Exhaustipated

Keeping Christ OUT

We SAY we'd like to keep Christ in Christmas. But we're in an internal war, and we often betray ourselves in favor of the culture to which we have ultimately hooked our wagon.

After years and years of submission to advertising and furthering ourselves as good consumers, us capitalists who consider ourselves Christ's followers have a nasty mammon habit that won't go away. Do NOT get me wrong. All economic systems are flawed. Capitalism indeed has a track record of providing the most freedom. But it also provides us with enough rope to hang ourselves and reject Salvation.

Taco Bell has a relatively new slogan LIVE mas, which to me looks competitive during the Christmas season. The word mas in Spanish means "more" we are told. So how come it's combined with the English word for live? They seemed to change slogans shortly after a Christian modified their old slogan, added to an homage of their logo, which read "Think Outside The Tomb" for an Easter message.

You're being paranoid, groovsmyth. Did you take the tinfoil icicles off your tree and make a hat?

I heard a perky CNN "news" tart say just prior to Christ's birth memorial, "Forget Christmas. We're about to have "Cliff-mas!" (in reference to fiscal cliff). She was attempting to show how irresponsible it was to take time off for such a day of commemoration with the grown-up business of REAL money being on the line. But she could have been a Tea Party so-called "conservative" for that matter because they're all about fiscal imperative instead of the so-called "social" element, which is the root cause of our reprobate status.

But this word play among non-believers - though showing irreverence to the true meaning of the Holy Day - is not the core problem.

It's the pretenders among us. After eating a "traditional" meal of surf and turf and exhausting other distractions, what does a person choose next to amuse himself on Christmas Day? It's time to "do Christmas" of course. That's shorthand for the true meaning of Christmas - opening the gifts. The Incarnation of the Creator of the world has become a verb, not for Salvation, but for material satiation. And there you have it.

Maybe(?) it’s our own fault


“Christmas is for the kids.”

That’s not such a bad sentiment if it’s meant in the Scriptural sense. Unless we become like little children in faith, we will not see the Kingdom of God. But sincerely – over the years – what has this quoted cliché come to mean? Culturally, it has become an all-out license to spoil. The memorial of the birth of Christ has morphed to be synonymous with the enculturation of decadence. No material extravagance is deemed too much. Precisely at the developmental age when children need virtue instilled (and frankly, the Doctrine of the Church), supermom(dad) undergoes a personality split. Kids at best are given a mixed message. Parents indulge themselves in creating Christmas “magic” instead of building an appetite in their offspring for the truly miraculous. What a colossal dereliction of their most profound parenting responsibility.

The paraphernalia, the material objects meant to produce a sensual experience of the unseen metaphysical (that traditionally were intended to promote spiritual transcendence) were hijacked and exponentially multiplied. Saint Nicholas – a holy individual – was figuratively raped and turned into a virtual cartoon. Childhood in true Christian homes should not be the occasion of a lying Parenthood. Parents – even Christian parents - attempt to recreate a Magic Kingdom in their family room, which later competes with Christ’s Kingdom in their children’s memory and psyche.

“Did you get everything you wanted?”

The aspect of quantity is implicit in this question. Christians should be training their children to base moral decisions on need instead of want. One could not accomplish this discipline - even if one purposefully tried eleven months out of the year - if all is cast aside every December, both anticipating and indulging in an annual orgy of greed. Parents, at some time generations back, began this evil contradiction to true Faith. Current parents of young children vicariously attempt to recreate their own satiated greedy high, which they experienced in their youth, thus perpetuating this quest for the next generation. Material ecstasy, while sitting amongst a pile of crumpled wrapping paper is NOT a taste of Heaven! But it speaks LOUDER by example than 364 days of concentrated-but-abstract catechesis to a young mind. And we’re scratching our heads wondering how ChristMass became so commercialized and consumer oriented?!

And now that we’ve corporately messed up our highest profile opportunity to evangelize to the pagan world, we’re attempting to reverse this materialistic behemoth by insisting on Merry Christmas as the greeting of antidote?

“Merry” best describes people staggering around office parties holding a glass of spiked eggnog or a mug of wassail.

We wish you a Holy Christmas
– and a Christ-filled New Year!

"Go to HELL"

"Go to HELL!"

The so-called "lesser" EVIL is satan's tool to gradually lower people into HELL. Imagine election night, and the announcer has just declared Romney the projected winner. Will you cheer? If so, your perspective may have been fatally altered.

Human nature does not rally toward evicting or eradicating that which it has just celebrated. Remember, the "lesser" EVIL cheerleading mottoes:

• "It's too late to raise a 'viable' righteous candidate."
• "Jesus Christ isn't running. You'll never find the perfect candidate."

The conceivably best time to raise a righteous alternative for 2016 would be immediately after this election. But you won't. You'll be too busy celebrating EVIL. Then you'll begin the rationalization cycle to "justify" your celebration.

Have you noticed that in a span of 40 years the formerly common epithet, "Go to Hell!" has virtually disappeared from the vernacular? I guess it's because it would be stating the obvious.

The exhortation , Metanoia, is not the language of increments. It is totally focused on the GOOD . . . immediately and forever.

If you fear Obama, you'll vote for Romney.

If you fear God, you won't.

