Showing posts with label TIME. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TIME. Show all posts

Monday, 23 December 2013

Piers Morgan Thinks Pope Francis Is A Religious Bigot (And Mohammed Too)


Thanks to the interview with GQ Magazine, we all know that Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame is true to his faith. In the firestorm that has followed his comments; we have discovered some other interesting things along the way. One of those things we have discovered is that Wilson Cruz believes that those of us that believe the Bible is the word of God and obey it are not good Christians while those that disregard it and support the homosexual lifestyle are the good Christians. We have also discovered that CNN anchor, Piers Morgan thinks that Pope Francis is a religious bigot. So probably does the leader of all liberals, President Barack Obama, CNN and all liberals.

When I heard about Piers Morgan’s comments, it got me thinking. When I hear such incendiary comments, I like to think about what the comment means. It occurred to me that what Piers Morgan meant was that, I along with other Christians who shared Phil Robertson’s view that sex and marriage should be between a man and a woman were all religious bigots. When I thought about it some more, it further occurred to me that not only was he calling us all religious bigots, he was also calling Pope Francis, the head of Catholics, a religious bigot. Make no mistake, from Piers’s comments; we can deduce what CNN, TIME Magazine, GLAAD and all liberals really think of the Pope. While some people might say that Phil Robertson could have been subtler or less coarse with his comments or that the Pope would never say such things, the fact remains that the Pope and Phil Robertson literally believe the same thing. While Pope Francis has come out to say that Catholics should focus less on hot button social issues, he has never come out to disavow the Catholics church teachings on the subject, especially on same sex relationships.

At the last Democratic convention before the elections, there were reports that the party wanted to remove all references to God from their constitution. It reportedly took concerted efforts from President Obama to avert that. Not that he believes in God but he realised how that might look during an election year. The fact is that liberals really don’t believe in God. At best, they think that we are crazy to believe in the myth of God. At worst, they think we use the myth of God to spread hate and prejudice. They don’t believe in God but their gods are fame, money, position and power. The liberals say they want equality. That’s a lie. What they want is homogeneity where everyone looks and sounds the same. Which is not possible. Camille Paglia in her recent article in TIME Magazine, liberals are now even denying Biology and the very obvious differences in gender by saying gender is not something that comes naturally with birth but something forced on a child by society. Yet this is the same Biology they have always relied on in their support of the theory of evolution. Now it seems they have decided to pick and choose the parts of Biology they want.

Their denial of the existence of God means that they think that all of us, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus and members of all other faiths in the world are crazy, hateful, religious bigots. That means everyone the world over who doesn't adhere to their secularist view is a hateful, religious bigot. So if Muslims think it doesn't concern them, that’s not true. The last I heard, Prophet Mohammed’s teachings in the Koran prohibit same sex relationships. So in essence, this is bigger than Phil Robertson. To put it bluntly, what CNN, Wilson Cruz, Piers Morgan, Martin Sheen, President Obama and all liberals are saying is that Prophet Mohammed and every devout Muslim who adheres to his teachings are all religious bigots. How do I know President Obama thinks this way? He along with Prime Minister David Cameron has at several times threatened to withdraw aid from sovereign countries that do not do their bidding and decriminalise same sex relationships. Even deeply religious and conservative countries. So if we are to take their word for it, then the US and United Kingdom will cut aid to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other countries because the leaders of those countries are religious bigots. Now King Abdullah, Mr. Karzai and Muslim leaders, you now know what Piers Morgan, President Obama and CNN think of you.

I am an ardent Anglophile and that might be as a result of the fact that we were colonised by the British. I love their traditions and sense of history. But it pains me to see the depths the country that gave the world Smith Wigglesworth and C. S. Lewis hand sunk to. Martin Bashir, a compatriot of Piers Morgan gave us a glimpse of the general hatred liberals have of people who hold conservative views with his attack on Sarah Palin. Now Piers Morgan along with CNN has just told us what he thinks of the Pope and all of us who don’t agree with him. A few weeks ago, TIME Magazine honoured the Pope with the prestigious TIME Man of The Year Award. Now a sister company to TIME has told us what they really think of him. Make no mistake, an attack on Phil Robertson is an attack on all of us. Even the Pope.

