Christians especially the Roman Catholics,in practising their religion seem to believe that they are above the law of the land.
In this they are no different from the Islamic Umma , who place their religion above their Nation.
The difference is that the Christians are subtle.
In proselytising the Christians are way ahead of Muslims and they are not noticed for they do it subtly by offering money and promises while Muslims are brash and rush in with high decibel perorations and the blandishing of swords.
One should watch the Public meetings of the Evangelists, the way they speak(why is it all of them have the same intonation in delivering English and have the same posture?) and the way they go about ‘driving away Ghosts’
Paying lip service to tolerance, Christians are the most intolerant as History of Christianity will divulge.
Christians seem to be neglecting the Message of Christ and I often state that Christ will be the last person to identify Christianity as the one he has founded if were to arrive again!
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Religious rules should end “at the door of the temple” and give way to the “public law” laid down by Parliament, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said.
He argued that Roman Catholic adoption agencies and other faith groups providing public services must choose between their religion and obeying the law when their beliefs conflict with the will of the state.
Mr Phillips singled out the adoption agencies that fought a long legal battle to avoid being forced to accept homosexual couples under equality laws.
Last year, following a High Court case, the Charity Commission ruled against an exemption for Catholic Care, an adoption agency operating in Leeds.
Speaking at a debate in London on diverse societies, Mr Phillips backed the new laws, which led to the closure of all Catholic adoption agencies in England. “You can’t say because we decide we’re different then we need a different set of laws,” he said, in comments reported by The Tablet, the Catholic newspaper.
To me there’s nothing different in principle with a Catholic adoption agency, or indeed Methodist adoption agency, saying the rules in our community are different and therefore the law shouldn’t apply to us. Why not then say sharia can be applied to different parts of the country? It doesn’t work.”
He added that religious groups should be free to follow their own rules within their own settings but not outside. “Once you start to provide public services that have to be run under public rules, for example child protection, then it has to go with public law,” he said.
“Institutions have to make a decision whether they want to do that or they don’t want to do that.”
Related articles
- Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Hepworth (17 Feb 2012) (frstephensmuts.wordpress.com)
- Half Truths And Bigotry Abound In Conlon Attack On Equality (lezgetreal.com)
Sir, Recently I got a book by a German Scholar, a theologian,Holger Kirsten “Jesus Lived In India:His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion”.The author has presented irrefutable evidence that Jesus did indeed live in India,dying here in old age.He takes the readers to all historical sites connected with Jesus in Israel,the middle East,Afghanistan and Kashmir in India.According to him In his youth Jesus followed the ancient Silk Route to India.While there, he studied Buddhism, adopting its tenets and becoming a spiritual master.Jesus survived the Crucifixion.After the ‘resurrection’ Jesus returned to India to die in old age. Jesus was buried in Srinagar,where he continues to be revered as a saintly man.The tomb of Jesus still exists in Kashmir.
In August 1995 issue of Hindi monthly magazine ‘Kadambini’ an article was published wherein it was mentioned that Jesus visited even Lhasa, capital of Tibet.His visit was recorded in a hand written manuscript which was two thousand years old. Some clergymen from Europe visited Lhasa and had seen the manuscript at Potala Palace monastry of Dalai Lama.They published their findings in a book. But entire stock of the book was confiscated at the behest of Vatican and destroyed.
Ahmediyas have also published a booklet regarding jesus’s burial in Srinagar and existence of his tomb there.
Last year a yongman from Europe was found loitering around the said tomb of Jesus and he tried to dig the tomb.When nabbed he said that he was a descendant of Jesus and for DNA matching he was digging the tomb to collect some remains from the tomb of ‘Jesus’.
Ironically,today the Church has become a tool in the hands of neo-imperialist powers of the west. They have no relation with the core values of Christianity which are based on Buddhism.Nor do they want to accept any scientific evaluation of the evidence connected with the life and works of Jesus.Basic principle of all religions is to seek the truth. But here it is to suppress or kill the truth.But truth can not be hidden from the world for ever. Someday, the truth shall definitely come out.Satyamev Jayate.
Theories on this subject abound.
It is fairly certain that Jesus had come to Tibet and also stayed in Kashmir.
It is dismaying, Christianity as a religion, is one of the best Ethical systems and is straying away from the percepts of Jesus and is conentrating on numbers.
There are a couple issues with this. 1) Catholics are not Christians. Catholicism is a works-based religion while Christianity is faith-based. Catholics have different beliefs when it comes to Jesus’s mother, Mary, and the saints and many other things. 2) God commands us in the Bible to follow the laws of the land (Romans 13:1-7); therefore, Catholics and Christians alike are not above the law in any way.
The Bible does state the homosexuality is a sin. Catholic and Christian institutions have to abide by the Bible, as well as the law of the land, so in the situation with the adoption agencies, the law of the land obviously collides with that of the Bible. While Christian’s first duty is to God, they still have to be lawful. In this case, the only option was for them to close down the adoption agencies so they weren’t going against God’s commands by either allowing same-sex couple to adopt from them or breaking the law.
Couple of points.
Religion is faith and there are no degrees.Either you have it or not.
History records that Catholicism was the first organised branch of Jesus’s Teachings
Ironically Catholicism came into being to ensure loyalty to Constantine and his Empire.
Regarding Homosexuality it does not really matter even if The Bible has proscribed it for the compilation of Jesus’s teaching was done after Christ’s death and it is inevitable that the views of the compilers reflecting the Society’s views were reflected.
Any Religion must understand the uniqueness of individuals and should not force laws contrary to nature as you can not order nature.
Religion should operate taking into consideration the foibles of Humans.
Hinduism understands this and offers systems to accommodate every one.