Things Saint Paul never said

Here's another one of these in the same vein.

"Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, the effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, railers, extortioners, guess what? You're all going to HEAVEN!" #ThingsSaintPaulNeverSaid

Here is what Saint Paul actually said:

"Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.

And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meat for the belly, and the belly for the meats; but God shall destroy both it and them: but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Now God hath both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up also by his power. Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid."

Click here to read the entire passage:
http://drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=53&ch=6&l=9#x

Things Jesus Never Said ....

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Yes, someone else came up with this general idea (#ThingsJesusNeverSaid - go "like" them on Facebook) but I couldn't resist making this one.

"Judge not, lest ye be judged; and by that I mean remain silent when you see others do evil" #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

The actual quote from Christ as recorded in Matthew 7:1 is as follows:

"Judge not, that you may not be judged, For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

To read the entire passage, visit: http://www.drbo.org/chapter/47007.htm

This is not an exculpation of vice. It is an exhortation to virtue and a warning against hypocrisy.

For the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, January 28 ~ On Charity and Mortal Sin

"It must be said that charity can, in no way, exist along with mortal sin."
~St. Thomas Aquinas, Quaestiones disputatae: De caritate.

The image is "The Temptation of St. Thomas Aquinas" by Diego Velazquez (1632)

Here is the quote in more context:

Article 6: Whether There Can Be Charity With Mortal Sin?

I answer. It must be said that charity can, in no way, exist along with mortal sin. To prove this, it must be considered, first, that every mortal sin is directly opposed to charity. Whoever chooses something in preference to something else, loves better that which he first chooses. Whence, because man loves his own life and his own continuance more than pleasure, however great that pleasure may be, he is drawn away from pleasure if he thinks that it is infallibly destructive of his own life. This is explained by Augustine when he writes in the LXXXIII Quaestionum, that there is no one who fears pain more than he who seeks pleasure. Sometimes we even see that the most savage of beasts will avoid the greatest pleasures because of the fear of pain. However, one sins mortally in this, that he prefers something other than to live according to God and to cling to God. Thus it is clear that whoever sins mortally, by this fact he loves some other good more than he loves God; for if he would love God, he would choose to live according to God more than to obtain some temporal good. However, it is of the very essence of charity that God be loved above all things, as is clear from what is said above. Therefore every mortal sin is contrary to charity.

The full treatise is well worth reading and may be found here: https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/QDdeVirtutibus2.htm#6

The Greatest Destroyer of Peace is Abortion

"The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion." ~Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, said at the National Prayer Breakfast, February 3, 1994

This quote was part of a courageous speech given by Blessed Teresa before US political leaders, including President and Mrs. Clinton and Vice-President and Mrs. Gore--all abortion advocates. Here is the context:

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."

Watch the whole of this beautiful speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXn-wf5ylgo

Feminist for Life #2

"Nature in every thing demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity." -Mary Wollstonecraft

Taken from Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women", 1792.

Here is the quote in context:

"To satisfy this genus of men, women are made systematically voluptuous, and though they may not all carry their libertinism to the same height, yet this heartless intercourse with the sex, which they allow themselves, depraves both sexes, because the taste of men is vitiated; and women, of all classes, naturally square their behaviour to gratify the taste by which they obtain pleasure and power. Women becoming, consequently, weaker, in mind and body, than they ought to be, were one of the grand ends of their being taken into the account, that of bearing and nursing children, have not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affection, that ennobles instinct, either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born. Nature in every thing demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity. The weak enervated women who particularly catch the attention of libertines, are unfit to be mothers, though they may conceive; so that the rich sensualist, who has rioted among women, spreading depravity and misery, when he wishes to perpetuate his name, receives from his wife only an half-formed being that inherits both its father's and mother's weakness."

Feminist for Life #1

"The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the foetus." ~Victoria Woodhull in Woodhull and Claflin's newspaper, 1870.

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Victoria Woodhull was an early crusader for women's rights in the United States. Though seriously misguided on a host of moral issues, she yet understood the inherent wickedness of abortion, writing in a later editorial in the same periodical:

"Every one will concede that it is murder to take the life of a human being. But the very pertinent question arises just here, when does human life begin? The beating of the heart, modern science tells us, never begins; that is to say, there is no time in the whole process of the growth of the human body from the moment of conception until death, that pulsations of life are not present in what is to develop into the perfected body. Where, then, shall the line be drawn, on one side of which it shall be murder to cause these pulsations to cease, and upon the other not murder?

...Many women who would be shocked at the very thought of killing their children after birth, deliberately destroy them previously. If there is any difference in the actual crime we should be glad to have those who practice the latter, point it out. The truth of the matter is that it is just as much a murder to destroy life in its embryotic condition, as it is to destroy it after the fully developed form is attained, for it is the self-same life that is taken.

...[T]hey who, having conceived [children] then destroy them, are murderers; and no amount of sophistry nor excuses can, by one iota, mitigate the enormity of the crime. They do even more than murder, they virtually commit suicide, for no woman can practice this crime without in part destroying her own life.

...[W]hile we shall at all times freely discuss the matter, objectively as to its results, we shall not forget to look at the matter subjectively, to find the remedy, which, if we mistake not, is in granting freedom and equality to woman."

[NB. I've fallen behind on posting these, opting instead to post to my Facebook page first where they inevitably get more play. Like me on Facebook if you want to see these earlier and share them with your friends.]