When Catholics Were Cristeros

While viewing films on Netflix it was my good fortune to come across a spectacular new movie "For Greater Glory" dealing with the Communist Government of Mexico attempting to wipe out the Catholic Faith in the 1920's. The film brings to modern audiences a time of oppression given little attention in the decades since the 20's and practically forgotten until now.  Such a film is needed at this juncture in our American history when an oppressive government is doing all it can to abolish American ideals of:  Liberty, Trust in God and "from many different and separate people becoming one people".

It is not that such oppression is as bad as was the oppression of Catholics under the Mexican President P. E. Calles or that suppression of our people should result in organized armed rebellion against our government as was the case in Mexico when Catholic men and women became fighters known as Cristeros, fighters for Christ.  The point to be realized from this film is to understand that the tyranny of oppressive governments is always brought to an end by the self sacrificing of its martyrs who trust in God for the fulfillment of the salvation of their people.  A young boy of 14, who refused to deny his faith but instead gave his life continually responding "Long live Christ the King" to each demand to deny and live or be executed, did more to bring about the end of this war against the Mexican Catholic faith than those fighting in the armed rebellion.  Without the blood of martyrs there can be no peace from oppression.

We should pray in groups for the saving of our American Principles and speak out against wrongdoing even if we must suffer the consequences.  We must speak out against the government's use of the IRS, the EPA, and other government agencies to intimidate those who speak out against government wrongdoing.  If we trust in God to accomplish the good needed to stop government oppression, we will see the miracles He can perform.

Click on the link below to read a summary of the film "For Greater Glory" and then definitely see the film.

When Catholics Were Cristeros

The Little Martyrs

King Herod listened to the three wise men of the East following a star directing them to the birthplace of a newly born baby who was to be a savior king for all people.  King Herod directed the men to Bethlehem, asking them to return with information about the baby's whereabouts.  Herod wanted to kill this savior king because of jealousy.  When the wise men did not return, Herod ordered his soldiers to kill all the new born babies of the Bethlehem area.  His parents had fled into Egypt with their savior king, Jesus, before this slaughter of "the holy innocents"; these innocents were the first martyrs of the Christian Church.

Today in America we have a similar slaughter of innocent babies within the womb and without as evidenced by the Gosnell holocaust.  Planned Parenthood is responsible for hundreds of thousands of such killings every year.  Christians have long wondered whether these killings are martyrdoms; that is, they wonder whether the souls of these babies enjoy the happiness of Heaven for all eternity.

To help in arriving at an answer to this vital question let us consider the rationale of the abortion industry in justifying these killings.  Planned Parenthood had its beginnings under various names back in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Margaret Sanger is considered its founder.  She and many others believed in Eugenics which involves the "purification" of races, societies and populations by weeding out people considered to be mentally inferior or defective.  Various techniques to accomplish this weeding out process were considered and implemented.  Voluntary and forced sterilization; propaganda  in education, using even the churches, to discourage families to limit family size to no more than one or two children or no children at all; abortion.  It was eventually determined that the most "efficient and effective" method was abortion.

What followed was was a bevy of "euphemisms" in propaganda to make abortion sound like something it was not.  The name Planned Parenthood is itself a euphemism used to hide the fact that their main business is abortion in the hundreds of thousands every year.  The saddest thing of all is that negroes were considered by the early eugenicists to be the most defective and undesirable in the population so that they have been the main targets for abortion.  Recent statistics show that 41% of all pregnancies in the U.S. end in abortions while 60% of all African American pregnancies end in abortion.  One of the reasons for this is that most Planned Parenthood clinics are located in economically poor districts of large cities in America.  Gosnell's clinic was in a poor black community in Philadelphia.

The point to be made here is that Eugenics/Abortion, founders/providers had and have no belief in God and see nothing at all evil in trashing His human creations.  Hence abortion is primarily a crime against God in His Goodness and Love by hating His human creations.  In effect, every abortion provider who contributes to an act of abortion contributes to an act of hatred for God, whether that provider realizes it or not.

This concept alone when compared to the act of hatred for God manifested by Herod in the killing of the innocents, whether he realized it or not, makes abortion of a human child ending in its death, an act of martyrdom.  Thus we have some fifty million martyrs to honor since Roe v Wade in January, 1973 and Christians can have confidence in these millions of little martyrs being happy in Heaven with a Merciful God for all eternity.

Another question might arise: whether a woman having an abortion is guilty of such an act of hatred for God.  There are many reasons for stating NO in almost every case.  In my next post I would like to develop this theme.

