic Republic of Congo, where evangelical churches are already well established.

**FYI, I believe Warren is also active in Uganda.

"These churches are attractive because there is singing, a big display of emotion and an opportunity for individual expression," explained Paul Rutayisire, a historian specialised in religious issues.

Inside the Celpar church that Zamwita and his family attend, the service looks more like a rock concert than anything else.

On a small stage a dozen members of the congregation sing, dance, leap into the air and then throw themselves to their knees. Others throw their arms into the air, wipe tears from their eyes before plunging their head into their hands as if the end was near.

"After the genocide people were spiritually weak. They were sick," explained James Nsengiyumva, the 39-year-old preacher and secretary general of Celpar. "We brought them a new message of empowerment and reconciliation."

This Ugandan-born Rwandan, dressed in a well-cut suit, has 29 churches in Rwanda, three in neighbouring Burundi and a further 40 in DR Congo.

The new churches have found post-genocide Rwanda to be fertile ground as the Catholic Church, while still powerful, no longer has the close relationship to the government that it enjoyed prior to 1994.

Rwanda is still dotted with the ruins of Catholic churches where the faithful seeking shelter were massacred, sometimes with members of the clergy acting in complicity with the killers.

The debate over the role of the Catholic Church was revived on Monday when Rwanda's representative to UNESCO lashed out at the Vatican.

The Catholic Church, a moral authority and an important institution remained silent," Jacques Kabale, Rwanda's ambassador to France and to the UN agency, said on Monday, the 20th anniversary of the genocide.

**Again, the human rights abuses continued when Warren made this one of his "Purpose Driven" countries.

"Its abandonment was felt all the more keenly in that some of its members hid criminal actions," he said.

In spite of everything the Catholic Church has not totally lost its influence, Rutayisire said.

"People go to the Catholics, then to the others. Some people even go to both... those are spiritual journeys."


"The debate over the role of the Catholic Church in the genocide is something that is of interest to an elite group of genocide survivors, for within the majority that was not persecuted (i.e. the Hutu) this is not an issue," he added.

"We don't see them as competition," said Smaragde Mbonyintege, the head of the Episcopal Conference in Rwanda, adding that the Catholic Church had a lot to learn from the preaching methods of the new churches.

The Rwandan government for its part considers that if the evangelical churches do not for the moment represent a threat to public order, they are nevertheless difficult to keep tabs on.

"They are sprouting up like mushrooms," said Felicien Usengumukiza, deputy director general of the Rwanda Governance Board, noting that many of those in charge of evangelical churches seem more interested in making money.

If the evangelical churches get financing from outside the country, they also depend on contributions from the faithful. Zamwita, who ekes out a living from odd jobs, gives, like many other member of the flock who can barely afford it, 10 percent of his earnings to the church.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a lot like churches in America now - young people, in particular, are jumping ship from both these Catholic churches, as well as these Baptist/Protestant money-greedy/live under the law Babel buildings to these seeker-sensitive/social justice/liberal megachurches.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #23 on: April 10, 2014, 11:37:12 am »

Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #24 on: April 11, 2014, 02:53:24 pm »

http://theweek.com/article/index/259823/catholicism-george-w-bush-and-the-cluelessness-of-the-religious-right
Catholicism, George W. Bush, and the cluelessness of the religious right

Bush's theological-political vision lies in tatters. But many on the right are unable to understand why.

4/11/14

Once upon a time, the religious right's leading intellectuals told themselves an inspiring story. It went something like this: From the time of the Puritans all the way down to the early 1970s, American public life was decisively shaped by the moral and spiritual witness of the Protestant Mainline's leading churches: The Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and Episcopalians.

But then the Great Collapse began, as these venerable churches sold their souls to the counterculture, abandoned the moral and religious tenets of historical Christianity, embraced a series of increasingly left-wing and anti-American causes, and saw their numbers (and then their cultural influence) plummet. Today these churches are an intellectual and demographic shell of their former selves.

This was a potentially disastrous development, depriving America of the theologically grounded public philosophy that it needs in order to thrive. But as luck — or providence — would have it, the decline of the Mainline churches set in at the precise moment when two other monumental cultural and religious developments unfolded: The rise of a politicized form of Protestant evangelicalism and a revival of intellectual and spiritual energy in the Catholic Church under Pope John Paul II. The time was ripe for evangelicals and Catholics to come together to form a successor to the Mainline churches.

