Conversion by Committee: Vatican Allies Itself with World Council of Churches

(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) According to Zenit News (May 10, 2006), “The Vatican and the World Council of Churches are launching a three-year joint study project aimed at developing a shared code of conduct on the issue of religious conversion.” The study project is being undertaken by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Office on Interreligious Relations and Dialogue.

The study project was launched with a meeting in Velletri, Rome, from May 12-16, 2006. Attended by some 30 participants representing different religious traditions and regions, the meeting focused on assessing the current reality of religious conversion from an interreligious point of view. The next stages of the project will be, first, a discussion of religious conversion from a Christian perspective and, second, the establishment of a shared code of conduct. This is expected to distinguish between witness and proselytism, making respect for freedom of thought, conscience and the religion of others a primary concern in any encounter between people of different faiths. In addition to Christians, dialogue partners from Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, traditional African and other Indigenous religious traditions are also expected to participate.

The details of the conversion code will take shape in the coming years, said Reverend Hans Ucko, head of the WCC's interreligious relations office, but it will explore "the dos and don'ts" of trying to spread Christianity among other faiths – including places in the Muslim world where conversion from Islam is a punishable offense.

Msgr. Felix Machado, Under Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said "We want to convert people; we don't hide that," but the question of "how it's done" needs clarification. Without that clarification, evangelization might be mistaken for proselytism and that "hinders interreligious dialogue and mission work," he said.

A report resulting from the Velletri Meeting states that freedom of religion entails the "equally non-negotiable responsibility to respect faiths other than our own, and never to denigrate, vilify or misrepresent them for the purpose of affirming superiority of our faith.” The report also recommends that "all should heal themselves from the obsession of converting others".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) represents more than 500 million Protestants worldwide. The Roman Catholic Church, with about 1.1 billion members, is not a WCC member, but cooperates closely on many levels.

Comment: The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue describes its methodology like this:

Dialogue is a two-way communication. It implies speaking and listening, giving and receiving, for mutual growth and enrichment. It includes witness to one's own faith as well as an openness to that of the other.

Whoever wrote these words knows how ridiculous it sounds to suppose that the Catholic Church can be enriched by false beliefs which deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ. So, he tried to justify the nonsense he had written:

It is not a betrayal of mission of the Church, nor is it a new method of conversion to Christianity. This has been clearly stated in the encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II "Redemptoris Missio."

The best he could do in attempting to prove that this concept of learning from non-Catholic beliefs is not a novelty is to cite an encyclical that is a whopping 26 years old! These people can’t even fool themselves.

The Catholic Church has preserved the True Faith through thick and thin (mostly “thick”) since the Resurrection of her Founder. She has weathered storms that have toppled the secular kingdoms which have risen and fallen since then. She has called to herself the most brilliant and bravest men and women ever to walk the roads and fields of this green earth, and remained the sole portal to a blessed eternity.

To facilitate this atrocious agreement of Christ and Belial, between the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC, upon the subject of conversion, no less, is the height of folly. The WCC has stated that their experience in dialogue “suggests strongly that many ‘classical’ Christian theological presuppositions and convictions need to be informed and challenged afresh by the realities of our times.” This is the battle-cry of the reformer, the Protestant supposition that doctrine is merely a “presupposition.”

Rather than trying to “out-Protestant” their Protestant buddies at the WCC by doctrinal waffling, let our Catholic leaders restore the Church to her former glory, a strong, safe, beautiful refuge in a world gone mad. When this happens, converts will seek out the Church, not the other way around. In fact, our Churches won’t be able to hold the number of souls who will then feel themselves irresistibly drawn to the authentic Bride of Christ.

Jerusalem Braces For “World Pride” 2006

All eyes on Jerusalem as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allied Groups Prepare for WorldPride 2006, proclaims a press release by Renna Communications, the company which has been retained to handle media relations for the event.

Jerusalem WorldPride, scheduled for August 6-12, 2006, is described as a massive demonstration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) pride and human rights. Major events include a Multifaith LGBT Clergy Conference, a Pride March and outdoor festival, Human Rights Day, LGBT Health Day, an International LGBT Youth conference, an LGBT Film Festival, and the Keshet Gaava annual conference.  Broad cultural programming will occur throughout the week, including theatrical performances, art exhibitions and parties.

"The message sent from Jerusalem WorldPride will echo throughout the world, redefining our community’s identity, faith and vision," said Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director of Jerusalem Open House, (JOH), the Holy City’s LGBT community and advocacy organization, and lead organizer of WorldPride 2006.  JOH works to advance social change and promote tolerance and pluralism. "In these times of intolerance and conflict,” said El-Ad, “this is a historical opportunity to proclaim the moral values of our community from the home of three of the world’s great religions.”