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Our Martyrs Must Be Remembered

It is time to expand upon a former post “Hatred is conquered by the love of Martyrs" to bring attention to the many martyrs, both living and dead, of our present chaotic national scene; those who have contributed with their lives and those who are contributing, with great personal sacrifice, to the love of America.

America is not a government. America is a spirit; a spirit  of goodness and love having risen out of the spirit of our founding fathers, fostered and preserved by the American people who have shown that spirit of love for nearly 250 years through myriads of wars, division, terror, reformation of beliefs in contrast to that spirit, good governments, poor governments, and dysfunctional governments.

This spirit of goodness and love remains strong even today even though so many are trying to destroy that spirit.  But this spirit will remain strong as long as we, the American people, believe that truth and goodness can only come from God and our belief in God's loving protection for America.

Many are looking for a better leader who can bring this country back from the depravities foisted upon our people by those who have no faith in God and who believe only in themselves. While good leaders are desperately needed, they alone cannot turn the tide without their realizing they must conform to the spirit of America grounded in their belief in God as the source of all good.

It is those who are fighting back against tyranny, not with violence but with that spirit of America;  like the many students of “Hatred is conquered by the love of Martyrs" who confront evil with the goodness of their hearts and faith written on signs and placards in the face of those who have no spirit and can only spit, curse, toss bottles and push and shove while such violence is not returned.

These students are joined by the many Americans who are being harassed and intimidated by government agencies like the IRS and the EPA simply for speaking out about their beliefs in the Spirit of America while employing  no violence nor civil disobedience.

Besides these, we must include those who have given their lives in the defense of other Americans against attacks by terrorists, who are motivated by hatred of America, while pleas for available aid were refused  by a government too preoccupied with their selfish needs to warrant any "matter "given these martyrs.

Let us remember the Martyrs of Bengahzi in our Prayers and solicitation to a God who sees that their lives mattered:                                           J. Christopher Stevens,

U.S. Ambassador to Libya

Sean Smith, U.S. Foreign Service

Information Management Officer

Glen Doherty

Tyrone S. Woods

Four Americans died in the attack: Ambassador Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith,[72] and two embassy security personnel and former Navy Seals, Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods

The Little Shop Of Horrors

A Philadelphia jury, after 10 days of deliberation, considering numerous accusations of horrific killings of born-alive babies as well as deaths of women in his abortion clinic in a poor section of Philadelphia, has convicted Dr. Kermit Gosnell of 3 counts of first degree murder of babies born alive and then murdered by sniping their spinal cords in their necks.  In addition Gosnell was convicted of involuntary manslaughter of a woman from a botched legal abortion after having been given overdoses of anesthetics by Gosnell.

During an abortion process a woman delivered her baby alive into a toilet and after seeing the baby struggling and trying to survive, a medical assistant then pulled the baby out of the toilet and slit its neck.

Medical assistants were paid about $10 an hour, kept low by Gosnell, enabling him to make more money. These assistants were to perform a variety of tasks including giving drugs, performing sonograms, performing abortions, helping with abortions, trashing fetal remains, in spite of most of these assistants, if not all, having little or no medical experience. 

Gosnell made millions by keeping down costs of safety procedures, general cleanliness, cleanliness of instruments used in repeated abortions, pain managing drugs, wages,  etc. Many women suffered pain from not being given sufficient pain medication because they could not pay for it.

Even though Pennsylvania has a state law requiring abortion providers to give credible information to women seeking an abortion so as to consider the risks of, and possible alternatives to, abortion, 24 hours before performing the abortion, Gosnell never did this.

Gosnell's attorney, calling no witnesses or experts, depended on a summation to the jury claiming that no babies were born alive at Gosnell’s abortion clinic, that the babies all died during abortions while their spinal cords were cut afterwards (for what logical reason, he did not say). But Gosnell employees later testified that the babies showed signs of life even after the abortions were over.  

The attorney further claimed that all accusations were based on racial prejudice because Gosnell was Black; however his clinic was in a poor black neighborhood from which most of his clients came, many of whom, having suffered from his botched abortions, were his accusers.

Even officials who finally inspected Gosnell's clinic in a drug raid were shocked beyond belief to see the litter of aborted dead babies of all sizes and ages dumped in trash cans and even in a refrigerator.  There was no need to rush getting rid of such specimens since before the drug raid state officials had for 17 years ignored complaints and saw no need to investigate a legal abortion clinic.

Serious attention needs to be given not just to the butchery of new born babies but to the tragedy involving the abuse, injury and killing of women who seek abortions because they have heard that abortion is not only legal but safe.  

