POPE CALLS EUROPE BACK TO CHRIST
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
With secularization becoming a national fade in some countries, particularly in Europe where Christian faith once held sway, Pope Benedict XVI called on his continent to return to Christ.
In America the same tussle continues daily. The irreligious, particularly holing up in the Democratic Party, is in war against the religious, the latter especially finding solace within the Republican Party. Of course there are religious and irreligious in both conclaves; however, the overwhelming religious influence in the Democratic Party are the irreligious and vice versa in the Republican Party.
So it is that during the Clinton reign, though the two White House occupants attended worship with Bibles in hand, their lifestyles typified outright secularism, indeed at times blatant evil by their endorsement, for example, of killing womb babies. American morally-based citizens wondered at times if they had lost their Judeo-Christian heritage altogether, that continuing when secularized judges kept edging the country away from biblical morals in favor of sin.
Now that the Bush administration has taken hold, those of biblical faith have been encouraged. They have continued the fight, nevertheless, realizing that everything is quite tenuous and never a slack moment can be tolerated. Therefore, the truly spiritual pray, worship and witness to the scripture’s eternal verities, knowing that the enemy lurks nearby to grasp the nation for Satan’s sake.
In Europe the swing has gone so far in the direction of condoned sinful lifestyles that only a God reviving wave could bring it back to its origins. That’s what the Pope is interceding for.
He asks the European populace to consider their spiritual waywardness while at the same time resolving to discover Christ’s ethic once more, Christ’s indwelling presence afresh, and a vibrant faith in the Word of God become personal.
Pope Benedict stated to his fellow Europeans that it is most imperative for them to "return to yourselves. Discover your origins. Revive your roots. Revive those authentic values that made your history glorious and made your presence among other continents blessed.
"Let us pray that the new generations, borrowing from Christ's vital sap, know that they are part of a European society that is excited by a renewed humanism in which faith and reason cooperate in a fertile dialogue for the promotion of the man and the construction of an authentic peace."
With secularization becoming a national fade in some countries, particularly in Europe where Christian faith once held sway, Pope Benedict XVI called on his continent to return to Christ.
In America the same tussle continues daily. The irreligious, particularly holing up in the Democratic Party, is in war against the religious, the latter especially finding solace within the Republican Party. Of course there are religious and irreligious in both conclaves; however, the overwhelming religious influence in the Democratic Party are the irreligious and vice versa in the Republican Party.
So it is that during the Clinton reign, though the two White House occupants attended worship with Bibles in hand, their lifestyles typified outright secularism, indeed at times blatant evil by their endorsement, for example, of killing womb babies. American morally-based citizens wondered at times if they had lost their Judeo-Christian heritage altogether, that continuing when secularized judges kept edging the country away from biblical morals in favor of sin.
Now that the Bush administration has taken hold, those of biblical faith have been encouraged. They have continued the fight, nevertheless, realizing that everything is quite tenuous and never a slack moment can be tolerated. Therefore, the truly spiritual pray, worship and witness to the scripture’s eternal verities, knowing that the enemy lurks nearby to grasp the nation for Satan’s sake.
In Europe the swing has gone so far in the direction of condoned sinful lifestyles that only a God reviving wave could bring it back to its origins. That’s what the Pope is interceding for.
He asks the European populace to consider their spiritual waywardness while at the same time resolving to discover Christ’s ethic once more, Christ’s indwelling presence afresh, and a vibrant faith in the Word of God become personal.
Pope Benedict stated to his fellow Europeans that it is most imperative for them to "return to yourselves. Discover your origins. Revive your roots. Revive those authentic values that made your history glorious and made your presence among other continents blessed.
"Let us pray that the new generations, borrowing from Christ's vital sap, know that they are part of a European society that is excited by a renewed humanism in which faith and reason cooperate in a fertile dialogue for the promotion of the man and the construction of an authentic peace."
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