Although Jerusalem WorldPride will encompass many themes, religion will be a focal point. The Multifaith LGBT Clergy Conference, titled "Reclaiming Our Faith and Our Heritage," will allow people of all faiths to “explore ways in which our teachings convey respect for the dignity of all people.” "As a Muslim scholar and spiritual activist striving for the eradication of homophobia within Muslim communities, I find it imperative to seize any opportunity that might aid this cause," said Imam Muhsin Hendricks, President of The Inner Circle, an organization advocating for South Africans who are homosexual and Muslim. "Many of us will be gathering in Jerusalem not only to celebrate gay pride, but also to celebrate our spiritual pride," said Reverend Dr. Troy D. Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), the world’s largest “gay church group” and co-chair of the WorldPride Multifaith Clergy Conference. "We’re coming as pilgrims to pay homage to the three faiths of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam that hold Jerusalem sacred.”

"The religious right does not own the mantle of holiness," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Co-Chair of the WorldPride’s North American organizing committee and spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Simhat Torah (CBST), the synagogue for the New York metropolitan area’s 200,000 LGBT Jews. "Jerusalem, a living, holy city, a pilgrimage site for people of many faiths and many beliefs, increases in holiness when all are welcome within her walls.  During WorldPride, we will unite as one community to declare that Jerusalem belongs to all of us."

Comment: Remnant readers will recall that this WorldPride event was originally scheduled for last year. We were told then that it would be postponed until 2006 because of “the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.”  What should also be mentioned was the March 30, 2005 meeting of Jerusalem’s top religious leaders – Sheikh Abed El Salem Menasera, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Eirineos, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Armenian Patriarch Turkum Manijian, Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkanezaic Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger – during which they held a news conference and issued a declaration warning that holding the homosexual event in Jerusalem would "desecrate its sanctity and character and cause a breakdown in public order," and which called on Israeli authorities to prevent it.

Whatever the actual reason for the event’s postponement, the people of Jerusalem once again find themselves facing an orchestrated assault by the homosexual agenda. With religion having become a hot topic of late in the mainstream media, it is not surprising to find the organizers of WorldPride 2006 cultivating a heavily “religious” dimension to the event. But, it is “religion” used as a smokescreen for social engineering and nothing more. WorldPride 2006’s “Multifaith Convocation” (scheduled for Aug. 8-9) bills itself as a means to “allow people of all faiths to explore ways in which our teachings convey respect for the dignity of all people .... to recognize that LGBT people share equally in the spark of the divine.” However, its goal is an active furthering of the “gay” agenda, as can be seen in its press release:

During and after the event, the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance will facilitate television, print, and Internet media access to community representatives who understand and share our strategic goals.  A host of other steps will be taken to help the LGBT movement better describe our struggle for equality in moral terms, so that we can respond effectively to religion-based homophobia. This is particularly important in the U.S., where LGBT advocates can win the hearts and minds of the American mainstream only if we overcome the opposition of the religious right.

The results of a 2005 poll conducted by the Rabbinical Alliance of America showed that nearly 70 percent of the general Israeli population of Jews, Christians and Muslims were opposed to then-current plans for Jerusalem to host WorldPride 2005. It showed that “nearly 100 percent of the Orthodox Jewish segments surveyed said they were opposed to the event,” and that a majority of "non-religious" Israelis were also against the event. Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who is the highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric in the holy land, said at the interfaith news conference: "The limit of any freedom is the freedom of the other. We call as one ... to respect the holiness of this city, not to provoke the religious feelings of all the believers in this city."

The organizers of WorldPride have proven once again that this is no concern of theirs.  It is now up to the people and leaders of the Holy City to stand up for themselves.

Mel Gibson Claims President Bush as Apocalypto Inspiration

According to the World Entertainment News Network (May 12, 2006), film star and director Mel Gibson “has launched a scathing attack on President George W. Bush, comparing his leadership to the barbaric rulers of the Mayan civilization in his new film Apocalypto.”

Gibson reportedly told the British film magazine, Hotdog, "The fear-mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys." He revealed that he used present day American politics as an inspiration, claiming the government callously plays on the nation's insecurities to maintain power.

The ancient Mayan epic, Apocalypto, was originally scheduled to premier on August 4, 2006. However, due to heavy rains which interfered with filming in Mexico, the premier has been pushed back to December 8, 2006. The film’s official website summarizes the film’s story:

When a man's idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family, he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

Comment: Comedian Jerry Seinfeld pointed out that, with baseball players switching sides every year or two, the contemporary baseball fan is essentially rooting for laundry. A player is cheered by the fans. The next year, after he has changed teams, the exact same player with the exact same abilities is booed by the exact same fans. What has changed? His uniform. Laundry!

