September 22, 2015:
Carson Was Dropped From Christian Event over His Own Religious Beliefs
Published September 21, 2015, 11:09 AM EDT 6566 views
| COMMENT: His denominational affiliation is slowly rising to the top. |
Dr. Ben Carson was left out of a Christian pastors' conference earlier this year in part because his own religious beliefs deviated too much from Christian orthodoxy.
The snub was ironic in hindsight, as Carson is now under fire for saying over the weekend that he didn't believe a Muslim should be President of the United States because his or her religious beliefs would be in conflict with the Constitution.
Willy Rice, the pastor of Florida-based Calvary Baptist Church, invited the retired neurosurgeon to speak at the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference earlier this year. The invite for the June conference came before Carson was a declared Republican presidential candidate.
However, several organizations and individuals within the Southern Baptist community publicly expressed their displeasure with having Carson, a Seventh-day Adventist, address the conference. Those complaints, in addition to Carson's expected presidential campaign launch, led Carson and the conference organizers to mutually agree to not have him speak at the event.
"Southern Baptists have classified Seventh-Day Adventists not as a church but as a sect," Barber wrote. "We have stopped short of anathematizing them, but we have identified aspects of their beliefs that are sub-Christian and harmful."
Click on Link:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ben-carson-southern-baptist-pastors-conference
Let's make Sunday a day of rest, for God’s sake
By Josh Graves Published April 22, 2012
| COMMENT: Notice the ease with which the term “Sabbath” is used as it is applied to Sunday. |
Spiritual disciplines are the habits we keep that connect us to God. They come from the Jewish conviction that action shapes and reveals what we ultimately believe. Our faith might come and go, but our actions should never waiver. This can be true for people of all faith claims.
We dance in rhythm with God when we keep the Sabbath. The reason we are called to take a day of rest is simple. Humans tend to forget that we did not make the world and thus, that the world does not depend upon us.
A time when we allow our hearts to settle and the voices to hush. Sabbath is a time when we remember that God made the world and rested; that He calls us to rest with him, to hear his voice, to be aware of his presence.
And it is a time to remember, according to the Hebrew Testament teaching on Sabbath and Jubilee, that there will be a day when all peoples of the world will rest—not just the ones who can financially afford to take a day off.
Sabbath-keeping reminds us that we are pilgrims in a foreign land, awaiting the world to become what the world was meant to be.
Click on Link:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/04/22/let-make-sunday-day-rest-for-gods-sake.html
Francis: Celebration and rest are vital for harmonious
family life
by Cindy Wooden Posted Wednesday, 12 Aug 2015
Families need moments of rest and celebration, Pope Francis has said at his weekly general audience. Celebrations are times “to enjoy that which cannot be produced or consumed, that cannot be bought or sold,” he said. Continuing his series of talks about the family in anticipation of the September celebration of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia and the world Synod of Bishops on the family in October, Pope Francis said he would be looking at “the rhythm of family life,” focusing first on celebrations, then on work and on prayer. “Celebrations are God’s invention,” he said, pointing to the description in the Book of Genesis of how, after creating the world, God took a day of rest and contemplated all he had created. Life becomes truly human when people take the time to do the same, the Pope said. “A celebration is above all a loving and grateful gaze at work done well,” whether it’s a wedding celebration of a relationship that has matured or birthdays and graduations when people “look at their children or grandchildren who are growing and think, ‘How beautiful’.”
The best parties are always those that gather families together, Pope Francis said. “Family life, seen with the eyes of faith, shows itself to be worth more than the effort it requires.
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Capitalism’s war on the Sabbath
September 7, 2015
| COMMENT: Notice again the ease of the merger between the term “Sabbath” and Sunday |
One of the most important events in labor history happened in Exodus 20:10 when God commanded the Israelite people to rest every seventh day: “The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.” The concept of resting every seven days is one of the most important legacies of the Judeo-Christian tradition. And modern capitalism has declared war on this idea of Sabbath.
When I was a kid, it was still taboo in the South to work or do secular activities on Sundays (at least for middle-class people). As a kid, I never made the connection that the people behind the counter at Luby’s Cafeteria where we went every Sunday after church couldn’t go to church themselves because they had to make our food ready for us to eat it after church. We could eat out on Sundays, but the one thing we would not do was go shopping on Sundays, because Sunday was supposed to be a day for God and family (if you’re not working in the service industry). For much of my life, honoring the Sabbath was a sort of moralistic duty to God. It never occurred to me that God created this concept as a means for people to enjoy life.
Click on Link:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mercynotsacrifice/2015/09/07/capitalisms-war-on-the-sabbath/