The public philosophy promulgated by this new-fangled amalgam of evangelicalism and Catholicism (with the former supplying the foot soldiers and the latter providing the ideas) would be staunchly opposed to abortion and euthanasia. It would be strongly anti-communist. It would be passionately pro-capitalist. It would favor using military force to promote democracy. And it would re-describe the United States, its history, and its form of government in providential-theological terms, with the rights espoused in the nation's founding documents declared to derive directly from medieval concepts of natural law.

Once the country (or at least a sizable majority) embraced this public philosophy — turning it into a governing philosophy — the United States would supposedly flourish as never before, protecting the unborn, unleashing economic liberty at home, defending democracy and fighting tyranny abroad, and most of all bringing the nation back to its properly Christian roots after the silly season of the 1960s.

It is exceedingly odd that Joseph Bottum has written a book — An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America — devoted to elaborating this story as if it were original to him, when in fact it is derived almost entirely from the writings of the man for whom both of us once worked: The late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.

You see, I once edited Neuhaus' monthly magazine First Things. When I quit to write a book denouncing the ideological project outlined above, Neuhaus brought on Bottum (then the literary editor of The Weekly Standard) as my successor. When Neuhaus died in January 2009, Bottum became editor-in-chief of the magazine. (Twenty-one months later he was summarily dismissed by its governing board for reasons that have never been publicly explained.)

Bottum, a published poet, is a gifted prose stylist. That gives a distinctive flair to his version of the story. But the story itself, in every detail, comes straight from the writings of Neuhaus and his small circle of ideological compatriots: Michael Novak, George Weigel, and Robert P. George foremost among them.

In Bottum's hands, no less than in the essays and books in which it was originally formulated, the story has some explanatory power. The decline of the Mainline churches is indeed a significant event in recent American cultural and political history — and one that has received insufficient attention from both scholars and intellectuals. (My colleague Michael Brendan Dougherty's thoughtful reflections on Bottum's treatment of the topic can be read here.)

But the story also obscures far more than it clarifies. For one thing, Bottum can't seem to figure out if the problems he identifies with post-Mainline America (including the absence of a unifying, overarching moral consensus and the subsequent rise in acrimonious conflict in our political culture) are a result of Protestant Christianity's inability to defend itself against an aggressive form of secularism, or if, instead, what we call secularism is actually just a desiccated form of Protestantism (hence the reference to a "post-Protestant ethic" in his subtitle). Either way, Protestant Christianity is to blame for America's problems.

Which is why Bottum (following Neuhaus and the others) turns to Catholicism for a solution.

The closest we've come to seeing this theological-political vision in action was in George W. Bush's second inaugural address. You remember: It was a speech that consisted of a series of sweeping assertions about America's God-appointed task to end "tyranny in our world." (Bush made more than 50 references to "freedom" and "liberty" in a speech of 2,000 words.)

For Bottum, this was "the most purely philosophical address in the history of America's inaugurations," one that deployed "a Catholic philosophical vocabulary" rooted in natural law theory to "express a moral seriousness the nation needs."

That's one way to look at it.

Here's another: The speech was a crude expression of American parochialism and pious self-congratulation — the kind of address you'd expect from someone who believed toppling Saddam Hussein was a sufficient condition for creating a functioning democracy in Iraq, and who thinks that presidential rhetoric can rise no higher than paraphrasing the lyrics to "Onward Christian Soldiers." It was the speech of a simple-minded man leading a simple-minded administration.

The most interesting and original thing in Bottum's book is a new-found pessimism about the practical prospects for the theological-political engagement he still favors. But I would be more impressed with this darkening mood if it grew out of a realization that great political leadership involves far more than moralistic sermonizing — and that something as partisan and sectarian as a Catholicized version of the Republican Party platform could never serve as the unifying, overarching moral vision of a pluralistic liberal democracy.

Instead, we're left with vague, evasive statements about how "Catholicism as a system of thought proved too foreign" to play its appointed role as cheerleader for American exceptionalism.

Poor Joseph Bottum. Poor religious right.

