1. Where we go has one, sometimes two, plain clothes sheriffs’ officers in the pews, along with several of us civilians that carry.

   And yes, we all know each other…

   3

2. I do. Every Mass I attend and have been for a while. Anti religious violence is on the rise as Progressive Elites seek to extinct all religion from the USA (take note, followers of Allah, you are not excluded, just used as useful idiots for “the cause”). My rural Catholic parish is quite active in the Pro-Life movement in the 2nd largest Metro area of NYS. It’s not inconceivable that extreme Pro-Abortionists (and their associates and allies) may want to use a quiet, out of the way Conservative Catholic parish to teach a lesson. Surprise on you! Someone understands Natural Law and Catholic Canons that permit defense of self against unjust assault and encourage defense of the innocent. Failure of the victim selection process has its own reward.

   2

3. Uniform officers were invited to check over several churches out here, just in case someone decided to do something not in keeping with the spirit of the day, as it were.

4. Our church doesn’t advertise it, but it has a pretty comprehensive contingency plan for something happening. It’s unfortunate — I’ve never attended a church that had standing procedures for an armed attack, and I was a Deacon at one previous church. We are blessed with a fair number of current and retired cops and ex-military.

   But then, I go to a very theologically conservative church. One of the biggest paradoxes I’ve seen with Progressive congregations is that they both promote violence as a social good by supporting terrorist groups like Hamas or Hezbollah or Castro or even the Sandinistas — even as they murder and imprison Christians — but they purport to be absolutist pacifists. One of the most tortured interpretations of scripture I’ve ever seen has been listening to folk try to talk around Jesus’s command “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.”

   That sounds pretty prepper-ish to me, but these Progressive Christians turn it on its head and claim that this is actually a commandment *not* to buy swords. See, for instance: https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/ad-fontes/jesus-tell-disciples-buy-swords/ . It’s a little like what one Progressive pastor told me when I noted that Jesus explicitly stated that marriage was between a man and a woman. He said “Well, yes, but Jesus only mentioned it in passing, so clearly He didn’t feel strongly about it.”

   1

   1. I may be mistaken (I’m not a Biblical Scholar and was not present when Jesus Christ walked among us.); the Word of Jesus is the Word of God. He meant what He said. Until someone can provide me with conclusive evidence to the contrary.

      1. Meant for this post to be a general one and not a reply.
         .
         From William Brandford onward through the early history of the development of the USA religions which centered their belief system on Jesus of Nazareth being the Son of God as presented in the Bible of King James, were overwhelmingly the religion the pilgrims and early settlers and founders reference in their writings.
         .
         The Separation of Church and State’s original intent and purpose was to prohibit the government from dictating or governing religion and instead to enable the early practices of the religions centered on Jesus the Christ to be free from government interventions or even the slightest involvement. However, any part of government, from local, to county, to state, or to national governments, there is freedom and ability embrace whatever religion desired by any government personnel.
         .
         Due to liberal leftist the Separation of the Church from the State has been reversed but only when it serves the anti-Christian leftist political aspirations. And in addressing other religions other than so called “Christian” religions ever-growing numbers, there is no separation of their religions from their governments, but in fact are all one in the same entity, of the same ideology.
         .
         And yes, the Day of Trans Visibility has been practiced since March 31, 2009, but any true blooded American would understand and permit one of the oldest traditions of the national Government to continue instead of one which is 15 years old to replace it. It’s the omission of one and the opting for the observance of the other, that has pissed people off.

   2. Some years ago, I had an interesting time providing bits of Greek to Rolf Nelson, when he was writing his novel Heretics of St. Possenti. That Bible text appears, as do several others. One bit I particularly enjoyed is applying some lessons from Greek grammar to work out the the original meaning of “he that lives by the sword will die by the sword”. I won’t explain; go read the book. It’s a good one. It landed in several categories not commonly seen together: “science fiction”, “military fiction”, and “religious fiction”.

5. Whether you agree with a day of Trans Visibility or not, the White House did not just up and make it happen on Easter. It’s been March 31st for 15 years, or thereabouts. Easter just happened to fall on that day this year. Next year it will not be. It had NADA to do with the White House.
   .
   And while I don’t have a problem with a sitting president having a religious belief (or lack thereof), there’s no burden on the government (aka the president, aka the White House) to celebrate or even recognize a single religion’s celebration. In fact, part of the problem I see going on in government right now IS the fact that a lot of government people seem to think that the gov’t (of whatever level) *ought* to recognize a single religion’s celebration.
   .
   Separation of church and state is perhaps not in the Constitution directly, but the idea is an important one, and a worthwhile one. This is not a Christian country; it is a country that accepts that most of its people are Christian, but with an ever-growing number of those who are other religions.

   1. The following is taken from TimeandDate.com – According to the Metonic cycle, the Paschal Full Moon falls on a recurring sequence of 19 dates ranging from March 21 to April 18. Since Easter happens on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon, it can fall on any date between March 22 and April 25. (Note: this applies only to years 1753-2400).
      .
      The next time Easter will occur on March 31 is 2086 and the previous years it occurred on that date was 2013, 2002, 1991, 1985.
      .
      And Easter has been observed at the White House since 1870’s under President Hayes.

Comments are closed.