Reactions to Mel Gibson’s “Bush analogy” are a case study in the schizophrenia inherent in contemporary politics. A glance at comments made by posters at popular conservative websites reveals a number of bewildered individuals who just can’t understand how the director of The Passion of The Christ could have turned on them, as though their support for the film had turned Gibson into their indentured servant. These “Conservatives” are now accusing Gibson of creating controversy to sell Apocalypto tickets (the same accusation hurled against him during the Passion hysteria) and of pandering to Hollywood as a way of making amends for the Passion (as though an epic filmed entirely in the Mayan language were standard Hollywood fare). Others are swearing off Mel Gibson films forever (yes, he is still the talented director of Braveheart and the Passion, but, to these folks, his “laundry” has changed). And some are coming to the belated conclusion that, hey, the Passion wasn’t really such a great film, after all.

Still others have referred to Gibson as “nuts” and “insane.” Their fellow Conservatives weren’t pleased back in February of 2004 when CBS network talking-head, Andy Rooney, referred to Mel Gibson as “wacko” and “crazy as a bedbug” on 60 Minutes. But, apparently, criticism – even harsh criticism – of our elected leaders, a right which Americans have cherished and boasted of since the founding of this nation, makes you “insane.” We can only hope these “Conservatives” don’t recommend the Gulag for Mel!

Funny, Mr. Gibson wasn’t a “nut” when he said, on the Sean Hannity radio show (Nov. 1, 2004), “I have problems with the way the war in Iraq was handled, but I believe that putting Kerry in there scares me far worse." Nor was he “insane” when he came to the defense of Terri Schiavo.

Yep, that’s the Hypocrisy Alarm you clear clanging away.

Conservatives and Liberals hurl the same charges at each other, ad infinitum. The “other side” ignores facts. The “other side” engages in ad hominem attacks. Too many members on both sides have adopted politics as their religion, and therefore their truths and values must shift with the tides. It was a Conservative columnist, Peggy Noonan, who described these poor souls as they truly are: "Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures; there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen."

Another “Religion of Peace” Takes the Initiative

Voice of the Martyrs reports (May 16, 2006) that a partially built Protestant Church in Boeng Krum Leu, Cambodia, approximately 19 miles east of Phnom Penh, was destroyed by a group of approximately 300 local Buddhists, who “felt threatened by the visible presence of another religion,” according to Che Saren, the chief of Lvea Em district. The church would have been the area's second, but there is only one Buddhist pagoda to serve the needs of the overwhelmingly Buddhist community.

The church building was nearing completion on Friday, April 28th, when the villagers, chanting "Destroy the church," and "Long live Buddhism,” attacked it with hammers and sticks, then burned the rubble.

According to Ros Sithoeun, a representative of the area's Protestant community, the police gave the villagers a lecture on the laws governing religious freedom, and the two sides have come to a peaceful agreement.  There are currently 20 to 30 Protestants living in Boeng Krum Leu, and they have not filed complaints with the authorities nor demanded restitution for the destroyed building. Buddhists make up more than 90% of the Cambodian population.

Archeologists Excavate Roman Road in Paris

Deep beneath pavement pounded by tourists on Paris' Left Bank lies an ancient path — a 2,000-year-old Roman road recently excavated during construction work, reports the Associated Press (May 6, 2006)

The discovery, during construction work on the Pierre and Marie Curie University near the famed Sorbonne, offers a window onto one of the many layers of history underpinning this bustling capital. Archaeologists said it was the first such site discovered in the city — known as Lutetia in pre-Roman and Roman Gaul — from the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus (63 B.C.-14 A.D.).

 Remnants of private houses rigged with baths and ingeniously heated floors are among the findings, now on view in the stunning dig. In addition, items from daily life such as flowerpots, ceramics, bronze chains and drawer handles were dug out and will soon be exhibited in museums.

This urban compound was built in the first decade of the 1st century, at the end of emperor Augustus' reign, away from the administrative center of the Roman city. The neighborhood stands on the old "cardo maximus," the Roman main street, which was originally paved for the Romans to cross the nearby Seine River and is today the Rue St. Jacques in Paris' chic 5th arrondissement (district).

Archeologists are divided over the background of this neighborhood's builders. Most contend that a Gallic aristocracy, recruited by the Roman army to fight in their civil wars, probably came back from the battlefield and settled in the area. The Romanized returnees built the city according to Roman norms, but used local materials. They were wealthy enough to own a private Roman bath — the Jacuzzi of the era — found in one of the houses discovered beneath the university.

Remnants of the Convent of the Visitation, built on the site in 1632, and a 20th century sewer were found before the Roman ruins were reached, indicating that the site was abandoned between Roman times and the 17th century. "It's like a mille-feuilles cake," said Francois Renel, an archaeologist specialized in antiquities, referring to a pastry with many layers.