In many of these abortion clinics we need to understand that women are at risk because the name of the game is PROFIT and not care for women.  More and more qualified doctors are opting out of doing abortions so that clinics need to employ unqualified personnel to make the clinic profitable.

The Gosnell scandal reveals the truth about the abortion industry which, rather than helping women, actually harms them, while keeping the nature of the procedures, dangerous to the lives and welfare of women, quiet.   As a result, abortion after Roe v Wade is no better than the “coat-hanger” abortions before Roe v Wade; in reality this industry is more geared to making huge sums of money at the expense of the health and welfare of women.

This spectacular event affecting not only Gosnell, but many other abortionists who murder babies and harm women in  similar ways, should certainly result in all concerned agencies taking a much closer look at the professed “legal and safe” attitude of the abortion industry. 

Sources:

Gosnell Jury Hears About Baby Surviving Abortion Struggling in Toilet

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 5/9/13 11:15 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/

To My Evangelical Friends

Earlier today, while listening to one of my favorite talk show hosts, a woman called in saying that many of her evangelical friends are starting to believe that they have been too judgmental in their treatment of others and that they should start changing their ways, be more relaxed about things not going the way they think they should, and going to the extreme of wanting to vote for president Obama just to prove to themselves and others that they are being more relaxed in their views and not being judgmental. The talk show host responded that it is necessary to make moral judgments about the way people act without a concern for righteousness that comes about only from faith in God.

One has only to visit Scripture to see what God really wants of us. Jesus Christ made moral judgments concerning the corruption of the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and doctors of law who did not do what God wanted, but what they wanted. He told his disciples to do what ever these leaders said since they were the leaders of the Jews but at the same time not to do what they do. What this means in our time is that the leaders of our country have authority to tell us that we should follow what they say as authorities, but we should not do what they do. It is becoming more and more evident that the officials within the Obama administration are a pack of liars, including the president himself. To make such a moral judgment is correct, good and moral, and is essential because in so doing we are simply following the way that Jesus acted while he was on earth.

To make this even more clear we see in Scripture Christ associating with sinners; when Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and the doctors of the law that He should not be associating with such people.  Jesus responds that He has come into the world to heal the sick and so does not associate with those who do not need healing.   So Jesus does not condemn sinners, he heals them.

In another part of Scripture his disciples ask Jesus whether they should not rain down fire from heaven upon towns that will not receive Jesus; Jesus responds that he has come on earth not to destroy but to save.  So Jesus and his disciples simply go around these towns.

Two of the most beautiful encounters Christ has with his sinners are with women. One of the encounters deals with a woman caught in adultery; those who have brought her to Christ remind Him that Moses had said such women should be stoned to death.  They asked Jesus what he thought. Jesus responded that whoever was without sin should cast the first stone; Jesus then, seemingly disinterested, started writing in the sand. One by one the woman’s accusers left leaving the woman standing alone in front of Jesus. Has no one remained to accuse you, Jesus asked. The woman responded, no one sir.   Neither then will I accuse you, says Jesus; go your way but sin no more.

Notice that the people who wanted to stone her judged her just as we as Christians many times condemn others who’ve done wrong and in some way indicate that they should be condemned. Jesus however shows us the way He wants us to respond when we see someone who has sinned. While He wants us to recognize that the person has sinned, he warns us not to judge, that is condemn the person. Necessary judgment can only come either from God directly or through those officials, who by their God given authority, can exercise judgment or condemnation.

The second example is the encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. He knows that she is a sinner but He does not judge her. He engages her in conversation where He hints at is divinity but asks her to bring her husband to the well which forces the woman to respond that she has no husband. Again Jesus does not condemn her but simply tells her that she has told the truth and that not only does she not have a husband but she has previously had five husbands. The woman then remarks that the Messiah is coming and will tell them everything. Jesus then tells her that He is the Messiah. Her response in leaving her water jug at the well and immediately going to the nearby town and telling others that Jesus is the Messiah, brings salvation not only to herself but to the members of the Samaritan town.

Jesus does not condemn; He reveals to the sinner that He is there to heal if only they desire it.  Condemnation will come only to those who completely reject God’s love and saving graces; but this will be known only to Jesus.  We do not know how great His mercy is so that we dare not condemn anyone.  What Jesus Christ asks us to do is to surrender ourselves to Him so that we, in union with Christ, his love and grace, act Christlike as he directs us through his grace to accomplish His will through us.. 

St. Paul in his epistles makes it clear that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ but that this entails our complete surrender to Him so that He may use us, His loving servants, in accomplishing His will through us.