Tolerance, Intolerance Explained

+ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Excerpts from Moods and Truths

in the chapter - The Curse of Broadmindedness

There is no other subject on which the average mind is so much confused as the subject of tolerance and intolerance. Tolerance is always supposed to be desirable because it is taken to be synonymous with broadmindedness. Intolerance is always supposed to be undesirable, because it is taken to be synonymous with narrow-mindedness. This is not true, for tolerance and intolerance apply to two totally different things. Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to principles. Intolerance applies only to principles, but never to persons. We must be tolerant to persons because they are human; we must be intolerant about principles because they are divine. We must be tolerant to the erring, because ignorance may have led them astray; but we must be intolerant to the error, because Truth is not our making, but God's. And hence the Church in her history, due reparation made, has always welcomed the heretic back into the treasury of her souls, but never his heresy into the treasury of her wisdom.

America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance-it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. ...Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.

Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error … Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory.

Heaven Has Nothing Greater!

THE HOLY BIBLE:
THE MOST AWESOME STATEMENTS EVER MADE


Of all the books ever written - in the history of the world – it is most probable that the only statement of a truth ever mentioned nine consecutive times is found in the Holy Bible – the Gospel of John, the sixth chapter, verses 48-58.
(verse 48): “I am the bread of life.”
(verse 49): “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die."
(verse 51): “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
(verse 53): “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”
(verse 54): “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
(verse 55): “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”
(verse 56): “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
(verse 57): “Just as the living father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”
(verse 58): “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”


(verse 61): “Does this shock you?”
No words Our Blessed Lord spoke were ever more relevant than Does this shock you?

Still Unresolved Legacy of
Former Lt. Col. Terry Lakin
http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/u-s-military-purging-birthers/

World Net Daily Article by Jack Minor

Dr. Terry Lakin, an officer who was drummed out of the Army for questioning Obama’s eligibility, says that a veteran Marine facing discharge after he posted a comment on Facebook contending the president’s birth certificate is fake shows the need for the military and Congress to resolve the issue.

As WND reported, Marine Sgt. Gary Stein is under investigation and facing possible discharge over a Facebook page he created for military members to speak out called Armed Forces Tea Party, in which he, too, questioned Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president under the U.S. Constitution.

Lakin said there are many soldiers in the military like Stein who have questions about Obama, but they are often afraid to speak out.

“While I was in the Army there were a lot of people in the Pentagon who were concerned about this issue,” Lakin said, “but they were concerned about their career and paycheck.”

Stein is under investigation for online remarks made as an officer, but contends his page makes it plain the page is not affiliated with the U.S. military, saying, “We do not represent, and are in no way affiliated with the military, or the United States Armed Forces.”

Further, Stein says, “There is no picture of me in uniform anywhere on Facebook; there is no way anyone can say I am presenting myself as a representative of the Marine Corps.”

Since its inception in 2010, the page has been critical of Obama and his policies. Stein said he had been warned about by superiors to be careful with what he said, but after he posted a comment about the president’s birth certificate possibly being a forgery, the Marine Corps suddenly became more interested in his postings.

Stein said he was told by officials that he was being investigated for making a “disloyal comment about the president” through his personal Facebook profile during a discussion on “NATO allowing the trial of U.S. troops for burning the Koran” on a Facebook group.

“I was responding to a hypothetical question,” Stein explained, “and I said I would not obey any illegal orders.”

A Marine Corps spokesman, however, gave WND a different reason for the investigation.

According to Maj. Mike Armistead the public affairs officer at MCRD San Diego, on March 8 the Marine Corps began a preliminary inquiry after receiving allegations that Stein had “posted political statements about the president of the United States on his Facebook web page titled ‘Armed Forces Tea Party.’” No mention was made about Stein’s post on a Facebook group.

Armistead said after reviewing the findings of the preliminary inquiry, the commander decided to address the allegations through an administrative action and that the base commander has recommended Stein be discharged.

While Armistead would not say which comments the Corps had a problem with, on March 4 – five days before the investigation began – Stein posted a link to a YouTube video about the investigation by Maricopa County Sheriff County Joe Arpaio with a statement, “Just in case you forgot … I’m sticking to my guns and saying that president, so-called President Obama’s brith [sic] certificate is a fake.”

“I think there is enough evidence that some federal agency should investigate whether the document is a fake or not,” Stein told WND. “However the real issue is, do we in the military have the right to express our opinion off-duty?”

“Joe Arpaio has finally addressed this issue properly, and look at his findings. It is very apparent there is a legitimate question out there about Obama’s eligibility,” Lakin added. “I’m still waiting for our generals, admirals, congressional leaders and judges to do the right thing and address this issue properly. Arpaio has finally done this, and look what is happening: The media and officials are attempting to hide what he has found.”

Lakin was court martialed, served prison time and given a dishonorable discharge after he refused orders to deploy to Afghanistan until concerns he had about Obama’s eligibility were resolved. Prior to his refusal to obey orders, Lakin had attempted for almost two years to get his questions answered through the chain of command but was rebuffed at every turn.

He said the issues that caused him to disobey orders are still there and until they are resolved there will continue to be situations like this.

“Until the generals and admirals decide to deal with this, there are going to continue to be problems with soldiers such as Stein who have questions about the president’s birth certificate,” he said.

Stein says he intends to fight the decision to discharge him from the Marine Corps, insisting he has a right to discuss and express his opinion about the president’s policies.

The military, however, has discharged other soldiers who also questioned Obama’s eligibility.

Last year Air Force Staff Sergeant Daryn Moran was given an honorable discharge following statements he made about the president’s eligibility.

Moran told his superiors he would not obey orders until Obama proved his eligibility. Rather than attempt to resolve the issue, the Air Force quickly discharged him.