Showing posts with label conservative Christians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservative Christians. Show all posts

Thursday 30 July 2015

Rumours of problems in Roman Catholic Church

English: A photo of Cardinal George Pell I too...
English: A photo of Cardinal George Pell I took during his time in Rome. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For more than twenty years the roman Catholic Church had tried to turn back the clock to the conservative time before pope John XXIII.

After the first papal resignation in 600 years by choosing a cardinal from South America many perhaps expected the chosen one would continue the very conservative lines of the last popes. They also did not expect the new pope to be a man of the people also connecting social matters with economical and ecological and science matters.

Last year appointed to manage the Vatican's finances Australian Cardinal George Pell dared to speak out loud what others in their corners discussed with their fraternal brothers.

Many priests and bishops do find it is not the task of the church people to interfere with science, economical and ecological matters, whilst others do understand church people cannot be ignorant of what is happening in the world and of what is interfering with people's life and health.

Cardinal George Pell says that the Roman Catholic church has ‘no mandate’ to lay down doctrine on scientific matters and places his  concern among some high-ranking Catholics at the direction and tone of Francis’ encyclical on climate change last month.
In the encyclical, which carries the full authority of church teaching, the Pope said that the world risked becoming ‘an immense pile of filth’ and that ‘doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain.’

The Cardinal is the most senior Roman Catholic yet to sound a note of caution over the encyclical Laudato Si, which said that climate change is doing most harm to the world’s poor and argues that the world must take precautions against climate change at the summit to be held in Paris in December.

The Pope said in his own paper that
‘The church does not presume to settle scientific questions’
though Christians also can not ignore what is going on and should take on the right attitude.

The charismatic Pope Francis has gained lots of hearts, from Catholics but also from other believers and non-Christians. Where he shows up he is greeted more like “a rock star” and often we can see that he is doing his best to have a real contact with the people.

This popularity is for many a thorn in the eye. Also having this man not to mince the matter makes him in his own ranks a debatable figure.

But by conservatives the pope is losing popularity.

After Pope Francis was elected the leader of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church in March 2013, he attempted to focus the church on a renewed sense of protecting the poor, on interfaith relations and on respecting gay and lesbian members of the church.
He was lauded in the American news media, with accolades including Time magazine naming him the Person of the Year in 2013.
The next time Gallup asked about Pope Francis, in February 2014, his favorability had swelled to 76%.

In the current poll, conducted July 8-12, Francis’ favorable rating declined, while his unfavorable rating increased to 16% from 9% in 2014…

Pope Francis’ drop in favorability is even starker among Americans who identify as conservative — 45% of whom view him favorably, down sharply from 72% last year.
This decline may be attributable to the pope’s denouncing of “the idolatry of money” and attributing climate change partially to human activity, along with his
 passionate focus on income inequality — all issues that are at odds with many conservatives’ beliefs. 
{Gallup: Favorable view of pope declines among Americans, especially conservatives > Read more: http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2015/07/22/gallup-favorable-view-of-pope-declines-among-americans-especially-conservatives/#ixzz3hNeJk2eR }


In October shall take place the second synod on the family.
Benedict XVI’s promise not to interfere with the teachings of the new pope has been broken. Pope Emeritus slapped down his old adversary, Cardinal Walter Kasper, for suggesting that when the former pope was still Professor Joseph Ratzinger he supported Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.

The world also sees the previous pope with his title and his white robe. That world also still gets signs from the previous pope that he is not yet death and that his visions stay standing. He also let others hear that he does not like it when certain cardinals, like the arch-conservative Raymond Burke, are sacked.

Many think the battle between reformers and conservatives will reach a bruising climax when cardinals and bishops convene in
Rome in three months’ time for a second synod on the family.

The progressive president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Reinhard Marx, and Gerhard Muller, the traditionalist head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog bring debates which may already give a sign that some really know what they want and are not prepared to wait for the outcome of the synod.

The majority of German bishops support the introduction of Communion for the remarried. But just over the border, in Poland, the Polish episcopate has implied that it could never be accepted. This makes consensus at the synod highly unlikely.


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News about Pope Francis I his ideas and on debates about  climate change:



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Find also:

Senior cardinal breaks ranks by questioning the Pope’s authority
Schism at the Vatican

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Friday 20 March 2015

Old Earth creationists and other conservative Christians denying any evolution

Views on Evolution
Views on Evolution (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When we looked at North America the last ten years we could see that very conservative Christians gained terrain and could blown up the whole evolution thing in a ridiculous way.

A big problem with the creationists is that they all undermine the normal Christian thinking and Christian concept of creation and the relationship of man versus the creation. Very bad, not to say 'ridiculous' is their ignorant attitude to all historical and scientific findings, which makes others to step away form such people who do not want to believe what we all can see with our own eyes.

Their wrong concept of evolution is not taken on by all Christians, and the world should know than there are enough Christians who look at creation in other ways than they do.

Irving Hexham, a religion and politics professor at the University of Calgary, said evolution - like abortion - is a divisive issue among evangelical Christians. He doesn't think there is any reason why Christians can't believe in evolution, and throughout the world, a lot of Christians do.

Natalie Odd, an Alberta Party member and mother of two, attended an open house held by Mr. Gordon Dirks over the weekend, hoping to confront the minister about spending cuts. Having taken him aside she also began to question him about another evolution.

"He said, it's possible to believe in creation and evolution. I wasn't getting an answer out of him," she said. "As we were walking away, he threw up his hands and said: ‘I'm an Old Earth Guy.'"

The comments were confirmed by other attendees, and Mr. Heyman.
Ms. Odd said she had to look the phrase up on the Internet as she was unfamiliar with it.

Brian Alters knows the term quite well, however. Alters is president for the U.S.-based National Center for Science Education, a professor at Chapman University in California and previously on the faculty of McGill University. He said "Old Earth" creationism encompasses a spectrum of beliefs. Old Earth creationists generally accept that the earth is older than 10,000 years. Beyond that, however, beliefs range. Some believe that evolution is the mechanism by which God guides life on earth. Others totally reject the generally accepted scientific theory of biological evolution.

Mr. Dirks declined to elaborate on his view further when questioned by the Post.

"With the education minister, if this is something that he practices in his place of worship with colleagues of similar faith, I think most scientists wouldn't have the slightest problem," Mr. Alters said. "The problem is if the education minister says ‘I'm an Old Earth creationist because I think there's credible evidence against evolution. I find evolution to not be credible.' Then we have big problems, Houston."

Read more in:
Being a creationist conservative in Canada ‘gives your opponents a tremendous amount of ammunition’


Find more about the creation