Just because we don’t see eye to eye on issues, does that mean we have to resort to name calling and threatening people’s livelihood? GLAAD, CNN and Piers obviously think so. They talk about tolerance an acceptance and they talk about taking the high moral road. However when someone says something they don’t like, they attack like vipers. We say what we believe and they respond with insults and abuse. And they say their tolerant. They’re only tolerant with those who agree with them. But it’s not something that should surprise us. Jesus said a servant cannot be greater than his master, if the world hated him, it would definitely hate us. I respect the Pope as the head of the Catholic. And neither he nor Phil Robertson nor I or any other person deserves such abuse.  




JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

  

Friday, 27 September 2013

We Shouldn't Be Ashamed Of Him

I love Christian music. You know Christian music don’t you? Christian lyrics set to music. Lyrics that talk about God, Jesus, salvation and Heaven. At times there might even be a mention of Mary. I love Christian music because it’s uplifting and it focuses my mind on things about God. Like his love and goodness and Jesus coming to die for me. And it helps in worshipping and praising God. And it doesn’t glorify drugs, sex or the objectification of women. However I must confess that I’m hooked on Christian rock and hip-hop. I remember watching One-Cubed all those years ago and watching the video for Consume Me by Dc Talk. After that I was hooked. Just the other day, I went to a store and bought The Hurt and The Healer, Miracle, Gravity and Believer, the latest albums by MercyMe, Third Day, Lecrae and Kutless respectively.

The other day I read an article in TIME magazine in its religion section where it did a report on how Christian artistes were breaking into the mainstream charts. As an aside, it’s quite interesting that TIME has a religion section. I love news magazines but if you read a lot of magazines like TIME, Newsweek or The Economist, you get the feeling that the editors are of the opinion that people of faith, especially Christians are kooks, people who are crazy and causing all the trouble in the world. If they had their way, they would incarcerate all people of faith. They regularly refer to God as a myth so its therefore something that smacks of hypocrisy that they have a section devoted to religion in their magazine.

In the story, there were talking about how Lecrae and TobyMac had topped the iTunes album charts with music with Christian music. In a particular week, Lecrae had the number 1, 2 and 7 songs on the singles charts. This was achieved in spite of the fact that people normally steer clear of songs that are deemed to be Christian or mention God. However, there were other artistes and groups who were Christian like Switchfoot, who refused to be labelled as Christian artistes. According to one of the members of Switchfoot, they make a point of not mentioning Jesus or God in their songs. They also make a point of leaving their lyrics open to the listener’s interpretation. Which then led me to the question, is Switchfoot a Christian musical group or a secular musical group made up of Christians?

As a lawyer when I started out, my main motivation was winning cases. However, my mind-set changed when I talked to a colleague of mine. When I asked her whether she normally prayed to win cases, she told me no. She explained that while she would do her best in preparing for and prosecuting the case, she would not pray to win the case. Rather, she would pray that God’s will be done. That changed the way I saw what I do. I have no problems with Christians being in a secular musical group. After all, we all live in a secular world. But as Christians we need to bring a Christian persuasion to all we do.

My devotional the other day was talking about how all that we do has to be about Jesus. Even when we do things that edify us like preaching, it has to be about Jesus. However it bothers me when someone says he doesn’t want to be identified as “Christian”. It’s almost as if they are saying that they are ashamed of Jesus and would rather achieve fame and fortune on their terms. So when someone says that the lyrics of their song are open to whatever interpretation the listener wants to give them, I wonder how that is about Jesus. If we can’t say we belong to Christ in song and in our everyday lives, when can we?