They're down for the count, splayed out on the mat. And they haven't got a clue about what the hell happened.
Report Spam   Logged
FervorForFaith
Sr. Member
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 356


View Profile
« Reply #25 on: April 11, 2014, 08:15:51 pm »

Yeah definitely setting up Roman Catholicism as the "true saints" and "true church" (with its daughters slowly "coming home") while it seems even liberals are turning on Barack Obama over the whole internet control fiasco (among other things).

As I said in the series, I smell a false flag.
Report Spam   Logged

God gave us minds, let's use them.
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #26 on: April 17, 2014, 11:21:57 pm »

With all the attention surrounding Obama/Kerry with this pushing of the UN Arms Trade Treaty - look who's REALLY behind it!

Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #27 on: April 22, 2014, 10:30:47 am »

Only posted a couple of excerpts from this article(as it, unsurprisingly, has an anti-Christian bias), but nonetheless - they do make good points concerning this Hobby Lobby case...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/27/obamacare-contraception-supreme-court-religious-freedom

The company heads bringing these claims want to have it both ways. By incorporating, owners and shareholders create separate entities and are not personally liable for their employees' salaries or health insurance costs – the entire point of incorporating is to create a legal entity separate from the individuals who created it. Yet these owners and shareholders want the court to consider their personal religious beliefs indistinguishable from those of the corporation, and allow those beliefs to dictate the kind of healthcare coverage their employees receive.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And don't be fooled; this is more about the current political tides than long-held religious values. The constitutional issues at play here aren't all that grey. But the supreme court's calculus is made more complex simply by virtue of the issue being attached to the controversial Affordable Care Act.

Notably, the Hobby Lobby used to have an employee insurance plan that covered the very same birth control methods it now claims violate its religious freedom. It wasn't until the GOP raised a stink about the contraception rules in Obama's healthcare legislation that the Hobby Lobby "re-examined" its insurance policies. Is the religious belief sincerely held? Probably. But it's as much political and cynical as it is faith-based.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #28 on: April 22, 2014, 10:36:27 am »

FYI, Obamacare DOESN'T cover abortions(like the MSM made us to believe) - this source is from Media Matters(which is runned by George Soros). HOWEVER, they DO quote the correct source(Office of Personnel Management).

On the contrary, Romneycare in MA DOES fund abortions.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/01/no-conservative-media-obamacare-still-doesnt-fu/196179

Coverage of Abortion Services

Under OPM's final rule, no Federal funds, including administrative funds, will be used to cover abortions or administer plans that cover abortions. Unlike the health plans for which OPM contracts pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 8902, 8903 and 8903a, OPM does not administer the terms of the health benefits plans offered on an Exchange. Consequently, while plans with such coverage may be offered on an Exchange, OPM can and will take appropriate administrative steps to ensure that the cost of any such coverage purchased by a Member of Congress or a congressional staffer from a designed SHOP is accounted for and paid by the individual rather than from a government contribution, consistent with the general prohibition on Federal funds being used for this purpose.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #29 on: April 22, 2014, 10:42:11 am »

First off, I do NOT support socialized medicine - for months, my parents were pushing me to sign up for Obamacare. I just prayed and prayed that the Lord would prevent this from happening - well guess what, by His grace, my parents just completely forgot about it when the deadline neared(by the last hour, they remembered, but it was too late).

With that being said - BEWARE of all of the DISINFO coming out of the anti-Obamacare crowd - yes, I'm with them, but a lot of this crowd like the GOP, Alex Jones, and even the so-called "liberal" media have been spreading their share of disinfo. For example, remember the UPS news story over how spouses of UPS employees were dropped from their insurance plan b/c of Obamacare? Well - that is NOT true - they were dropped b/c their respective spouses found employment elsewhere(so therefore they signed up for insurance plans at their new jobs).

Ultimately - this is how the masses will slowly but into Obamacare(and potentially ushering in the single payer system) - when they find out all of this disinfo is just that, they're going to have this perception that somehow a smear campaign was being spread against it, and subsequently it's not a bad thing.

And another thing - most of the damage with Obamacare won't happen until 2017, after Obama leaves office, that is.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2014, 10:46:27 am by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
Free SMF Hosting - Create your own Forum

Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy