Byzantine Studies Association of North America
Graduate Programs in North America
The BSANA has taken over responsibility for maintaining and updating the Graduate Programs in North America website initiated at Dumbarton Oaks. It makes no claims to be an exhaustive list, and depends for accuracy on the cooperation of Byzantinist faculty members at North American universities. Please note that seminaries are not included in this listing.
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Brown University
Department of Religious Studies (updated July 2007)
Box 1927
Providence, RI 02912-1927
Tel: 401-863-3104
[Link]
Faculty member: Susan Ashbrook Harvey (on leave 2007-08)
Email address: susan_harvey@brown.edu
Titles of Byzantine (related) courses taught 2004-07: The Virgin Mary in Late Antiquity; Ecology and Theology in Ancient Christianity; Sacred Bodies; Asceticism in Late Antiquity; Ancient Christianity and the Sensing Body; the Christianization of the Syrian Orient.
Note: There is great strength in Late Antiquity. In addition to Religious Studies, there are important faculty in Classics, Egyptology, Art and Archaeology (with a new Institute of Archaeology, Prof. Susan Alcock, Director), and Judaic Studies.
Faculty member: Nancy Khalek
Email address: Nancy_Khalek@brown.edu
Department of Classics (updated July 2007)
Macfarlane House,
48 College Street,
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2123
[Link]
Faculty member: Stratis Papaioannou
Email address: Eustratios_Papaioannou@brown.edu
Titles of Byzantine (related) courses taught 2006-8: The World of Byzantium; Greek Palaeography and Premodern Book Cultures; Greek Erotic Literature: from Plato to the Medieval Romances; Greek Autobiography: From Plato to the Middle Ages; The Invention of Literature: Literary Theory from Antiquity to the Renaissance; Early Byzantine Literature.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Jewish Studies
Catholic Church & Jesus Christ
By Pastor G. Reckart
International Copyright All Rights Reserved
August 30, 2005
Why No One Should Be A Catholic
The first thing a Catholic learns when they open their Bible is they cannot buy their way out of hell fire.
When a Catholic looks in the Bible they will not find purgatory. They will not find priests taking money to say a Mass to get souls out of the fires of hell. The Catholic church is popular because many do not want much out of religion and the Catholic church offers them the little they want. Yet many do want more of God and to obtain it they must leave the Catholic church. In the past 30 years it is estimated over 150 million Catholics have left the Catholic church seeking more of God from other religions. Catholicism remains popular because a Catholic can sin all the way to purgatory and someone can buy their way out of hell fire right into heaven. Over 150 million Catholics read the Bible and could not find purgatory and giving priests money to say a Mass to get souls out of the flames of hell fire. If a Catholic will open their Bible and search they will not find these either. No where in the New Testament is there a priest who takes money to say a Mass to get souls out of hell. Maybe God has been dealing with you showing you the Catholic church is not right? Now is the time to accept God's will and leave.
One of the good things about Catholics is their desire to help people. So if a loved one dies and they did not live a holy life it is understood they must go to Purgatory and suffer in hell fire until a priest can get them released to go to heaven. Catholics are very loving and ready to give large sums of money to help these poor souls. They really believe that by buying a Mass for these dead souls in Purgatory they will be released from hell fire to go to heaven. This is great love for people no doubt about that. But, all this love and all this money will never save a soul who has died lost and is in hell fire torment. The Catholic church has used the love and affection of its members to make billions of dollars in profit saying a Mass for loved ones. This has been fraud for many centuries. The Catholic church developed this money scheme to milk loving Catholics who cared for a deceased loved one. According to Catholicism, its members can pay money to the priests and empty purgatory hell fire of all Catholics. This is not true and it has not been true for 1600 years. Why do good and honest people put up with this scheme from the Catholic church? They do so because they are scared of the Catholic church and its priests. Those Catholics who look into the Bible will not find Purgatory, priest collecting money to say a Mass, or the Catholic church. This is why a person should not be a Catholic.
Thousands of Catholics each year are leaving the church of Rome. Why? They are leaving because they no longer believe the Catholic church is the true Church of the Bible. They discover the Catholic church is filled with falsehood, lies, and deceptions. They learn it has no biblical authority for its religious rituals and the majority of its teachings are perversions of scripture. When they look for the Catholic church in the New Testament of the Bible they cannot find it at all. When they look for the rituals practiced they cannot find them. When they search for a pope or priest performing the Mass they cannot find one. When they look for Jesus Christ to be a Catholic they are shocked he was not a Catholic and never attended a Catholic church. When a Catholic takes a good look in the Bible he/she will learn they have been in a false religion all along and brainwashed to believe they were in the true one and only. True Christianity is not Catholic. Christianity existed 295 years before the Catholic church was founded.
Catholics are right to leave the Catholic church. After all they must save their souls and if the Catholic church does not have the true Gospel message of salvation that will save sinners THEY SHOULD ESCAPE and quick! Of course the priest will try numerous tricks to keep Catholics in the church.
No one can be a true Christian and a Catholic at the same time.
The second thing a Catholic learns is that Jesus was not the founder of the Catholic Church.
When a Catholic opens their Bible they will never find Jesus in or near a Catholic church. When they open their Bible they will learn that Jesus was not a Catholic and was not the founder of the Catholic religion. They learn the word "Catholic" is not in the Bible. They then learn the Catholic church took up the name "Catholic" from Latin which means "universal." The Catholic church claims it is "universal" or world wide. It claims it is the oldest and ONLY WORLD WIDE RELIGION OF CHRISTIANITY STARTED BY JESUS CHRIST. When Catholics discover this is false, that Jesus started a Jewish religion, they soon learn the Catholic church is not Jewish at all but is Gentile owned, Gentile operated, and a Gentile controlled business enterprise whose product is paganized religion. When Catholics open their eyes and see that the Catholic church has adopted many pagan and heathen celebrations and practices and adapted these to Christian teachings, they know they have to leave. No, they know they have to run! It is right here, they know Jesus Christ was not the founder of the Catholic church. Because Jesus would not start a Church and then allow the gates of hell to conquer it by adopting pagan religious practices. No, Jesus would keep his Church pure and free from all evil and sin. The Catholic church is not such a Church. Jesus was not the founder of the Catholic church and Catholics learn they must leave it immediately.
The third thing a Catholic learns, is they do not receive Jesus Christ as Savior when the Eucharist wafer is placed on their tongue.
When a Catholic opens their Bible they will not find the small wafer as pictured on the left. They will not find anyone sticking out their tongue to have the wafer placed there by a Catholic priest. Catholics are taught that when they go forward at the end of the Mass, they do so to receive the flesh of Jesus. The devout Catholic presents him/her self before the priest, open their mouth, stick out their tongue, and he deposits the flesh of Jesus in the form of this wafer. The Catholic is now told he has eternal life because he has eaten the flesh of Jesus. Salvation in the Catholic church is totally and completely in the Mass. They do not preach Acts 2:38 and the necessity of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and through Christ alone. According to the Catholic religion, a person must attend Mass, believe the pope is the vicar of God, accept the Catholic church as the one and only true Church, and then receive the Eucharist on the tongue to be saved. But when a Catholic searches the Bible for the Mass and the Eucharist wafer they cannot find them. They discover the Catholic church has never followed the Biblical Lord's Supper (Communion or Passover). In fact they will learn the Catholic church does not follow the New Testament at all in the Communion observance of the Lord's flesh and blood.
The Catholic church departed from the ancient practice of Jerusalem and the Eastern churches of Asia in observing the Lord's Passover on the evening of the 14th of Nisan. The church of Rome has tried to destroy this ancient Passover observance since 325AD and the Council of Nicaea. At issue here is if the Church Jesus founded observed an annual celebration of his death on the annual Jewish Passover as he commanded (do this in remembrance of me--which includes the Cup, the unleavened bread, and washing of feet). Any Catholic who studies history will learn the early Christians did indeed celebrate the Lord's Passover on an annual basis on the same day the Jews observed their Passover. This practice was brought to Asia not only by the Apostle Paul, but the Apostle John and the Evangelist Philip.
The Asian Christian Churches followed the ancient custom of Jerusalem, celebrating the annual day of the death of Jesus on the Jew's Passover evening. This is certified by no less then such great men of God as Polycarp and Polycrates both of Ephesus. The whole of the Asian Churches held the eve of the 14th of Nisan as the annual celebration of the Lord's Passion on the same day the Jews observed their annual Passover. All the Asian Churches held a conference and refused to change to practice Easter and sent a letter to Victor Bishop of Rome, who then wrote letters to all the Bishops of the world to excommunicate them from the Christian Church (although he had no such power). The response of Polycrates (190AD) is documented history. The Catholic church at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD, formerly adopted the practice of observing the Easter resurrection of Jesus AND NOT HIS DEATH! Jesus instituted the memorial of his death in the new Passover and sealed this as an annual celebration. He sealed the memorial of his resurrection in New Testament baptism.
Out of the Council of Nicaea came the Catholic law not to observe the Lord's Passover on the day, evening, and time he instituted it. The Bishops at the Council switched over to celebrate the Easter resurrection and held this as an annual day. Easter is now an annual day while the Lord's Communion was moved inside newly adopted pagan mystery Mass. The Mass is held many times a day contrary to what Jesus instituted for the Communion Passover. When a Catholic sees this, they know Rome and the Council of Nicaea falsified the command of Jesus to observe the annual Passover held in honor of his death as the Passover Lamb. A Catholic has every right to leave the Catholic church and go back to what Jesus instituted and he did not institute the Mass. Jesus was not the founder of the Catholic church or its Mass.
So, the Eastern Asian Churches continued the Jerusalem practice of the Lord's Passover on the eve of the 14th of Nisan. The Western and African churches controlled by Rome began to observe the resurrection which they called Easter (Easter is the spring pagan goddess Eostre). Those who celebrate Easter are observing a pagan holiday manufactured by the papacy.
It is here that Catholics learn the Catholic church adopted a pagan name for the resurrection of Jesus. This is shocking to Catholics when they see it. It is shocking to Catholics to learn that no Church in the Bible ever observed the day of the resurrection on an annual basis: but instead observed it on the occasion of each and every baptism of a convert. But the Churches did observe the Lord's Passover on the same day the Jews celebrated their Passover.
When Catholics learn the Councils were not holy meetings of the True Apostolic Church, they want out and leave. Over 500 million people world-wide have rejected the claims of the Catholic church. When a Catholic has Bible study and learns what the true Church really believed and practiced, they see the real Church Jesus established. They will eagerly accept the Lord's Communion and observe it because it is the Thanksforgiving Feast of the Lord's Passover. They are willing to give up the paganism of Easter. It is right here that the Catholic learns the bread and wine are only symbols and do not turn into the real flesh and blood of Jesus. When they learn they cannot receive Christ as Savior by sticking out their tongue, they will leave the Catholic church. When they come to the truth that the Catholic Eucharist is a falsehood they will never stick out their tongue again to receive it. Catholic priests, monks, archbishops, cardinals, and popes will shudder of this, but no one in the Bible received Jesus Christ as Savior by sticking out their tongue and receiving a wafer that is said to be the real flesh of Jesus. When a Catholic gets a firm grip on the Word of God and understands the true Passover of the Lord Jesus they will never return to a Catholic church ever again.
The fourth thing a Catholic learns is the Mass is not found in the Bible any where.
When a Catholic opens the Bible they will not find the Mass. They will not find a crucifix used by the New Testament Church. They will not find a Catholic style altar at all. All Catholics know the center of the Catholic religion is the Mass. It is the ritual artificial re-crucifixion of Jesus by a priest as he takes the cup of wine and presents it to a crucifix of Jesus on the cross and recites a prayer in Latin. Concluding his prayer the wine magically is turned into the blood of Jesus. He then gulps this down and does not share a drop with the members attending. Where did this practice originate that only priests can drink from the Cup? Paul did not teach this to the Corinthians! Next the priest picks up the IHS wafer and holds it high before the crucifix as he mumbles another prayer in Latin. Usually there is music and a song immediately after the consecration that turns the bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus. This is to embellish the moment of the occasion and give it a sense of holiness. The priest then summons the faithful to come forward and receive Christ as Savior. Believing they are receiving Christ as Savior they flock to the front and stick out their tongue to receive Jesus.
But when a Catholic looks into the Bible for this mystery ritual Mass they will not find it. They learn the Mass is nothing but a borrowed pagan ritual from the temple of Jove. They learn there is no Mass found anywhere in the New Testament. They cannot find a single person sticking out their tongue to receive Christ as their Savior. They cannot find a Latin Mass. They cannot find a priest drinking the cup of wine all to himself. These things are not in the Bible any where. The New Testament records everything about the Christian Church. And the Catholic Mass is not found there. One Catholic woman said: "when I tried to find the Mass in the Bible and it was not there, I knew in my heart I had been deceived."
What is the Mass? It is an artificial sacrifice. It is a mock sacrifice. It is the priest recrucifying Jesus in the emblems of the Eucharist and the Cup. Where in the Bible are we to think that observing the Lord's Communion or Passover memorial we are recrucifying Jesus on the Cross? It is not there! When a Catholic looks in the Bible for a priest to hold in his hands the Eucharist wafer and turn it into the flesh of Jesus, he/she will not find it. When they look in the Bible for a place where a priest blesses the cup and turns it into the blood of Jesus he/she cannot find it. This is shocking! Why is the Catholic church doing something that is not in the Bible . Why are they performing a ritual that no Apostle or Minister of the Christian Church did? Why is the central religious ritual of the Catholic church completely missing from the Bible? It is not there. The Catholic who learns this discovers also that the daily multiple Mass observance to recrucify the Lord Jesus is not in the Bible. Yes, the Mass is a recrucification of Jesus every time the priest holds it. There must be fresh flesh and fresh blood of Jesus in the Catholic church several times a day or the Catholic church has no Mass. How many times a day in all the Catholic churches throughout the world is Christ recrucified every day? In the Bible those who crucify to themselves Christ afresh are accursed. There is not one Mass to be found any where in the Bible. Just because the Catholic church points to Jesus observing the Jewish Passover does not make it a Mass. Jesus observed the Passover and then instituted his own annual Passover. He did not institute the ritual of the Mass as the Catholic church practices today. And what of washing feet which Jesus did and commanded of his Apostles. Why, in over 1,700 years has the Catholic church NEVER PRACTICED WASHING OF FEET at the Communion as Jesus established? It does not because the Mass is not a true representation of the annual Passover Memorial Jesus instituted. At no time did Jesus hint or indicate his Memorial was to be a daily ritual. When Catholics learn this, they know in their heart of hearts this is not the true Church.
What is the fifth thing a Catholic learns is there is no confession booth in the Bible.
They discover the confession booth is all a fraud and a sham. They cannot find it any where in the Bible either. The Catholic church just made up religious stuff and got people to believe it. People who never read the Bible to check if what they are doing is even in there. When a Catholic searches the Bible for the confession booth and cannot find it they know going to a priest to confess their sins was nothing but the way the Catholic church learns everything sinful that is taking place in a person's life or home. They learn the priest has used the confessional to extract sex stories out of young girls and boys. Many altar boys were homosexualized using the confession booth as a tool of contact and seduction by the priest. What is so shocking about this instrument of the church is that no where are Christians told they must go to a New Testament Minister or Preacher to confess their sins to receive forgiveness. When the Catholic learns they can go straight to God in their own prayer, at home, in the car, at work, or at a place of worship: they have no need for a confessional ever again. And, how is it that a sinful priest can tell a sinner to say five hail-Marys and put some money in the poor box and this is the penance for their stealing, lying, adultery, fornication, gambling, homosexuality, lesbianism, drug use, and other sins? How can a priest guilty of most of the same sins who has not confessed himself to some other sinful priest, going to be able to grant indulgences and pardons? When a Catholic really thinks about this, they know they were members of a church that was not the Christian Church of the Bible. They know they must read their Bible and find a Church that matches the Church of the Bible.
The sixth thing a Catholic learns is there is no Pope in the Bible and Peter was not the first Pope.
A Catholic who opens the Bible will discover there is no pope. Yes, they learn the claim Peter was the first pope is false. They will not find a pope in the Bible, and what's more they will not find the pope's fish hat or his fancy gold worn by Peter. No, they will discover the Pontiff title is another religious title stolen from the high priest of the temple of Jove. They learn Peter never was a pope and never was the recognized leader of the Christian Church. Indeed, he was given the keys to the Kingdom in Matthew 16:19 but these when used on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), in Samaria (Acts 8), and in Caesarea (Acts 10), afterward ceasing to be needed. He opened up the Kingdom gates of the Church to the whole world. He was not given the keys as a signal he held the position of Pope. Once the gates to the Kingdom were opened no man could shut them. No where in the Bible did Peter pass these keys on to a successor.
Who was the man who presided over the New Testament Church? Was it Peter? No! It was Jacob (James) the firstborn son of Mary by Joseph after Jesus was born. This half-brother of the Lord arose and took over the leadership of the Church and we find him in that position in Acts 15. Peter never was the head of the Christian Church so he could not have been the first pope of a fictitious Catholic church. How come, if Jesus is the founder of the Catholic church he is not the first pope? Most Catholics never seem to get out of the Catholic box far enough to ask themselves some important questions. The invention of a Gentile pope to run the Catholic church was in the fourth century.
All the pre-Nicene books were rewritten in such a way to create a legacy of supposed Western or Latin Roman pontiffs who ruled the entire Christian Church world. The title of Pontiff comes from Latin paganism. The title Pontiff is not in the Bible any where (it is another Catholic falsehood).
There are men mentioned in the history of the Catholic church as popes who may have never existed. They can be proven to exist only in the post Nicene books written to reinforce Rome's claim to legitimate power and control over the Christian Church. The falsehood of the donation letter supposedly written by Constantine is an example of forgery and fraud within the Catholic church.
The whole idea, theory, and development of a succession of Latin pontiff popes from Peter to the present pope is all a massive fraud. There is no pope in the Bible and there never was a pope over the true Christian Church. Jesus reigns as King over the Church and his Ministers act as his ambassadors throughout the nations. This you will find in the Bible. You will not find a religious system with nuns, monks, archbishops, cardinals, prelates, and popes. A Catholic will not find a religious hierarchy of ascending ranks from laity to the pope as is found in the Catholic church. When a Catholic learns there is no pope in the Bible, they know once more they had been deceived by religious trickery and mental seduction. They know the Catholic church is not the true Church founded by Jesus Christ.
Take a look on the left at an ancient image of the fish god Dagon found in Mesopotamia. Look at his fish hat and that of the pope above. Any Catholic can see the Catholic church has adopted Dagan idolatry in hats to embellish their popes and priests and make them look religious to the world. The popes of Rome need to jerk that fish hat off, throw it down, stomp on it, and take it out and burn it. The pope should issue a Papal Bull it is never to be worn again by any pope or priest. Will they do it? No they will not do it and this is the reason the Catholic must run from the Catholic church and never look back. The Catholic church is not going to correct any of this falsehood, rituals, or heresies. It is a paganized Christian religion that has entrenched itself in many nations by bloodshed, threats, violence, and deception.
The seventh thing a Catholic learns is the 12 Apostles and New Testament Saints were not Catholic.
When a Catholic opens their Bible and tries to find the 12 Apostles and the Saints attending a Catholic church they will not find it. They learn from Bible study that all the New Testament Apostles and Saints were not Catholic. They learn the Catholic church surrounds themselves with images and idols of the Apostles and New Testament Saints to deceive members that the 12 Apostles and Saints were Catholic. It makes members think if these were all Catholic then they should be Catholic also. When they look at the images of the Apostles, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, they are led to believe these chose the Catholic church because it is God's church. They never stop to think these images are put around a Catholic church to make people think it is the Church of God when it is not. Idols and images around a Catholic church is one of the biggest deceptions of the priests of Rome. It is an important tool used by the Catholic church to deceive the minds of members. The members are forced to think in a box. They never consider these were never Catholics. But when they open the Bible and see these were not Catholic their eyes come open and they see the Catholic church is not the Church of the Bible.
A Catholic who studies will learn there are no nuns, monks, priests, or popes in the Bible. They learn Mary was not worshiped. They learn she held no special position other then the Mother of the Messieh. They learn the Catholic church invented a white religion that is racist and portrays Mary, Joseph, Jesus as white people when they were black or brown. They learn that Rome deceives not only with false doctrine but with pictures, idols, and icons. They learn that the veneration, worship, and prayers to saints is not in the Bible. They learn the Catholic church did not give the world the Bible. The Bible existed before there was a Catholic church. They learn the Catholic church makes use of these so-called saints to embellish its pomp, rituals, church decor with images, and to make people think all these were Catholic.
None of the Saints of the New Testament Church were Catholic. None of them had ever been in a Catholic church. None were sprinkle baptized in the trinity. None ever doused themselves with holy water. None of them ever went to confession. Never prayed on the rosary. None attend a Mass. None celebrated Easter. In fact, when a Catholic looks in the Bible for adoration and veneration of saints he/she cannot find the practice of it any where. One of the claims of the Catholic church to Catholics is this: "You can believe the Catholic church is the true Church because it produced all the saints and such holy men and women as St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St. John Vianney, St Therese of Lizieux." Rome claims these and other holy saints produced by the Catholic church proves it is the true Church. But where is the adoration and veneration of saints in the Bible? Where in the Bible is there the making of idols and images of saints to stand around the church, in the foyer, outside the church, and in every nook and cranny? Idols and images are condemned in the Bible.
Where in the Bible did Christians make medallions to hang from one's neck as a luck charm or a fetish to ward off sickness, disease, or some other bad omen? There is none. The whole use of these so-called saints is to make Catholics think no other religion claiming to be Christian has such people in its ranks. The Catholic church uses these saints and their lives as a means to teach Catholic doctrine and compliance to the rules and codes. If a person rebels against the Catholic church they might lose the prayers of a saint on their behalf or the behalf of another loved one. So, to keep close to God a Catholic prays to these idols and gives money to their favorite saint-fan-club. When a Catholic learns there is no such practices found in the Bible they know they were deceived again. They know they must leave the Catholic church quickly because it is not the Church Jesus founded.
The eighth thing a Catholic learns is that Mary was never a Catholic.
When a Catholic opens their Bible they will not find Mary attending a Catholic Church. They will not find her as a Nun. They will not find a perpetual virgin. If Mary is not a Catholic there is no Catholic church. When a Catholic opens the Bible and learns Mary was not a Catholic and not the mother of God, they know they must leave the Catholic church.
Mary was the mother of the seed of David in which God was incarnated upon birth (1Tim 3:16). There is no greater deception and lie of the Catholic church then that Mary was a Catholic. Mary never attended a Catholic church in her life. She never heard of one in her life. She never saw or met a Catholic nun, monk, priest, or pope in her life. She never attended a Mass in her life. She was never sprinkle baptized by a priest of the Catholic church. She never prayed on a rosary. She never crossed herself with the sign of the Cross. She never doused herself with holy water. She never went to a confession booth. She never received penance from a Catholic priest.
Mary was not a Catholic. She was Jewish and a member of the Christian Jewish Church. This Christian Jewish Church was not Catholic. The Jewish Church did not develop into the Catholic church. The Catholic church is a complete Gentile creation of men established many centuries after Mary's death.
Mary was a Jewish woman of the tribe of Judah and the mother of Jesus the Messieh of Israel. She was mother of the seed of David, the man-child, and she was the unrecognized queen of Israel. She did not birth a God into the world.
Such teachings that she is God's mother makes Catholicism a laughing stock. How can the created birth the uncreated? Impossible you say! Agreed. Where was Mary when God created the heavens and the earth? She was not living yet. Where was Mary when God created Adam and Eve? She did not exist. To say Mary was the mother of God cannot be found any where in the Bible. When a Catholic looks for this verification and cannot find it, they know this is one more reason to leave the Catholic church. They ask themselves: if Mary was not a Catholic why should I be?
The Catholic church goes above honor of Mary, they make her a co-mediator with Christ. The Catholic church claims a Catholic can pray to Mary who will talk to her son who will talk to his Father and favor is granted because Mary is the mother of the Father's Son. Catholics are led to believe Mary can get the Father to do for them what they ask because God the Father would never deny the Mother of his Son. Is this procedure of praying to Mary any where in the Bible? It is not found there.
What is the theory behind this? In ancient times a person might be afraid to go directly to a king because they did not know how their situation might turn out. So, they sought a way to influence the king and who better to do this than his mother. So, a person might get the mother to mention something to the king and thereby soften up his attitude and or provoke him to do something good for a person his mother knows. After all, it is reasoned what king would not want to show honor and respect to his mother's wishes. So, a Catholic believes if they ask Mary, she will ask the Son and the Son will ask the Father and the Father will not deny the mother of his Son.
When a Catholic learns this is not in the Bible any where they know the Catholic church is not the true Church founded by Jesus. When they learn Mary was not a go-between to Jesus and to God the Father for others, this causes Catholics to see all this Maryology as nothing but a big religious sham. They should take this treasured Lady down from her place among idols throughout the world. They should stop praying to her because this is not in the Bible. They should stop teaching lies and falsehoods about Mary. Have they no respect for her? They should remove her from their churches because she was Jewish and not Catholic. When a Catholic learns that Mary was not a Catholic they have discovered the last thing they need to know that proves the Catholic church is not the Church Jesus founded.
As the light of Truth comes into the life of a Catholic they will see the Catholic church as an impostor. They will then take a second look at its sins, evils, and scandals. They will know from its birth in Nicaea in 325AD until today 2005 it is an evil religion that has cheated millions of true Bible salvation by its falsehood. The Catholic church has killed more people to establish and enforce the Catholic religion then any other religion in the world. Thousands have been murdered. Hundreds have been burned at the stake. More hundreds have been tortured. There are thousands of killed babies whom nuns birthed and the fathers were priests. Homosexuality is so out of control in the Catholic church among the priests, monks, and popes. If ever there was a church the gates of hell have prevailed against, it is the Catholic church. Catholic apologist claim these are just scars of sinners upon Christ and they are wounds to his body that Catholics and the world should overlook. No, we cannot overlook something so evil, when we know it is not the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Catholic church will continue to be the most shameful religious group in the world. When a Catholic comes to see the shame of the Catholic church they will know it is not the true Church Jesus founded.
So, why should a Catholic leave the Catholic church and find the true Church of the Bible?
Because as members of the Catholic church they are in a false church. As a member in the Catholic church they are forced to believe the Catholic church does not have to be found in the Bible. They are forced to believe in many things they cannot find in the Bible.
If a Catholic does not leave the Catholic church they are not baptized properly as found in the Bible. They are not saved by faith as found in the Bible. If they remain Catholic their soul will be lost. If they remain a Catholic after they are shown the Catholic church is not in the Bible they will go to hell.
A Catholic must ask themselves: "If Jesus and the Apostles were not in the Catholic church why should I be a member?"
A Catholic must believe Jesus was the founder of a Jewish Christian Church and Peter preached how to be saved in Acts 2:38.
A Catholic must ask him/her self this question: "If Peter was the first Pope how come the Catholic church does not follow him and baptized in the name of Jesus Christ as Peter preached in Acts 2:38?
Catholics are not dumb people. They do not want their soul to be lost. My final advice to all our Catholic friends is: "don't let anyone fool you or convince you to stay in the Catholic church."
Closing prayer:
Lord Jesus I pray for all the good people in the Catholic church. I pray our Lord that you would open their eyes to see you were not a Catholic and they should not be either. As they open their Bible Lord Jesus and begin to seek for the true Church, guide them, love them, and lead them as our Good Shepherd. Lord I pray now you will bring them into the one fold of the True Church of Jesus Christ. Amen!
Pastor G. Reckart
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Read Mary Was Not A Catholic
Booklet Print Version PDF Format
By Pastor G. Reckart
International Copyright All Rights Reserved
August 30, 2005
Why No One Should Be A Catholic
The first thing a Catholic learns when they open their Bible is they cannot buy their way out of hell fire.
When a Catholic looks in the Bible they will not find purgatory. They will not find priests taking money to say a Mass to get souls out of the fires of hell. The Catholic church is popular because many do not want much out of religion and the Catholic church offers them the little they want. Yet many do want more of God and to obtain it they must leave the Catholic church. In the past 30 years it is estimated over 150 million Catholics have left the Catholic church seeking more of God from other religions. Catholicism remains popular because a Catholic can sin all the way to purgatory and someone can buy their way out of hell fire right into heaven. Over 150 million Catholics read the Bible and could not find purgatory and giving priests money to say a Mass to get souls out of the flames of hell fire. If a Catholic will open their Bible and search they will not find these either. No where in the New Testament is there a priest who takes money to say a Mass to get souls out of hell. Maybe God has been dealing with you showing you the Catholic church is not right? Now is the time to accept God's will and leave.
One of the good things about Catholics is their desire to help people. So if a loved one dies and they did not live a holy life it is understood they must go to Purgatory and suffer in hell fire until a priest can get them released to go to heaven. Catholics are very loving and ready to give large sums of money to help these poor souls. They really believe that by buying a Mass for these dead souls in Purgatory they will be released from hell fire to go to heaven. This is great love for people no doubt about that. But, all this love and all this money will never save a soul who has died lost and is in hell fire torment. The Catholic church has used the love and affection of its members to make billions of dollars in profit saying a Mass for loved ones. This has been fraud for many centuries. The Catholic church developed this money scheme to milk loving Catholics who cared for a deceased loved one. According to Catholicism, its members can pay money to the priests and empty purgatory hell fire of all Catholics. This is not true and it has not been true for 1600 years. Why do good and honest people put up with this scheme from the Catholic church? They do so because they are scared of the Catholic church and its priests. Those Catholics who look into the Bible will not find Purgatory, priest collecting money to say a Mass, or the Catholic church. This is why a person should not be a Catholic.
Thousands of Catholics each year are leaving the church of Rome. Why? They are leaving because they no longer believe the Catholic church is the true Church of the Bible. They discover the Catholic church is filled with falsehood, lies, and deceptions. They learn it has no biblical authority for its religious rituals and the majority of its teachings are perversions of scripture. When they look for the Catholic church in the New Testament of the Bible they cannot find it at all. When they look for the rituals practiced they cannot find them. When they search for a pope or priest performing the Mass they cannot find one. When they look for Jesus Christ to be a Catholic they are shocked he was not a Catholic and never attended a Catholic church. When a Catholic takes a good look in the Bible he/she will learn they have been in a false religion all along and brainwashed to believe they were in the true one and only. True Christianity is not Catholic. Christianity existed 295 years before the Catholic church was founded.
Catholics are right to leave the Catholic church. After all they must save their souls and if the Catholic church does not have the true Gospel message of salvation that will save sinners THEY SHOULD ESCAPE and quick! Of course the priest will try numerous tricks to keep Catholics in the church.
No one can be a true Christian and a Catholic at the same time.
The second thing a Catholic learns is that Jesus was not the founder of the Catholic Church.
When a Catholic opens their Bible they will never find Jesus in or near a Catholic church. When they open their Bible they will learn that Jesus was not a Catholic and was not the founder of the Catholic religion. They learn the word "Catholic" is not in the Bible. They then learn the Catholic church took up the name "Catholic" from Latin which means "universal." The Catholic church claims it is "universal" or world wide. It claims it is the oldest and ONLY WORLD WIDE RELIGION OF CHRISTIANITY STARTED BY JESUS CHRIST. When Catholics discover this is false, that Jesus started a Jewish religion, they soon learn the Catholic church is not Jewish at all but is Gentile owned, Gentile operated, and a Gentile controlled business enterprise whose product is paganized religion. When Catholics open their eyes and see that the Catholic church has adopted many pagan and heathen celebrations and practices and adapted these to Christian teachings, they know they have to leave. No, they know they have to run! It is right here, they know Jesus Christ was not the founder of the Catholic church. Because Jesus would not start a Church and then allow the gates of hell to conquer it by adopting pagan religious practices. No, Jesus would keep his Church pure and free from all evil and sin. The Catholic church is not such a Church. Jesus was not the founder of the Catholic church and Catholics learn they must leave it immediately.
The third thing a Catholic learns, is they do not receive Jesus Christ as Savior when the Eucharist wafer is placed on their tongue.
When a Catholic opens their Bible they will not find the small wafer as pictured on the left. They will not find anyone sticking out their tongue to have the wafer placed there by a Catholic priest. Catholics are taught that when they go forward at the end of the Mass, they do so to receive the flesh of Jesus. The devout Catholic presents him/her self before the priest, open their mouth, stick out their tongue, and he deposits the flesh of Jesus in the form of this wafer. The Catholic is now told he has eternal life because he has eaten the flesh of Jesus. Salvation in the Catholic church is totally and completely in the Mass. They do not preach Acts 2:38 and the necessity of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and through Christ alone. According to the Catholic religion, a person must attend Mass, believe the pope is the vicar of God, accept the Catholic church as the one and only true Church, and then receive the Eucharist on the tongue to be saved. But when a Catholic searches the Bible for the Mass and the Eucharist wafer they cannot find them. They discover the Catholic church has never followed the Biblical Lord's Supper (Communion or Passover). In fact they will learn the Catholic church does not follow the New Testament at all in the Communion observance of the Lord's flesh and blood.
The Catholic church departed from the ancient practice of Jerusalem and the Eastern churches of Asia in observing the Lord's Passover on the evening of the 14th of Nisan. The church of Rome has tried to destroy this ancient Passover observance since 325AD and the Council of Nicaea. At issue here is if the Church Jesus founded observed an annual celebration of his death on the annual Jewish Passover as he commanded (do this in remembrance of me--which includes the Cup, the unleavened bread, and washing of feet). Any Catholic who studies history will learn the early Christians did indeed celebrate the Lord's Passover on an annual basis on the same day the Jews observed their Passover. This practice was brought to Asia not only by the Apostle Paul, but the Apostle John and the Evangelist Philip.
The Asian Christian Churches followed the ancient custom of Jerusalem, celebrating the annual day of the death of Jesus on the Jew's Passover evening. This is certified by no less then such great men of God as Polycarp and Polycrates both of Ephesus. The whole of the Asian Churches held the eve of the 14th of Nisan as the annual celebration of the Lord's Passion on the same day the Jews observed their annual Passover. All the Asian Churches held a conference and refused to change to practice Easter and sent a letter to Victor Bishop of Rome, who then wrote letters to all the Bishops of the world to excommunicate them from the Christian Church (although he had no such power). The response of Polycrates (190AD) is documented history. The Catholic church at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD, formerly adopted the practice of observing the Easter resurrection of Jesus AND NOT HIS DEATH! Jesus instituted the memorial of his death in the new Passover and sealed this as an annual celebration. He sealed the memorial of his resurrection in New Testament baptism.
Out of the Council of Nicaea came the Catholic law not to observe the Lord's Passover on the day, evening, and time he instituted it. The Bishops at the Council switched over to celebrate the Easter resurrection and held this as an annual day. Easter is now an annual day while the Lord's Communion was moved inside newly adopted pagan mystery Mass. The Mass is held many times a day contrary to what Jesus instituted for the Communion Passover. When a Catholic sees this, they know Rome and the Council of Nicaea falsified the command of Jesus to observe the annual Passover held in honor of his death as the Passover Lamb. A Catholic has every right to leave the Catholic church and go back to what Jesus instituted and he did not institute the Mass. Jesus was not the founder of the Catholic church or its Mass.
So, the Eastern Asian Churches continued the Jerusalem practice of the Lord's Passover on the eve of the 14th of Nisan. The Western and African churches controlled by Rome began to observe the resurrection which they called Easter (Easter is the spring pagan goddess Eostre). Those who celebrate Easter are observing a pagan holiday manufactured by the papacy.
It is here that Catholics learn the Catholic church adopted a pagan name for the resurrection of Jesus. This is shocking to Catholics when they see it. It is shocking to Catholics to learn that no Church in the Bible ever observed the day of the resurrection on an annual basis: but instead observed it on the occasion of each and every baptism of a convert. But the Churches did observe the Lord's Passover on the same day the Jews celebrated their Passover.
When Catholics learn the Councils were not holy meetings of the True Apostolic Church, they want out and leave. Over 500 million people world-wide have rejected the claims of the Catholic church. When a Catholic has Bible study and learns what the true Church really believed and practiced, they see the real Church Jesus established. They will eagerly accept the Lord's Communion and observe it because it is the Thanksforgiving Feast of the Lord's Passover. They are willing to give up the paganism of Easter. It is right here that the Catholic learns the bread and wine are only symbols and do not turn into the real flesh and blood of Jesus. When they learn they cannot receive Christ as Savior by sticking out their tongue, they will leave the Catholic church. When they come to the truth that the Catholic Eucharist is a falsehood they will never stick out their tongue again to receive it. Catholic priests, monks, archbishops, cardinals, and popes will shudder of this, but no one in the Bible received Jesus Christ as Savior by sticking out their tongue and receiving a wafer that is said to be the real flesh of Jesus. When a Catholic gets a firm grip on the Word of God and understands the true Passover of the Lord Jesus they will never return to a Catholic church ever again.
The fourth thing a Catholic learns is the Mass is not found in the Bible any where.
When a Catholic opens the Bible they will not find the Mass. They will not find a crucifix used by the New Testament Church. They will not find a Catholic style altar at all. All Catholics know the center of the Catholic religion is the Mass. It is the ritual artificial re-crucifixion of Jesus by a priest as he takes the cup of wine and presents it to a crucifix of Jesus on the cross and recites a prayer in Latin. Concluding his prayer the wine magically is turned into the blood of Jesus. He then gulps this down and does not share a drop with the members attending. Where did this practice originate that only priests can drink from the Cup? Paul did not teach this to the Corinthians! Next the priest picks up the IHS wafer and holds it high before the crucifix as he mumbles another prayer in Latin. Usually there is music and a song immediately after the consecration that turns the bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus. This is to embellish the moment of the occasion and give it a sense of holiness. The priest then summons the faithful to come forward and receive Christ as Savior. Believing they are receiving Christ as Savior they flock to the front and stick out their tongue to receive Jesus.
But when a Catholic looks into the Bible for this mystery ritual Mass they will not find it. They learn the Mass is nothing but a borrowed pagan ritual from the temple of Jove. They learn there is no Mass found anywhere in the New Testament. They cannot find a single person sticking out their tongue to receive Christ as their Savior. They cannot find a Latin Mass. They cannot find a priest drinking the cup of wine all to himself. These things are not in the Bible any where. The New Testament records everything about the Christian Church. And the Catholic Mass is not found there. One Catholic woman said: "when I tried to find the Mass in the Bible and it was not there, I knew in my heart I had been deceived."
What is the Mass? It is an artificial sacrifice. It is a mock sacrifice. It is the priest recrucifying Jesus in the emblems of the Eucharist and the Cup. Where in the Bible are we to think that observing the Lord's Communion or Passover memorial we are recrucifying Jesus on the Cross? It is not there! When a Catholic looks in the Bible for a priest to hold in his hands the Eucharist wafer and turn it into the flesh of Jesus, he/she will not find it. When they look in the Bible for a place where a priest blesses the cup and turns it into the blood of Jesus he/she cannot find it. This is shocking! Why is the Catholic church doing something that is not in the Bible . Why are they performing a ritual that no Apostle or Minister of the Christian Church did? Why is the central religious ritual of the Catholic church completely missing from the Bible? It is not there. The Catholic who learns this discovers also that the daily multiple Mass observance to recrucify the Lord Jesus is not in the Bible. Yes, the Mass is a recrucification of Jesus every time the priest holds it. There must be fresh flesh and fresh blood of Jesus in the Catholic church several times a day or the Catholic church has no Mass. How many times a day in all the Catholic churches throughout the world is Christ recrucified every day? In the Bible those who crucify to themselves Christ afresh are accursed. There is not one Mass to be found any where in the Bible. Just because the Catholic church points to Jesus observing the Jewish Passover does not make it a Mass. Jesus observed the Passover and then instituted his own annual Passover. He did not institute the ritual of the Mass as the Catholic church practices today. And what of washing feet which Jesus did and commanded of his Apostles. Why, in over 1,700 years has the Catholic church NEVER PRACTICED WASHING OF FEET at the Communion as Jesus established? It does not because the Mass is not a true representation of the annual Passover Memorial Jesus instituted. At no time did Jesus hint or indicate his Memorial was to be a daily ritual. When Catholics learn this, they know in their heart of hearts this is not the true Church.
What is the fifth thing a Catholic learns is there is no confession booth in the Bible.
They discover the confession booth is all a fraud and a sham. They cannot find it any where in the Bible either. The Catholic church just made up religious stuff and got people to believe it. People who never read the Bible to check if what they are doing is even in there. When a Catholic searches the Bible for the confession booth and cannot find it they know going to a priest to confess their sins was nothing but the way the Catholic church learns everything sinful that is taking place in a person's life or home. They learn the priest has used the confessional to extract sex stories out of young girls and boys. Many altar boys were homosexualized using the confession booth as a tool of contact and seduction by the priest. What is so shocking about this instrument of the church is that no where are Christians told they must go to a New Testament Minister or Preacher to confess their sins to receive forgiveness. When the Catholic learns they can go straight to God in their own prayer, at home, in the car, at work, or at a place of worship: they have no need for a confessional ever again. And, how is it that a sinful priest can tell a sinner to say five hail-Marys and put some money in the poor box and this is the penance for their stealing, lying, adultery, fornication, gambling, homosexuality, lesbianism, drug use, and other sins? How can a priest guilty of most of the same sins who has not confessed himself to some other sinful priest, going to be able to grant indulgences and pardons? When a Catholic really thinks about this, they know they were members of a church that was not the Christian Church of the Bible. They know they must read their Bible and find a Church that matches the Church of the Bible.
The sixth thing a Catholic learns is there is no Pope in the Bible and Peter was not the first Pope.
A Catholic who opens the Bible will discover there is no pope. Yes, they learn the claim Peter was the first pope is false. They will not find a pope in the Bible, and what's more they will not find the pope's fish hat or his fancy gold worn by Peter. No, they will discover the Pontiff title is another religious title stolen from the high priest of the temple of Jove. They learn Peter never was a pope and never was the recognized leader of the Christian Church. Indeed, he was given the keys to the Kingdom in Matthew 16:19 but these when used on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), in Samaria (Acts 8), and in Caesarea (Acts 10), afterward ceasing to be needed. He opened up the Kingdom gates of the Church to the whole world. He was not given the keys as a signal he held the position of Pope. Once the gates to the Kingdom were opened no man could shut them. No where in the Bible did Peter pass these keys on to a successor.
Who was the man who presided over the New Testament Church? Was it Peter? No! It was Jacob (James) the firstborn son of Mary by Joseph after Jesus was born. This half-brother of the Lord arose and took over the leadership of the Church and we find him in that position in Acts 15. Peter never was the head of the Christian Church so he could not have been the first pope of a fictitious Catholic church. How come, if Jesus is the founder of the Catholic church he is not the first pope? Most Catholics never seem to get out of the Catholic box far enough to ask themselves some important questions. The invention of a Gentile pope to run the Catholic church was in the fourth century.
All the pre-Nicene books were rewritten in such a way to create a legacy of supposed Western or Latin Roman pontiffs who ruled the entire Christian Church world. The title of Pontiff comes from Latin paganism. The title Pontiff is not in the Bible any where (it is another Catholic falsehood).
There are men mentioned in the history of the Catholic church as popes who may have never existed. They can be proven to exist only in the post Nicene books written to reinforce Rome's claim to legitimate power and control over the Christian Church. The falsehood of the donation letter supposedly written by Constantine is an example of forgery and fraud within the Catholic church.
The whole idea, theory, and development of a succession of Latin pontiff popes from Peter to the present pope is all a massive fraud. There is no pope in the Bible and there never was a pope over the true Christian Church. Jesus reigns as King over the Church and his Ministers act as his ambassadors throughout the nations. This you will find in the Bible. You will not find a religious system with nuns, monks, archbishops, cardinals, prelates, and popes. A Catholic will not find a religious hierarchy of ascending ranks from laity to the pope as is found in the Catholic church. When a Catholic learns there is no pope in the Bible, they know once more they had been deceived by religious trickery and mental seduction. They know the Catholic church is not the true Church founded by Jesus Christ.
Take a look on the left at an ancient image of the fish god Dagon found in Mesopotamia. Look at his fish hat and that of the pope above. Any Catholic can see the Catholic church has adopted Dagan idolatry in hats to embellish their popes and priests and make them look religious to the world. The popes of Rome need to jerk that fish hat off, throw it down, stomp on it, and take it out and burn it. The pope should issue a Papal Bull it is never to be worn again by any pope or priest. Will they do it? No they will not do it and this is the reason the Catholic must run from the Catholic church and never look back. The Catholic church is not going to correct any of this falsehood, rituals, or heresies. It is a paganized Christian religion that has entrenched itself in many nations by bloodshed, threats, violence, and deception.
The seventh thing a Catholic learns is the 12 Apostles and New Testament Saints were not Catholic.
When a Catholic opens their Bible and tries to find the 12 Apostles and the Saints attending a Catholic church they will not find it. They learn from Bible study that all the New Testament Apostles and Saints were not Catholic. They learn the Catholic church surrounds themselves with images and idols of the Apostles and New Testament Saints to deceive members that the 12 Apostles and Saints were Catholic. It makes members think if these were all Catholic then they should be Catholic also. When they look at the images of the Apostles, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, they are led to believe these chose the Catholic church because it is God's church. They never stop to think these images are put around a Catholic church to make people think it is the Church of God when it is not. Idols and images around a Catholic church is one of the biggest deceptions of the priests of Rome. It is an important tool used by the Catholic church to deceive the minds of members. The members are forced to think in a box. They never consider these were never Catholics. But when they open the Bible and see these were not Catholic their eyes come open and they see the Catholic church is not the Church of the Bible.
A Catholic who studies will learn there are no nuns, monks, priests, or popes in the Bible. They learn Mary was not worshiped. They learn she held no special position other then the Mother of the Messieh. They learn the Catholic church invented a white religion that is racist and portrays Mary, Joseph, Jesus as white people when they were black or brown. They learn that Rome deceives not only with false doctrine but with pictures, idols, and icons. They learn that the veneration, worship, and prayers to saints is not in the Bible. They learn the Catholic church did not give the world the Bible. The Bible existed before there was a Catholic church. They learn the Catholic church makes use of these so-called saints to embellish its pomp, rituals, church decor with images, and to make people think all these were Catholic.
None of the Saints of the New Testament Church were Catholic. None of them had ever been in a Catholic church. None were sprinkle baptized in the trinity. None ever doused themselves with holy water. None of them ever went to confession. Never prayed on the rosary. None attend a Mass. None celebrated Easter. In fact, when a Catholic looks in the Bible for adoration and veneration of saints he/she cannot find the practice of it any where. One of the claims of the Catholic church to Catholics is this: "You can believe the Catholic church is the true Church because it produced all the saints and such holy men and women as St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St. John Vianney, St Therese of Lizieux." Rome claims these and other holy saints produced by the Catholic church proves it is the true Church. But where is the adoration and veneration of saints in the Bible? Where in the Bible is there the making of idols and images of saints to stand around the church, in the foyer, outside the church, and in every nook and cranny? Idols and images are condemned in the Bible.
Where in the Bible did Christians make medallions to hang from one's neck as a luck charm or a fetish to ward off sickness, disease, or some other bad omen? There is none. The whole use of these so-called saints is to make Catholics think no other religion claiming to be Christian has such people in its ranks. The Catholic church uses these saints and their lives as a means to teach Catholic doctrine and compliance to the rules and codes. If a person rebels against the Catholic church they might lose the prayers of a saint on their behalf or the behalf of another loved one. So, to keep close to God a Catholic prays to these idols and gives money to their favorite saint-fan-club. When a Catholic learns there is no such practices found in the Bible they know they were deceived again. They know they must leave the Catholic church quickly because it is not the Church Jesus founded.
The eighth thing a Catholic learns is that Mary was never a Catholic.
When a Catholic opens their Bible they will not find Mary attending a Catholic Church. They will not find her as a Nun. They will not find a perpetual virgin. If Mary is not a Catholic there is no Catholic church. When a Catholic opens the Bible and learns Mary was not a Catholic and not the mother of God, they know they must leave the Catholic church.
Mary was the mother of the seed of David in which God was incarnated upon birth (1Tim 3:16). There is no greater deception and lie of the Catholic church then that Mary was a Catholic. Mary never attended a Catholic church in her life. She never heard of one in her life. She never saw or met a Catholic nun, monk, priest, or pope in her life. She never attended a Mass in her life. She was never sprinkle baptized by a priest of the Catholic church. She never prayed on a rosary. She never crossed herself with the sign of the Cross. She never doused herself with holy water. She never went to a confession booth. She never received penance from a Catholic priest.
Mary was not a Catholic. She was Jewish and a member of the Christian Jewish Church. This Christian Jewish Church was not Catholic. The Jewish Church did not develop into the Catholic church. The Catholic church is a complete Gentile creation of men established many centuries after Mary's death.
Mary was a Jewish woman of the tribe of Judah and the mother of Jesus the Messieh of Israel. She was mother of the seed of David, the man-child, and she was the unrecognized queen of Israel. She did not birth a God into the world.
Such teachings that she is God's mother makes Catholicism a laughing stock. How can the created birth the uncreated? Impossible you say! Agreed. Where was Mary when God created the heavens and the earth? She was not living yet. Where was Mary when God created Adam and Eve? She did not exist. To say Mary was the mother of God cannot be found any where in the Bible. When a Catholic looks for this verification and cannot find it, they know this is one more reason to leave the Catholic church. They ask themselves: if Mary was not a Catholic why should I be?
The Catholic church goes above honor of Mary, they make her a co-mediator with Christ. The Catholic church claims a Catholic can pray to Mary who will talk to her son who will talk to his Father and favor is granted because Mary is the mother of the Father's Son. Catholics are led to believe Mary can get the Father to do for them what they ask because God the Father would never deny the Mother of his Son. Is this procedure of praying to Mary any where in the Bible? It is not found there.
What is the theory behind this? In ancient times a person might be afraid to go directly to a king because they did not know how their situation might turn out. So, they sought a way to influence the king and who better to do this than his mother. So, a person might get the mother to mention something to the king and thereby soften up his attitude and or provoke him to do something good for a person his mother knows. After all, it is reasoned what king would not want to show honor and respect to his mother's wishes. So, a Catholic believes if they ask Mary, she will ask the Son and the Son will ask the Father and the Father will not deny the mother of his Son.
When a Catholic learns this is not in the Bible any where they know the Catholic church is not the true Church founded by Jesus. When they learn Mary was not a go-between to Jesus and to God the Father for others, this causes Catholics to see all this Maryology as nothing but a big religious sham. They should take this treasured Lady down from her place among idols throughout the world. They should stop praying to her because this is not in the Bible. They should stop teaching lies and falsehoods about Mary. Have they no respect for her? They should remove her from their churches because she was Jewish and not Catholic. When a Catholic learns that Mary was not a Catholic they have discovered the last thing they need to know that proves the Catholic church is not the Church Jesus founded.
As the light of Truth comes into the life of a Catholic they will see the Catholic church as an impostor. They will then take a second look at its sins, evils, and scandals. They will know from its birth in Nicaea in 325AD until today 2005 it is an evil religion that has cheated millions of true Bible salvation by its falsehood. The Catholic church has killed more people to establish and enforce the Catholic religion then any other religion in the world. Thousands have been murdered. Hundreds have been burned at the stake. More hundreds have been tortured. There are thousands of killed babies whom nuns birthed and the fathers were priests. Homosexuality is so out of control in the Catholic church among the priests, monks, and popes. If ever there was a church the gates of hell have prevailed against, it is the Catholic church. Catholic apologist claim these are just scars of sinners upon Christ and they are wounds to his body that Catholics and the world should overlook. No, we cannot overlook something so evil, when we know it is not the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Catholic church will continue to be the most shameful religious group in the world. When a Catholic comes to see the shame of the Catholic church they will know it is not the true Church Jesus founded.
So, why should a Catholic leave the Catholic church and find the true Church of the Bible?
Because as members of the Catholic church they are in a false church. As a member in the Catholic church they are forced to believe the Catholic church does not have to be found in the Bible. They are forced to believe in many things they cannot find in the Bible.
If a Catholic does not leave the Catholic church they are not baptized properly as found in the Bible. They are not saved by faith as found in the Bible. If they remain Catholic their soul will be lost. If they remain a Catholic after they are shown the Catholic church is not in the Bible they will go to hell.
A Catholic must ask themselves: "If Jesus and the Apostles were not in the Catholic church why should I be a member?"
A Catholic must believe Jesus was the founder of a Jewish Christian Church and Peter preached how to be saved in Acts 2:38.
A Catholic must ask him/her self this question: "If Peter was the first Pope how come the Catholic church does not follow him and baptized in the name of Jesus Christ as Peter preached in Acts 2:38?
Catholics are not dumb people. They do not want their soul to be lost. My final advice to all our Catholic friends is: "don't let anyone fool you or convince you to stay in the Catholic church."
Closing prayer:
Lord Jesus I pray for all the good people in the Catholic church. I pray our Lord that you would open their eyes to see you were not a Catholic and they should not be either. As they open their Bible Lord Jesus and begin to seek for the true Church, guide them, love them, and lead them as our Good Shepherd. Lord I pray now you will bring them into the one fold of the True Church of Jesus Christ. Amen!
Pastor G. Reckart
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Jewish Studies
The virgin Mary was not a Catholic. Many do not know this. But it is true. Here are some other facts which many do not know:
Mary was not a white woman. These pictures of Mary are of a white European woman and do not in any way represent the true Mary of the Bible. The true Mary of the Bible was a brown or black skinned woman. She was of the tribe of Judah of the seed of David, and David's great grandmother Ruth was a Black Moabites woman. David was not a white man. Any representations of Mary as a white woman are false. But many do not know this. The pictures look beautiful and allure to one's sympathy and love of purity. These icons are designed to appeal to a person's heart and not their mind. Actually, these pictures are worshipped by many who believe these images of Mary contain her very presence. Pictures of Mary are idols when people pray to them or give them worship in prayers. Here are some other facts people do not know about Mary.
Mary never prayed with a rosary. The picture above on the right shows Mary with a rosary and with her hands folded in a prayer posture, it appears she is using them to make her prayers. Is this a true image of the real Mary or is it a picture designed to lead Catholics to believe if Mary prays the rosary, then it must be what they should do?
The rosary was invented by Peter the Hermit in 1090AD and brought fully into the Catholic Church by St. Dominic in the year 1214AD and approved by Pope Innocent III. How could Mary use something that was not invented until 1000+ years after her death? St. Dominic claimed Mary gave him the rosary. Fact is, St. Dominic lied, he used Mary as the source of it so it would be quickly accepted by all Catholics. Where would Mary, a Jewish woman, obtain any idea of this pagan design? The rosary was not known by any of the Apostles. They never prayed using it. Surely Mary could have introduced it to them if it was something all Christians should use. Another point of interest here is that we follow the Apostle's Doctrine. We are no where told by the Apostles that Mary had any special revelations or powers within or over the New Testament Church. Therefore, the introduction of the rosary by St. Dominic is suspicious on many accounts. Not one time in the life of Mary did she ever pray using the rosary.
Mary never attended a Catholic Church. Many do not know there was no Catholic Church until 325AD. The Catholic Church was formed by 318 or so Bishops at the Council of Nicaea. Before this date there was no unified Catholic Church. It was in this year that Constantine established the Catholic Church and the Nicene Creed was invented around which all the Bishops gathered and unified forming the Catholic Church. Mary never attended a Catholic Church. Someone asked: "Wasn't Mary a Christian, and doesn't this make her a Catholic?" No, this does not make Mary a Catholic. In fact, none of the Apostles were Catholic and never were in or a part of the Catholic Church. What is a Christian anyway? A Christian is a person who has been converted to the Messianic Judaism religion of Jesus. The name Christian is composed of two parts "Christ" which means Messieh, son of David, King and Lord of Israel; and "ian" which is a suffix added to names like Corinth-ians, Ephes-ians, Phillip-ians, Collos-ians, etc. and is the equivalent of the Biblical "ites" which simply means "people." Thus, the name Israelites means Israel-ites: people of Israel. Corresponding then we have Corinthians which means people of Corinth. With this understanding we can see how that Christians and or Christites are the same and interpreted in keeping with syntax and meaning would be people of Messieh, or People of the King of Israel, or people of the Lord. Collectively these are identified as Messianic Believers. Now, since the Catholic Church did not exist until 325AD, no Christian, no Messianic believer, no people of Messieh, were Catholic. The Catholic Church is a Gentile body of people with a Gentile head as Pope. The Church of which Mary was a member was totally Jewish. The Church of Acts 1 and 2 consisted only of Jewish men and women. This Church never was Gentile, never became Gentile, and remains Jewish until this day (1986). It will never be Gentile.
Mary never went to confession. The confession booth was not installed in the Catholic Church until 1215AD and instituted by Pope Innocent III. Members of the Catholic Church no longer repented directly to God, they were told they could confess their sins to a Priest and he had power to forgive them of their sins. The confession booth has been used to obtain sexual information with which to seduce guilty women, girls, and boys. It has been used to extract information about people whom the priest get the those confessing to give. The confession booth is used to make Catholics feel they need the Priest and the Catholic Church more then they need God. Mary never went into a confession booth.
Mary never sprinkled herself with holy water. The sprinkling of holy water was invented in the year 1009AD. Prior to this time it was never used in any Christian Church in the world. The purpose of this holy water sprinkling was to create one more ritual that Catholics would come to accept as an essential work of salvation. A Catholic child who is raised up with this ritual, will feel like they dishonor God if they do not sprinkle themselves just before the cross themselves. This holy water ritual has grown into many other sprinkling ceremonies. I was in Valdez, Alaska one year and the local Catholic priest had all the Catholics bring in their pets to receive a special sprinkling of holy water. Mary never used this holy water, its ritual, or any sprinkling ritual at any time. Mary was not a Catholic.
Mary never believed in or knew about Limbo-hell for babies or of Purgatory-hell for older kids and adults. Existence of purgatory was proclaimed to be a fact in the year 1438AD. Limbo was proclaimed to be a fact in the fifth century. Both Purgatory and Limbo are money-making devises for the Catholic Church. Prayers alone do not release these from the flames of hell. It takes money. The money might be an offering for the poor box, it might be for a missionary fund, it might be to purchase a candle manufactured by the Church or an auxiliary, or just simply put your cash in the offering plate. There is nothing in the Word of God about Purgatory or Limbo. These are man-made inventions. One thing for sure, Mary never knew about or believed in Purgatory or Limbo. Mary was not a Catholic.
Mary did not believe in the immaculate conception. Jews did not have a teaching or doctrine that sin was inherited by a baby from the blood of the parents. The doctrine of sin inherited in the blood line is no where to be found in the BIble. Jews did not have a doctrine or teaching that parents passed on to their children all the inherited sin in the family genealogical chain back to Adam and Eve. Since the Jews did not believe in inherited sin, there was no need for there to be a doctrine that Mary had to be born without sin to birth Jesus so he would not have tainted blood. The doctrine then of the immaculate conception was made a binding teaching of the Catholic Church until 1845AD. Yes, there were some long before this date who believed sin was inherited through the bloodline, and this implicated Mary if she had a son whose bloodline would have come from the tainted one from Adam to Mary. To get Jesus born with perfect and sinless blood, it was necessary then to do something about Mary and her sin-tainted blood. So, the thing to do was invent this immaculate conception falsehood and get Catholics to accept it. In this manner, the Catholics could continue to make money off the deaths of little babies, whose parents were told the child was in the flames of Limbo and could not escape unless certain money was paid to the Church and certain prayers were made.
Mary never went into a Catholic Church. What became the Catholic Church in 325AD and what the Catholic Church is today, Mary never attended. Not one time in her life did she attend a Church were there were images and statues of so-called saints. Not one time did she enter into a Catholic Church and sprinkle holy water on herself. Not one time did she burn a candle for any reason. She never seen or heard a Catholic Mass. She never prayed Catholic prayers and she never one time bowed down to the Communion Wafer, the Host, or the Eucharist. Not one time did a Catholic priest place a Wafer or Host on her tongue. Mary never once sat on a Catholic Church pew, chair, or seat. She never heard a Catholic Priest give a homily or Bible lesson. Mary never was in a Church where a crucifix was used as an emblem of worship or adoration. Mary never saw an altar boy or girl and not one time did she ever sing a song in a Catholic service.
Mary did not believe in or know about the trinity. Mary never knew about the trinity because it was not invented and did not become a binding doctrinal law until the Council of Nicaea in 325AD. The trinity doctrine was not formulated until Constantine presented the "hoinoousios" "of one essence" from Plato. The Bishops jumped on this and accepted it and the trinity became a doctrine enforced by the throne of the Roman Empire. Anyone who denied this new doctrine would be removed from the Church, from their Bishoprick, their homes and property confiscated, and some were put to death. Mary was a Jewish woman who believed in one God. As a Jew she was forbidden by the First Commandment to have a plural view of the Godhead. Whatever Mary thought of her son Jesus, she did not think of him as a second God of rank under God the Father and she did not think of him as a personality in the tri-personality mind of one God. In other words, Mary did not believe Jesus was just an alternate personality of a triune God. If she held to the teachings of the Prophets and the Apostles, she would have believed that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. If she had any other view, we do not know about it. We do know this, there is no way she believed in a trinity or the trinitarians would have trotted this information out before the world and made a rather large commotion about it. Mary did not believe in the Nicene Creed. She did not believe in the so-called "Apostles Creed." And she did not believe in the trinity. Mary was not a Catholic. And if Mary had lived during the Catholic inquisition she would have been killed by the very ones who think Mary was a Catholic.
Mary was Jewish and a member of a Jewish Church. This Jewish Church was established upon 12 Jewish Apostles. There were no Gentile Apostles in the Church at any time during the life time of Mary or the true Apostles. In fact, there is no provision for a Gentile Apostle in the Bible. Mary never knew a Catholic Pope. The Apostle Peter never was a Catholic Pope. He was married and had a wife. He had a mother-in-law. Attempts to pevert this are examples of how the Catholic Church has perverted a lot of truth and turned them into lies and falsehoods. Mary, her other children, (Mary was not a perpetual virgin, that is another lie), were in the upper room in Acts 1 and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Mary herself, the mother of Jesus, spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave her the abillity of utterance. Mary herself had to be saved. Mary was there when Peter preached Acts 2:38. If Peter was the first Pope, how come the Catholic Church does not accept Peter's words in Acts 2:38. Why did they make it illegal for anyone to be baptized in the name of Jesus Messieh for the remisson of sins? Mary was a member of a Oneness, Holy Ghost filled, Apostolic Church. She died in this great faith and her legacy is that of a true child of God. She is to be loved and respected but not worshipped, prayed to, and not venerated into a position of godhead, deity, or co-redeemer or mediatrix. Mary was not a Catholic. Mary is not in heaven right now. She is dead and waiting on the resurrection just like the Apostles. People who pray to Mary, believing she can go whisper or talk into the ears of her son, to plead the case of these who pray to her, are all deceived. Mary cannot help a single soul right now find God. Mary cannot pray because she is dead. Mary cannot change a thing in this present world. All the alleged apparition of Mary are false. These are more attempts to prove Mary has been resurrected and or raptured not to see death. The Word of God says it is appointed once for man to die and then the judgment. Even Jesus died! Mary died also, and she will not be resurrected until the whole Church is raised up from the dead at the last day.
What religion was Mary?
Mary was of the tribe of Judah of the seed of David, she was a Jewess. The temple in Jerusalem was her only Church until the day of Pentecost. Then she was a member of the New Testament Church, which was Jewish Messianic. Jesus established and created in Israel a new religious Judaism. It was Messianic Judaism. Jesus founded a Jewish religion and it was called the "Qahal" (modern Hebrew) translated into the Greek Ekklesia. The Jewish word "Qahal" means: multitude, company, assembly, and congregation. Correctly this should be Qahel the "a" vowel with the "l" is incorrect as "l" should have before it the letter "e" and together "El" is a contraction of "Elohim" or God. Qahel then would mean an assembly of God's people, God's congregation, God's company, and God's multitude. The Greek "Ekklesia" meaning "called out ones" is a reference to the nation of Israel in a company of tribes called out of Egypt and given freedom from bondage and slavery. When Qahel and Ecclesia are properly understood the New Testament Church takes on a Jewish identity. Mary was Apostolic Messianic. She like all other New Testament Jews was a Messiehian (Greek Christian) and she followed the Apostle's Doctrine. This is the Church Mary attended. She was NEVER a member of the Catholic Church.
Mary was not a white woman. These pictures of Mary are of a white European woman and do not in any way represent the true Mary of the Bible. The true Mary of the Bible was a brown or black skinned woman. She was of the tribe of Judah of the seed of David, and David's great grandmother Ruth was a Black Moabites woman. David was not a white man. Any representations of Mary as a white woman are false. But many do not know this. The pictures look beautiful and allure to one's sympathy and love of purity. These icons are designed to appeal to a person's heart and not their mind. Actually, these pictures are worshipped by many who believe these images of Mary contain her very presence. Pictures of Mary are idols when people pray to them or give them worship in prayers. Here are some other facts people do not know about Mary.
Mary never prayed with a rosary. The picture above on the right shows Mary with a rosary and with her hands folded in a prayer posture, it appears she is using them to make her prayers. Is this a true image of the real Mary or is it a picture designed to lead Catholics to believe if Mary prays the rosary, then it must be what they should do?
The rosary was invented by Peter the Hermit in 1090AD and brought fully into the Catholic Church by St. Dominic in the year 1214AD and approved by Pope Innocent III. How could Mary use something that was not invented until 1000+ years after her death? St. Dominic claimed Mary gave him the rosary. Fact is, St. Dominic lied, he used Mary as the source of it so it would be quickly accepted by all Catholics. Where would Mary, a Jewish woman, obtain any idea of this pagan design? The rosary was not known by any of the Apostles. They never prayed using it. Surely Mary could have introduced it to them if it was something all Christians should use. Another point of interest here is that we follow the Apostle's Doctrine. We are no where told by the Apostles that Mary had any special revelations or powers within or over the New Testament Church. Therefore, the introduction of the rosary by St. Dominic is suspicious on many accounts. Not one time in the life of Mary did she ever pray using the rosary.
Mary never attended a Catholic Church. Many do not know there was no Catholic Church until 325AD. The Catholic Church was formed by 318 or so Bishops at the Council of Nicaea. Before this date there was no unified Catholic Church. It was in this year that Constantine established the Catholic Church and the Nicene Creed was invented around which all the Bishops gathered and unified forming the Catholic Church. Mary never attended a Catholic Church. Someone asked: "Wasn't Mary a Christian, and doesn't this make her a Catholic?" No, this does not make Mary a Catholic. In fact, none of the Apostles were Catholic and never were in or a part of the Catholic Church. What is a Christian anyway? A Christian is a person who has been converted to the Messianic Judaism religion of Jesus. The name Christian is composed of two parts "Christ" which means Messieh, son of David, King and Lord of Israel; and "ian" which is a suffix added to names like Corinth-ians, Ephes-ians, Phillip-ians, Collos-ians, etc. and is the equivalent of the Biblical "ites" which simply means "people." Thus, the name Israelites means Israel-ites: people of Israel. Corresponding then we have Corinthians which means people of Corinth. With this understanding we can see how that Christians and or Christites are the same and interpreted in keeping with syntax and meaning would be people of Messieh, or People of the King of Israel, or people of the Lord. Collectively these are identified as Messianic Believers. Now, since the Catholic Church did not exist until 325AD, no Christian, no Messianic believer, no people of Messieh, were Catholic. The Catholic Church is a Gentile body of people with a Gentile head as Pope. The Church of which Mary was a member was totally Jewish. The Church of Acts 1 and 2 consisted only of Jewish men and women. This Church never was Gentile, never became Gentile, and remains Jewish until this day (1986). It will never be Gentile.
Mary never went to confession. The confession booth was not installed in the Catholic Church until 1215AD and instituted by Pope Innocent III. Members of the Catholic Church no longer repented directly to God, they were told they could confess their sins to a Priest and he had power to forgive them of their sins. The confession booth has been used to obtain sexual information with which to seduce guilty women, girls, and boys. It has been used to extract information about people whom the priest get the those confessing to give. The confession booth is used to make Catholics feel they need the Priest and the Catholic Church more then they need God. Mary never went into a confession booth.
Mary never sprinkled herself with holy water. The sprinkling of holy water was invented in the year 1009AD. Prior to this time it was never used in any Christian Church in the world. The purpose of this holy water sprinkling was to create one more ritual that Catholics would come to accept as an essential work of salvation. A Catholic child who is raised up with this ritual, will feel like they dishonor God if they do not sprinkle themselves just before the cross themselves. This holy water ritual has grown into many other sprinkling ceremonies. I was in Valdez, Alaska one year and the local Catholic priest had all the Catholics bring in their pets to receive a special sprinkling of holy water. Mary never used this holy water, its ritual, or any sprinkling ritual at any time. Mary was not a Catholic.
Mary never believed in or knew about Limbo-hell for babies or of Purgatory-hell for older kids and adults. Existence of purgatory was proclaimed to be a fact in the year 1438AD. Limbo was proclaimed to be a fact in the fifth century. Both Purgatory and Limbo are money-making devises for the Catholic Church. Prayers alone do not release these from the flames of hell. It takes money. The money might be an offering for the poor box, it might be for a missionary fund, it might be to purchase a candle manufactured by the Church or an auxiliary, or just simply put your cash in the offering plate. There is nothing in the Word of God about Purgatory or Limbo. These are man-made inventions. One thing for sure, Mary never knew about or believed in Purgatory or Limbo. Mary was not a Catholic.
Mary did not believe in the immaculate conception. Jews did not have a teaching or doctrine that sin was inherited by a baby from the blood of the parents. The doctrine of sin inherited in the blood line is no where to be found in the BIble. Jews did not have a doctrine or teaching that parents passed on to their children all the inherited sin in the family genealogical chain back to Adam and Eve. Since the Jews did not believe in inherited sin, there was no need for there to be a doctrine that Mary had to be born without sin to birth Jesus so he would not have tainted blood. The doctrine then of the immaculate conception was made a binding teaching of the Catholic Church until 1845AD. Yes, there were some long before this date who believed sin was inherited through the bloodline, and this implicated Mary if she had a son whose bloodline would have come from the tainted one from Adam to Mary. To get Jesus born with perfect and sinless blood, it was necessary then to do something about Mary and her sin-tainted blood. So, the thing to do was invent this immaculate conception falsehood and get Catholics to accept it. In this manner, the Catholics could continue to make money off the deaths of little babies, whose parents were told the child was in the flames of Limbo and could not escape unless certain money was paid to the Church and certain prayers were made.
Mary never went into a Catholic Church. What became the Catholic Church in 325AD and what the Catholic Church is today, Mary never attended. Not one time in her life did she attend a Church were there were images and statues of so-called saints. Not one time did she enter into a Catholic Church and sprinkle holy water on herself. Not one time did she burn a candle for any reason. She never seen or heard a Catholic Mass. She never prayed Catholic prayers and she never one time bowed down to the Communion Wafer, the Host, or the Eucharist. Not one time did a Catholic priest place a Wafer or Host on her tongue. Mary never once sat on a Catholic Church pew, chair, or seat. She never heard a Catholic Priest give a homily or Bible lesson. Mary never was in a Church where a crucifix was used as an emblem of worship or adoration. Mary never saw an altar boy or girl and not one time did she ever sing a song in a Catholic service.
Mary did not believe in or know about the trinity. Mary never knew about the trinity because it was not invented and did not become a binding doctrinal law until the Council of Nicaea in 325AD. The trinity doctrine was not formulated until Constantine presented the "hoinoousios" "of one essence" from Plato. The Bishops jumped on this and accepted it and the trinity became a doctrine enforced by the throne of the Roman Empire. Anyone who denied this new doctrine would be removed from the Church, from their Bishoprick, their homes and property confiscated, and some were put to death. Mary was a Jewish woman who believed in one God. As a Jew she was forbidden by the First Commandment to have a plural view of the Godhead. Whatever Mary thought of her son Jesus, she did not think of him as a second God of rank under God the Father and she did not think of him as a personality in the tri-personality mind of one God. In other words, Mary did not believe Jesus was just an alternate personality of a triune God. If she held to the teachings of the Prophets and the Apostles, she would have believed that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. If she had any other view, we do not know about it. We do know this, there is no way she believed in a trinity or the trinitarians would have trotted this information out before the world and made a rather large commotion about it. Mary did not believe in the Nicene Creed. She did not believe in the so-called "Apostles Creed." And she did not believe in the trinity. Mary was not a Catholic. And if Mary had lived during the Catholic inquisition she would have been killed by the very ones who think Mary was a Catholic.
Mary was Jewish and a member of a Jewish Church. This Jewish Church was established upon 12 Jewish Apostles. There were no Gentile Apostles in the Church at any time during the life time of Mary or the true Apostles. In fact, there is no provision for a Gentile Apostle in the Bible. Mary never knew a Catholic Pope. The Apostle Peter never was a Catholic Pope. He was married and had a wife. He had a mother-in-law. Attempts to pevert this are examples of how the Catholic Church has perverted a lot of truth and turned them into lies and falsehoods. Mary, her other children, (Mary was not a perpetual virgin, that is another lie), were in the upper room in Acts 1 and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Mary herself, the mother of Jesus, spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave her the abillity of utterance. Mary herself had to be saved. Mary was there when Peter preached Acts 2:38. If Peter was the first Pope, how come the Catholic Church does not accept Peter's words in Acts 2:38. Why did they make it illegal for anyone to be baptized in the name of Jesus Messieh for the remisson of sins? Mary was a member of a Oneness, Holy Ghost filled, Apostolic Church. She died in this great faith and her legacy is that of a true child of God. She is to be loved and respected but not worshipped, prayed to, and not venerated into a position of godhead, deity, or co-redeemer or mediatrix. Mary was not a Catholic. Mary is not in heaven right now. She is dead and waiting on the resurrection just like the Apostles. People who pray to Mary, believing she can go whisper or talk into the ears of her son, to plead the case of these who pray to her, are all deceived. Mary cannot help a single soul right now find God. Mary cannot pray because she is dead. Mary cannot change a thing in this present world. All the alleged apparition of Mary are false. These are more attempts to prove Mary has been resurrected and or raptured not to see death. The Word of God says it is appointed once for man to die and then the judgment. Even Jesus died! Mary died also, and she will not be resurrected until the whole Church is raised up from the dead at the last day.
What religion was Mary?
Mary was of the tribe of Judah of the seed of David, she was a Jewess. The temple in Jerusalem was her only Church until the day of Pentecost. Then she was a member of the New Testament Church, which was Jewish Messianic. Jesus established and created in Israel a new religious Judaism. It was Messianic Judaism. Jesus founded a Jewish religion and it was called the "Qahal" (modern Hebrew) translated into the Greek Ekklesia. The Jewish word "Qahal" means: multitude, company, assembly, and congregation. Correctly this should be Qahel the "a" vowel with the "l" is incorrect as "l" should have before it the letter "e" and together "El" is a contraction of "Elohim" or God. Qahel then would mean an assembly of God's people, God's congregation, God's company, and God's multitude. The Greek "Ekklesia" meaning "called out ones" is a reference to the nation of Israel in a company of tribes called out of Egypt and given freedom from bondage and slavery. When Qahel and Ecclesia are properly understood the New Testament Church takes on a Jewish identity. Mary was Apostolic Messianic. She like all other New Testament Jews was a Messiehian (Greek Christian) and she followed the Apostle's Doctrine. This is the Church Mary attended. She was NEVER a member of the Catholic Church.
Human Rights
From Civil Rights to Human Rights
Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice
Thomas F. Jackson
472 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 13 illus.
Cloth 2006 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3969-0 | $39.95t | £26.00 | Add to shopping cart
A volume in the Politics and Culture in Modern America series
View table of contents and excerpt
Winner of the 2007 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award of the Organization of American Historians
"Jackson exemplifies the best offerings of intellectual history."—Reviews in American History
Martin Luther King, Jr., is widely celebrated as an American civil rights hero. Yet King's nonviolent opposition to racism, militarism, and economic injustice had deeper roots and more radical implications than is commonly appreciated, Thomas F. Jackson argues in this searching reinterpretation of King's public ministry. Between the 1940s and the 1960s, King was influenced by and in turn reshaped the political cultures of the black freedom movement and democratic left. His vision of unfettered human rights drew on the diverse tenets of the African American social gospel, socialism, left-New Deal liberalism, Gandhian philosophy, and Popular Front internationalism.
King's early leadership reached beyond southern desegregation and voting rights. As the freedom movement of the 1950s and early 1960s confronted poverty and economic reprisals, King championed trade union rights, equal job opportunities, metropolitan integration, and full employment. When the civil rights and antipoverty policies of the Johnson administration failed to deliver on the movement's goals of economic freedom for all, King demanded that the federal government guarantee jobs, income, and local power for poor people. When the Vietnam war stalled domestic liberalism, King called on the nation to abandon imperialism and become a global force for multiracial democracy and economic justice.
Drawing widely on published and unpublished archival sources, Jackson explains the contexts and meanings of King's increasingly open call for "a radical redistribution of political and economic power" in American cities, the nation, and the world. The mid-1960s ghetto uprisings were in fact revolts against unemployment, powerlessness, police violence, and institutionalized racism, he argued. His final dream, a Poor People's March on Washington, aimed to mobilize Americans across racial and class lines to reverse a national cycle of urban conflict, political backlash, and policy retrenchment. King's vision of economic democracy and international human rights remains a powerful inspiration for those committed to ending racism and poverty in our time.
"Never before have King's social and political ideas been so thoroughly documented nor so persuasively explicated. Future generations of King scholars will owe Jackson a debt of gratitude for this monumental book of enduring value."—Clayborne Carson, Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, Senior Editor, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Jackson makes a persuasive case that King was exposed to various radical critiques at an early stage, that he laced his speeches with moral indictments of inequality and praise for Scandinavian social democracies, and that he sympathized—in private though not in public (at least before the mid-1960s)—with more left-wing critiques of American society."—Chicago Tribune
"In this impressive and original account, Jackson challenges us to confront what King and movement activists knew from lifelong experience: that poverty and racism are fundamentally problems of power. . . . Equally compelling is Jackson's portrait of a radicalism grounded in the give and take of movement building and in the vast store of learning it entailed."—Alice O'Connor, author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-Century U.S. History
"An important contribution to modern American history—and a painful reminder of just how far we are from the Promised Land."—Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age
"Jackson takes us through the progression of King's public life, including the iconic events—Montgomery, Albany, Birmingham, the Washington march, Selma, Memphis—closely analyzing the ideas, the people, and the conjunction of circumstances particularly influential at the time, as measured by exhaustive analysis of King's speeches, writings, and private conversations (courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation)."—Journal of American History
"More than any other historian of the movement, Jackson takes the civil rights leader's ideas seriously. . . .The book was written for academics, but it deserves a large audience. . . . it should help to reshape our collective understanding not only of King and the civil rights movement, but of the movements for peace and racial and economic justice that preceded King and continue today."—Texas Observer
"From Civil Rights to Human Rights should reinforce King's credentials as one, and perhaps the wisest, of the radical voices of the 1960s."—Dissent
"[The book] is the first to produce a sustained analysis of the origins and development of King's radical economic analysis and the politics it mandated. . . . Jackson's book rips away the false curtain of moderation and reveals the substance of a rare leader who gave his life in the pursuit of global human rights."—Sociological Inquiry
"A notable contribution to social, cultural, economic, and African American studies."—Choice
Thomas F. Jackson is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice
Thomas F. Jackson
472 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 13 illus.
Cloth 2006 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3969-0 | $39.95t | £26.00 | Add to shopping cart
A volume in the Politics and Culture in Modern America series
View table of contents and excerpt
Winner of the 2007 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award of the Organization of American Historians
"Jackson exemplifies the best offerings of intellectual history."—Reviews in American History
Martin Luther King, Jr., is widely celebrated as an American civil rights hero. Yet King's nonviolent opposition to racism, militarism, and economic injustice had deeper roots and more radical implications than is commonly appreciated, Thomas F. Jackson argues in this searching reinterpretation of King's public ministry. Between the 1940s and the 1960s, King was influenced by and in turn reshaped the political cultures of the black freedom movement and democratic left. His vision of unfettered human rights drew on the diverse tenets of the African American social gospel, socialism, left-New Deal liberalism, Gandhian philosophy, and Popular Front internationalism.
King's early leadership reached beyond southern desegregation and voting rights. As the freedom movement of the 1950s and early 1960s confronted poverty and economic reprisals, King championed trade union rights, equal job opportunities, metropolitan integration, and full employment. When the civil rights and antipoverty policies of the Johnson administration failed to deliver on the movement's goals of economic freedom for all, King demanded that the federal government guarantee jobs, income, and local power for poor people. When the Vietnam war stalled domestic liberalism, King called on the nation to abandon imperialism and become a global force for multiracial democracy and economic justice.
Drawing widely on published and unpublished archival sources, Jackson explains the contexts and meanings of King's increasingly open call for "a radical redistribution of political and economic power" in American cities, the nation, and the world. The mid-1960s ghetto uprisings were in fact revolts against unemployment, powerlessness, police violence, and institutionalized racism, he argued. His final dream, a Poor People's March on Washington, aimed to mobilize Americans across racial and class lines to reverse a national cycle of urban conflict, political backlash, and policy retrenchment. King's vision of economic democracy and international human rights remains a powerful inspiration for those committed to ending racism and poverty in our time.
"Never before have King's social and political ideas been so thoroughly documented nor so persuasively explicated. Future generations of King scholars will owe Jackson a debt of gratitude for this monumental book of enduring value."—Clayborne Carson, Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, Senior Editor, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Jackson makes a persuasive case that King was exposed to various radical critiques at an early stage, that he laced his speeches with moral indictments of inequality and praise for Scandinavian social democracies, and that he sympathized—in private though not in public (at least before the mid-1960s)—with more left-wing critiques of American society."—Chicago Tribune
"In this impressive and original account, Jackson challenges us to confront what King and movement activists knew from lifelong experience: that poverty and racism are fundamentally problems of power. . . . Equally compelling is Jackson's portrait of a radicalism grounded in the give and take of movement building and in the vast store of learning it entailed."—Alice O'Connor, author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-Century U.S. History
"An important contribution to modern American history—and a painful reminder of just how far we are from the Promised Land."—Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age
"Jackson takes us through the progression of King's public life, including the iconic events—Montgomery, Albany, Birmingham, the Washington march, Selma, Memphis—closely analyzing the ideas, the people, and the conjunction of circumstances particularly influential at the time, as measured by exhaustive analysis of King's speeches, writings, and private conversations (courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation)."—Journal of American History
"More than any other historian of the movement, Jackson takes the civil rights leader's ideas seriously. . . .The book was written for academics, but it deserves a large audience. . . . it should help to reshape our collective understanding not only of King and the civil rights movement, but of the movements for peace and racial and economic justice that preceded King and continue today."—Texas Observer
"From Civil Rights to Human Rights should reinforce King's credentials as one, and perhaps the wisest, of the radical voices of the 1960s."—Dissent
"[The book] is the first to produce a sustained analysis of the origins and development of King's radical economic analysis and the politics it mandated. . . . Jackson's book rips away the false curtain of moderation and reveals the substance of a rare leader who gave his life in the pursuit of global human rights."—Sociological Inquiry
"A notable contribution to social, cultural, economic, and African American studies."—Choice
Thomas F. Jackson is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
History and Philosophy of Science
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
The Committee for Philosophy and the Sciences (CPaS) is a research and teaching unit of the Department of Philosophy. CPaS replaces two previous committees, the Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science, and the Committee for Cognitive Studies. Students interested in history of technology should contact Professor Robert Friedel of the Department of History.
CPaS administers an interdisciplinary graduate specialization leading to an MA or PhD degree in philosophy for students who are interested in pursuing philosophically informed foundational research in an area of science, and will be of particular interest to students who already have a substantial background in that science. Relevant sciences include physics, biology, neuroscience psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, and linguistics, all of which are strongly represented on campus. There are two tracks, with different course requirements: a philosophy of science track and a cognitive studies track.
CPaS has strong links to science departments on campus, especially Physics and Biology, and also to the recently developed graduate programs in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) and Behavior, Evolution, Ecology and Systematics (BEES), as well as to the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). CPaS is also closely affiliated with the Foundations of Physics Group. In addition,students have available the research facilities of several area universities, research institutes, and specialized libraries. Of particular interest to CPaS students are the resources of the Center for the History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Libraries. All are easily accessible by rapid transit.
Although CPaS has no formal program of post-doctoral studies, the Committee will consider supervising post-doctoral research by individuals who have secured fellowships or outside funding. Under appropriate circumstances, such researchers may be appointed as CPaS Research Associates. Scholars from various universities in the US and abroad have availed themselves of this opportunity.
The Committee for Philosophy and the Sciences (CPaS) is a research and teaching unit of the Department of Philosophy. CPaS replaces two previous committees, the Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science, and the Committee for Cognitive Studies. Students interested in history of technology should contact Professor Robert Friedel of the Department of History.
CPaS administers an interdisciplinary graduate specialization leading to an MA or PhD degree in philosophy for students who are interested in pursuing philosophically informed foundational research in an area of science, and will be of particular interest to students who already have a substantial background in that science. Relevant sciences include physics, biology, neuroscience psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, and linguistics, all of which are strongly represented on campus. There are two tracks, with different course requirements: a philosophy of science track and a cognitive studies track.
CPaS has strong links to science departments on campus, especially Physics and Biology, and also to the recently developed graduate programs in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) and Behavior, Evolution, Ecology and Systematics (BEES), as well as to the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). CPaS is also closely affiliated with the Foundations of Physics Group. In addition,students have available the research facilities of several area universities, research institutes, and specialized libraries. Of particular interest to CPaS students are the resources of the Center for the History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Libraries. All are easily accessible by rapid transit.
Although CPaS has no formal program of post-doctoral studies, the Committee will consider supervising post-doctoral research by individuals who have secured fellowships or outside funding. Under appropriate circumstances, such researchers may be appointed as CPaS Research Associates. Scholars from various universities in the US and abroad have availed themselves of this opportunity.
Gender and Society
Work, Gender and Society
The exact priorities, pathways and specific work-plan of the TWG responsible for Theme 4 will be defined by the Group itself and will follow the general scheme outlined. However on the basis of the planning which has already taken place, we may say that the agenda of this group is to look at the different ways in which society has organised itself in different times and places, with respect to the organisation of labour, the definition of gender roles, civic and family structures. The ways in which these forms of organisation have been – or have not been – exported to other parts of the world, the extent to which they define a kind of European-ness, or vice versa, the extent to which national, regional and chronological differences are significant within Europe will be examined as will the links with colonial society and with political and economic changes in the role of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The central methodological core around which this TWG will work sees the study of gender as a valuable tool for understanding social structures and their evolutions rather than as an end in itself.
LOGIN (password required)
Contractual Materials (password required)
Leader:
Berteke Waaldijk
University of Utrecht
berteke.waaldijk [at] let.uu.nl
Reference Person in the Management Group:
Carla Salvaterra
University of Bologna
carla.salvaterra [at] unibo.it
University of Iceland, REYKJAVIK
Erla Hulda Halldorsdottir
D
University of GENT
Klaartje Schrijvers
D
University of BOLOGNA
Ilaria Porciani
S
University of BOLOGNA
Alice De Toni
D
University of BOLOGNA
Eloisa Betti
D
University of UTRECHT
Jose de Kruif
S
University of UTRECHT
Jeannette van der Sanden
D
University of UTRECHT
Izabella Agardi
D
University of POTSDAM Judith Coffey D
University of ATHENS
Antonis Liakos
S
University of ATHENS
Yannis Yannitsiotis
S
University of ATHENS
Dimitra Lambropoulou
D
University of ATHENS
Vassiliki Rapti
D
University of PADUA
Giovanni Silvano
S
University of PADUA
Paolo Preto
S
University of PADUA
Elena Bacchin
D
University of PADUA
Riccardo Bof
D
University of MISKOLC
Andrea Petõ
S
University of OSLO
Gro Hagemann
S
University of OSLO
Hege Roll-Hansen
D
The exact priorities, pathways and specific work-plan of the TWG responsible for Theme 4 will be defined by the Group itself and will follow the general scheme outlined. However on the basis of the planning which has already taken place, we may say that the agenda of this group is to look at the different ways in which society has organised itself in different times and places, with respect to the organisation of labour, the definition of gender roles, civic and family structures. The ways in which these forms of organisation have been – or have not been – exported to other parts of the world, the extent to which they define a kind of European-ness, or vice versa, the extent to which national, regional and chronological differences are significant within Europe will be examined as will the links with colonial society and with political and economic changes in the role of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The central methodological core around which this TWG will work sees the study of gender as a valuable tool for understanding social structures and their evolutions rather than as an end in itself.
LOGIN (password required)
Contractual Materials (password required)
Leader:
Berteke Waaldijk
University of Utrecht
berteke.waaldijk [at] let.uu.nl
Reference Person in the Management Group:
Carla Salvaterra
University of Bologna
carla.salvaterra [at] unibo.it
University of Iceland, REYKJAVIK
Erla Hulda Halldorsdottir
D
University of GENT
Klaartje Schrijvers
D
University of BOLOGNA
Ilaria Porciani
S
University of BOLOGNA
Alice De Toni
D
University of BOLOGNA
Eloisa Betti
D
University of UTRECHT
Jose de Kruif
S
University of UTRECHT
Jeannette van der Sanden
D
University of UTRECHT
Izabella Agardi
D
University of POTSDAM Judith Coffey D
University of ATHENS
Antonis Liakos
S
University of ATHENS
Yannis Yannitsiotis
S
University of ATHENS
Dimitra Lambropoulou
D
University of ATHENS
Vassiliki Rapti
D
University of PADUA
Giovanni Silvano
S
University of PADUA
Paolo Preto
S
University of PADUA
Elena Bacchin
D
University of PADUA
Riccardo Bof
D
University of MISKOLC
Andrea Petõ
S
University of OSLO
Gro Hagemann
S
University of OSLO
Hege Roll-Hansen
D
Gay and Lesbian Studies
Study New Testament for Lesbians, Gays, Bi, and Transgender: With Extensive Notes on Greek Word Meaning and Context (Paperback)
by Dr A. Nyland (Author)
What Does God Think About Gays and Lesbians?
He loves them! He does not condemn them! He strictly came for them! If He were alive today he would have dinner with them! You may say, “no way”. Then you don’t know Jesus like you thought. You would be right along with the Pharisee’s judging His every act.
Let’s take issue with each one of my statements.
#1. He loves them.
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life”.
Pretty self-explanatory isn’t it? You can come up with all the reasons you want why we need to do hateful things toward these precious people, but you don’t have the heart of God. Yes these are precious ones because Christ came for them as much as He came for you.
#2 He does not condemn them.
“I came not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved”. Again you can’t explain that away no matter how hard you try.
One day Jesus was teaching and they brought to Him a woman caught in the act of adultery. I mean she was half naked and only minutes ago was having sex with a man.
I mean they were doing things that would make you and I blush. Now the law said that she was to be stoned, and that wasn’t up for debate. So there she is standing waiting for her sentence from God Himself cause that was who Jesus was. And He began writing in the sand. As He sat there writing, individual men were dropping their rocks and walking away. After all had gone, there she was standing before Jesus all alone. Here it is now, Jesus has an opportunity to blast her with the Bible and warn her of judgment and a lecture on illicit sex. So what does He say? “Woman, where are your accusers?” “I have none”, she replied. He said “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more”. Oh, there it is, “sin no more”. What else was He going to say? Hey, that man might still be there hurry get back to him, he might leave without paying. No, He came to save sinners from their sinful ways, but the key is He did not condemn her. In fact, I will take this one step further, what if this woman had been in bed with another woman. Would Jesus have acted the same? Think before you answer. Yes, he would have. Sin is sin and Jesus came to forgive sinners in which we are all chiefs of sinners.
Most theologians agree that what Jesus was writing in the sand was the sins of those standing there. So when He said, “you without sin cast the fist stone”, they had to walk away for they had all sinned. You, my friend, have no excuse whatsoever to condemn one soul, not one. How can any one of us stand to accuse others when we ourselves are no better than they? Thank God there is not one among us without sin. The Bible says if you say you are without sin, you are a liar. Because if there was one of us who was perfect, he would beat the living hell out of us with his righteousness. Thank God none of us has the right to condemn.
#3 He strictly came for them.
I’m just going to quote one scripture for this one. “I came for those who are need of a physician, not those who are healthy”. In fact, I’m not saying that these individual people are sick, but all of us were in need of a physician yes including them. He came for all of us.
#4 He would have dinner with them too.
He let a prostitute women hang around, while He was having dinner with a religious man she was there at His feet. They got mad at Him because He was a friend of sinners. He went to have dinner with Zacheus a tax collector who was looked down upon as a prostitute was. Jesus would have no problem dining with any type of person no matter their lifestyle.
In closing, let’s quit condemning any type of lifestyle and start preaching to them the love and grace of God. This is the day of reconciliation we should be reconciling people to God by telling them about God’s love and His forgiveness for their sin. Now don’t get me started on half-wits who hang out at the abortion clinics spewing hate toward those who are in the wrong. Instead love them and let that love lead them to repentance. The days of John the Baptist are over. Jesus came and John had to go for both messages were different. John’s was of the law and Jesus full of grace and mercy. So if you are a John the Baptist go back into the woods and decrease so that those who have the nature of Christ can increase. The world needs to see the love of Jesus in their midst not the thundering condemnation of John. I would have left him in prison too if I was Jesus. Really, he would have found Jesus offensive. Yes John “the blind see the lame walk and the good news is being preached, but blessed is he who does not take offense in the Son of man”.
Love your enemies. Do good to those you don’t like. Then you will get God’s attention.
Let me close with a few words from Jesus. John 12, verse 46, says, “I have come into the world as a light, so that none who believes in me, should stay in darkness. As for the person who hears my words but who does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word that I spoke will condemn him at the last day”. So therefore rather than judge, which is not our job to do, love covers a multitude of sins.
For this reason; I would like to explain one simple thing: The Bible says about the Gay and Lesbians: Romans 1:18-32
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them; because God has made it plain to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling a mortal human being and birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 1:25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 1:32. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
by Dr A. Nyland (Author)
What Does God Think About Gays and Lesbians?
He loves them! He does not condemn them! He strictly came for them! If He were alive today he would have dinner with them! You may say, “no way”. Then you don’t know Jesus like you thought. You would be right along with the Pharisee’s judging His every act.
Let’s take issue with each one of my statements.
#1. He loves them.
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life”.
Pretty self-explanatory isn’t it? You can come up with all the reasons you want why we need to do hateful things toward these precious people, but you don’t have the heart of God. Yes these are precious ones because Christ came for them as much as He came for you.
#2 He does not condemn them.
“I came not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved”. Again you can’t explain that away no matter how hard you try.
One day Jesus was teaching and they brought to Him a woman caught in the act of adultery. I mean she was half naked and only minutes ago was having sex with a man.
I mean they were doing things that would make you and I blush. Now the law said that she was to be stoned, and that wasn’t up for debate. So there she is standing waiting for her sentence from God Himself cause that was who Jesus was. And He began writing in the sand. As He sat there writing, individual men were dropping their rocks and walking away. After all had gone, there she was standing before Jesus all alone. Here it is now, Jesus has an opportunity to blast her with the Bible and warn her of judgment and a lecture on illicit sex. So what does He say? “Woman, where are your accusers?” “I have none”, she replied. He said “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more”. Oh, there it is, “sin no more”. What else was He going to say? Hey, that man might still be there hurry get back to him, he might leave without paying. No, He came to save sinners from their sinful ways, but the key is He did not condemn her. In fact, I will take this one step further, what if this woman had been in bed with another woman. Would Jesus have acted the same? Think before you answer. Yes, he would have. Sin is sin and Jesus came to forgive sinners in which we are all chiefs of sinners.
Most theologians agree that what Jesus was writing in the sand was the sins of those standing there. So when He said, “you without sin cast the fist stone”, they had to walk away for they had all sinned. You, my friend, have no excuse whatsoever to condemn one soul, not one. How can any one of us stand to accuse others when we ourselves are no better than they? Thank God there is not one among us without sin. The Bible says if you say you are without sin, you are a liar. Because if there was one of us who was perfect, he would beat the living hell out of us with his righteousness. Thank God none of us has the right to condemn.
#3 He strictly came for them.
I’m just going to quote one scripture for this one. “I came for those who are need of a physician, not those who are healthy”. In fact, I’m not saying that these individual people are sick, but all of us were in need of a physician yes including them. He came for all of us.
#4 He would have dinner with them too.
He let a prostitute women hang around, while He was having dinner with a religious man she was there at His feet. They got mad at Him because He was a friend of sinners. He went to have dinner with Zacheus a tax collector who was looked down upon as a prostitute was. Jesus would have no problem dining with any type of person no matter their lifestyle.
In closing, let’s quit condemning any type of lifestyle and start preaching to them the love and grace of God. This is the day of reconciliation we should be reconciling people to God by telling them about God’s love and His forgiveness for their sin. Now don’t get me started on half-wits who hang out at the abortion clinics spewing hate toward those who are in the wrong. Instead love them and let that love lead them to repentance. The days of John the Baptist are over. Jesus came and John had to go for both messages were different. John’s was of the law and Jesus full of grace and mercy. So if you are a John the Baptist go back into the woods and decrease so that those who have the nature of Christ can increase. The world needs to see the love of Jesus in their midst not the thundering condemnation of John. I would have left him in prison too if I was Jesus. Really, he would have found Jesus offensive. Yes John “the blind see the lame walk and the good news is being preached, but blessed is he who does not take offense in the Son of man”.
Love your enemies. Do good to those you don’t like. Then you will get God’s attention.
Let me close with a few words from Jesus. John 12, verse 46, says, “I have come into the world as a light, so that none who believes in me, should stay in darkness. As for the person who hears my words but who does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word that I spoke will condemn him at the last day”. So therefore rather than judge, which is not our job to do, love covers a multitude of sins.
For this reason; I would like to explain one simple thing: The Bible says about the Gay and Lesbians: Romans 1:18-32
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them; because God has made it plain to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling a mortal human being and birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 1:25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 1:32. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
Society for Late Antiquity
(Presented courtesy of the University of South Carolina)
Welcome to the Society for Late Antiquity WEB Page
The following material is accessible below:
The Society for Late Antiquity will be sponsoring two sessions at the International Medieval Studies Congress, May 3-6, 2001, at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich. The panels are imaginatively entitled "Late Antiquity I" and "Late Antiquity II".
Readers are invited to submit one-page abstracts relating to the history, literature, religion, culture, and society of Late Antiquity (that is, the European, North African, and Western Asian world ca.250-640). Particular emphasis should be given to Late Antiquity as a discrete period with its own individual characteristics.
Abstracts may be forwarded to:
Ralph W. Mathisen
n330009@vm.sc.edu
Aristotle and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity: Interpretations of the De Anima (Hardcover)
by H. J. Blumenthal (Author) "This book will concentrate on interpretations of the De anima in late antiquity, and what we can learn from them about the philosophical beliefs of..." (more)
Key Phrases: nous pathêtikos, anima commentators, anima commentary, Elements of Theology, Parva Naturalia, Prior Analytics (more...)
(Presented courtesy of the University of South Carolina)
Welcome to the Society for Late Antiquity WEB Page
The following material is accessible below:
The Society for Late Antiquity will be sponsoring two sessions at the International Medieval Studies Congress, May 3-6, 2001, at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich. The panels are imaginatively entitled "Late Antiquity I" and "Late Antiquity II".
Readers are invited to submit one-page abstracts relating to the history, literature, religion, culture, and society of Late Antiquity (that is, the European, North African, and Western Asian world ca.250-640). Particular emphasis should be given to Late Antiquity as a discrete period with its own individual characteristics.
Abstracts may be forwarded to:
Ralph W. Mathisen
n330009@vm.sc.edu
Aristotle and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity: Interpretations of the De Anima (Hardcover)
by H. J. Blumenthal (Author) "This book will concentrate on interpretations of the De anima in late antiquity, and what we can learn from them about the philosophical beliefs of..." (more)
Key Phrases: nous pathêtikos, anima commentators, anima commentary, Elements of Theology, Parva Naturalia, Prior Analytics (more...)
Jewish Studies
Jewish civilization has a recorded history of 4,000 years. With texts spanning from the Hebrew Scriptures to post-modern writing, Jewish literature can be found in many languages. While located in many civilizations, Jews have been most intimately involved with those of the West and the Middle East. Studying Jews and Judaism in these contexts provides students with insight into the complexities of culture and identity. A minor in Jewish studies well complements many majors in the humanities and enhances concentrations in the sciences.
No specific background is required to enroll in many Jewish studies courses. Students considering specialization in Jewish studies should pursue the acquisition of Hebrew offered in the Queen’s Hebrew courses as well as at programs in Israel. Indeed, courses taken at Israeli universities count towards the Jewish Studies minor. Courses in Jewish studies, like many fields in the humanities and social sciences, offer a background for many careers requiring liberal arts training. They also prepare students for graduate study, clergy training, education, and communal service.
Each minor in Jewish Studies must include 5.0 credits from the courses approved in the University Calendar or from courses taken abroad, 1.0 credit of which must be in Hebrew, and each program must be approved by the Director of the Program.
Public lectures, special programs, and visiting scholars enhance Jewish studies courses and provide opportunities for the entire campus and community. To discuss your needs and interests, please contact the Director of the Jewish Studies Program.
Solomon receives the Queen of Sheba
Artist: Nicolaus Knupfer
C. 1640
The Eunuchs order Queen Vashti to come to the feast of Ahasuerus
Artist: Azor Master
C. 1430
No specific background is required to enroll in many Jewish studies courses. Students considering specialization in Jewish studies should pursue the acquisition of Hebrew offered in the Queen’s Hebrew courses as well as at programs in Israel. Indeed, courses taken at Israeli universities count towards the Jewish Studies minor. Courses in Jewish studies, like many fields in the humanities and social sciences, offer a background for many careers requiring liberal arts training. They also prepare students for graduate study, clergy training, education, and communal service.
Each minor in Jewish Studies must include 5.0 credits from the courses approved in the University Calendar or from courses taken abroad, 1.0 credit of which must be in Hebrew, and each program must be approved by the Director of the Program.
Public lectures, special programs, and visiting scholars enhance Jewish studies courses and provide opportunities for the entire campus and community. To discuss your needs and interests, please contact the Director of the Jewish Studies Program.
Solomon receives the Queen of Sheba
Artist: Nicolaus Knupfer
C. 1640
The Eunuchs order Queen Vashti to come to the feast of Ahasuerus
Artist: Azor Master
C. 1430
Human Rights
Why Kenya's police killFrustrated with the justice system, officers take matters into their own hands, killing hundreds without objection from the state
Frustrated with the justice system, officers take matters into their own hands, killing hundreds without objection from the state
Comments (4)
The UN's Philip Alston said the scale of police killings in Kenya was the worst he had ever encountered. More than 500 young people have been killed by police in Kenya in the last few years, chiefly by squads specifically set up for this mission.
Alston, a UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, called for the sacking of the country's police commissioner, Major General Hussein Ali, and the attorney general, Amos Wako.
But it really was not news. The Kenyan public has long complained that the police engage in extrajudicial killings. It is well known, for instance, that anyone wishing for an early death at the muzzle of a gun need only be tagged as belonging to the dreaded Mungiki group or the Mt Elgon's Sabaot Land Defence Force. But their objections were always met by either deafening silence or denial from the government.
The Mungiki group is an outlawed association of youth, mainly from the central region of the country. The members are known to engage in strict oathing ceremonies, are highly secretive and protective of their own and are known to be ruthless to those who betray them or go against their dictates. Its hallmarks were the circumcision of women and the sniffing of tobacco, which used to be practised as traditional Kikuyu customs. But the group soon began to terrorise Kenyans, extorting money from businesses and in some towns forcibly circumcising women. In some parts of Kenya, women could not go out wearing jeans or tight trousers. They were stripped naked.
To deal with this group, the government proscribed it and the police started arresting the members. But they could not uphold the charges and keep them locked away in jails. The members retaliated by beheading anyone whom they suspected of betraying them to the police. Hundreds of youths started disappearing from their homes, plucked out in the dead of night and executed. In some villages in central Kenya, hundreds of young men have disappeared. It is suspected that they were executed.
If the police had any issues with you, all they needed to do was to label you a "Mungiki member" or a "notorious and badly wanted criminal". And they always had the blessings of their seniors.
The argument by some police officers I have talked to sounds only distantly logical, and a touch weird. They say that since the courts have been unable to deal with suspects, always setting them free on technicalities, and because some suspects are able to bribe their way out of jail anyway, the police have been left no option than to deal with the suspects in their own way. Sometimes the police say they know who the country's most notorious criminals are but somehow they always seem to get out of jail when they bust them. And then they come for them.
"Why do I have to take you to court while I know you are a robber, and indeed have killed police officers, knowing fully well that you will certainly come out and bump me off?" one police officer asked me.
Underlining all this is the utter failure of the judicial system to deal with crime. This has contributed to the bizarre response that police seem to have adopted. The courts, they argue, would not help them stamp out proscribed and dangerous organisations, so they have to do it themselves. And besides, when crime escalates, it is the police who are blamed. To appear to be working, they seem to resort to summary executions.
Police are also highly protective of their own. A month ago, an officer allegedly shot the son of a politician after a quarrel over a woman in a bar. Then he boldly reported that he had shot a "Mungiki" member and "a notorious criminal".
He could have got away with it – had the young man been an ordinary Kenyan. The case attracted media attention and the officer was promptly arrested. There are unconfirmed reports that the officer may have killed others but had got off scot-free because his colleagues had protected him.
Some officers have always known that when they get caught up in this kind of mess, their colleagues and seniors will protect them by either having them transferred from their stations or hushing up the cases. After all, who prepares the charge sheets for the courts? Are they not the same police officers? How are they then expected to set themselves against their own?
Besides, those whose loved ones have disappeared (or were executed) are expected to make those reports at the police stations. In the absence of a police watchdog, the police know they can cover up their colleagues' crimes. In fact, very few police officers accused of extrajudicial killings have ever been prosecuted. The police are therefore their own policemen and women.
Characteristically, the government has always denied the existence of police killer squads. When the report was made public, the government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, denounced it, saying that Alston, who had been invited by the government to help dig out the truth about the killings, had exceeded his mandate. It is this kind of denial that has given the police the impetus to act with the impunity they now seem to enjoy.
Frustrated with the justice system, officers take matters into their own hands, killing hundreds without objection from the state
Comments (4)
The UN's Philip Alston said the scale of police killings in Kenya was the worst he had ever encountered. More than 500 young people have been killed by police in Kenya in the last few years, chiefly by squads specifically set up for this mission.
Alston, a UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, called for the sacking of the country's police commissioner, Major General Hussein Ali, and the attorney general, Amos Wako.
But it really was not news. The Kenyan public has long complained that the police engage in extrajudicial killings. It is well known, for instance, that anyone wishing for an early death at the muzzle of a gun need only be tagged as belonging to the dreaded Mungiki group or the Mt Elgon's Sabaot Land Defence Force. But their objections were always met by either deafening silence or denial from the government.
The Mungiki group is an outlawed association of youth, mainly from the central region of the country. The members are known to engage in strict oathing ceremonies, are highly secretive and protective of their own and are known to be ruthless to those who betray them or go against their dictates. Its hallmarks were the circumcision of women and the sniffing of tobacco, which used to be practised as traditional Kikuyu customs. But the group soon began to terrorise Kenyans, extorting money from businesses and in some towns forcibly circumcising women. In some parts of Kenya, women could not go out wearing jeans or tight trousers. They were stripped naked.
To deal with this group, the government proscribed it and the police started arresting the members. But they could not uphold the charges and keep them locked away in jails. The members retaliated by beheading anyone whom they suspected of betraying them to the police. Hundreds of youths started disappearing from their homes, plucked out in the dead of night and executed. In some villages in central Kenya, hundreds of young men have disappeared. It is suspected that they were executed.
If the police had any issues with you, all they needed to do was to label you a "Mungiki member" or a "notorious and badly wanted criminal". And they always had the blessings of their seniors.
The argument by some police officers I have talked to sounds only distantly logical, and a touch weird. They say that since the courts have been unable to deal with suspects, always setting them free on technicalities, and because some suspects are able to bribe their way out of jail anyway, the police have been left no option than to deal with the suspects in their own way. Sometimes the police say they know who the country's most notorious criminals are but somehow they always seem to get out of jail when they bust them. And then they come for them.
"Why do I have to take you to court while I know you are a robber, and indeed have killed police officers, knowing fully well that you will certainly come out and bump me off?" one police officer asked me.
Underlining all this is the utter failure of the judicial system to deal with crime. This has contributed to the bizarre response that police seem to have adopted. The courts, they argue, would not help them stamp out proscribed and dangerous organisations, so they have to do it themselves. And besides, when crime escalates, it is the police who are blamed. To appear to be working, they seem to resort to summary executions.
Police are also highly protective of their own. A month ago, an officer allegedly shot the son of a politician after a quarrel over a woman in a bar. Then he boldly reported that he had shot a "Mungiki" member and "a notorious criminal".
He could have got away with it – had the young man been an ordinary Kenyan. The case attracted media attention and the officer was promptly arrested. There are unconfirmed reports that the officer may have killed others but had got off scot-free because his colleagues had protected him.
Some officers have always known that when they get caught up in this kind of mess, their colleagues and seniors will protect them by either having them transferred from their stations or hushing up the cases. After all, who prepares the charge sheets for the courts? Are they not the same police officers? How are they then expected to set themselves against their own?
Besides, those whose loved ones have disappeared (or were executed) are expected to make those reports at the police stations. In the absence of a police watchdog, the police know they can cover up their colleagues' crimes. In fact, very few police officers accused of extrajudicial killings have ever been prosecuted. The police are therefore their own policemen and women.
Characteristically, the government has always denied the existence of police killer squads. When the report was made public, the government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, denounced it, saying that Alston, who had been invited by the government to help dig out the truth about the killings, had exceeded his mandate. It is this kind of denial that has given the police the impetus to act with the impunity they now seem to enjoy.
History and Philosophy of Science
HOPOS, The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, is devoted to promoting serious, scholarly research on the history of the philosophy of science. We construe this subject broadly, to include topics in the history of related disciplines and in all historical periods, studied through diverse methodologies. We aim to promote historical work in a variety of ways, but especially through encouraging exchange among scholars through meetings, publications, and electronic media.
HOPOS is a member organization of FISP (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie).
Membership in HOPOS, the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, is open to anyone. To support HOPOS as a dues-paying member, use the form below. When you enter and submit your contact and supplemental information, this form will be automatically forwarded to the HOPOS Treasurer and you will be prompted to download a membership form to send in with your dues. HOPOS membership fees for the 2008-2009 two year cycle are $75.
If you experience problems using this online form, please contact the HOPOS Treasurer at hopostreas@allegheny.edu.
Electronic Mailing List (e-list)
View the HOPOS-L Archives online.
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Questions about HOPOS-L policies can be directed to the list owner, David Stump (stumpd@usfca.edu). Technical inquiries about the performance of HOPOS-L or its user functions can be sent to the on-site manager, Tom Staley (tstaley@vt.edu).
HOPOS is a member organization of FISP (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie).
Membership in HOPOS, the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, is open to anyone. To support HOPOS as a dues-paying member, use the form below. When you enter and submit your contact and supplemental information, this form will be automatically forwarded to the HOPOS Treasurer and you will be prompted to download a membership form to send in with your dues. HOPOS membership fees for the 2008-2009 two year cycle are $75.
If you experience problems using this online form, please contact the HOPOS Treasurer at hopostreas@allegheny.edu.
Electronic Mailing List (e-list)
View the HOPOS-L Archives online.
To subscribe to HOPOS-L, send an e-mail message to listserv@listserv.vt.edu and include as the ONLY message text the line:
subscribe hopos-l Your Name
The return address on the message you send will be the address to which messages from the e-list are sent.
To unsubscribe from HOPOS-L, send an e-mail message to listserv@listserv.vt.edu and include as the ONLY message text the line:
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Questions about HOPOS-L policies can be directed to the list owner, David Stump (stumpd@usfca.edu). Technical inquiries about the performance of HOPOS-L or its user functions can be sent to the on-site manager, Tom Staley (tstaley@vt.edu).
Gender and Society
Messages for a gender fair society
January 2008
"MV United" is a Gender Mainstreaming Peer Review which will be hosted by Flanders, in Leuven, on 28th and 29th February 2008. From its title you might think that the event will focus on gender issues in football teams or in company mergers but instead it will be all about the vital role that the media can play in redressing inequality between women and men.
This Peer Review is one link in a chain of events organised by different Member States within the framework of the European Community of Practice on Gender Mainstreaming (GM CoP). The idea is that key people who are in a position to transfer good practices that have been developed either in EQUAL or European Social Fund Programmes can meet their counterparts from other Member States and explore together how these achievements can be used to integrate the gender dimension into their respective policy areas. Whilst past events have covered education and training, employment and business support and regional and local development, the Leuven gathering is targeting public and private media. During the event, Flanders will proudly present its awareness raising campaign that aims to overcome traditional gender roles and stereotypes. This campaign has a particular emphasis on television channels, but other media are also used to reinforce the message.
"Programme makers" and "decision-makers" from other Member States are invited to run a professional eye over "telenovelas," reality shows and "docu-soaps" that were, or are currently being, produced in Flanders, thanks to EQUAL funding. They will also have the chance to look at all the other products and projects including the interactive website that is at the heart of the campaign, a magazine that focuses on the reconciliation of work and family life, a theatre play, internet games and the various focus groups, which were organised to encourage open debates amongst different target groups: men from immigrant communities, young people and men who just became fathers. Questions discussed were about how participants plan to reconcile work and private life; if they wish to spend more time with their family or to share the unpaid work at home more evenly with their female partners. A white book documents the results of those roundtables.
All the different activities are intended to reach the public-at-large, and especially children, teenagers and young adults. The message is geared to stimulate thinking and discussion about gender roles in private life, in the labour marker and in society as a whole.
Even small glimpses of the stories reveal the innovative approaches used by the producers. For instance, "Emma", the telenovela named after its heroine, follows her difficult pathway to the labour market after her father has been murdered. Thrown out of the house by a cruel step-mother and after a modest start as a receptionist, she eventually builds a successful career in television. A story "à la Cinderella," but it then turns into a thriller with Emma chasing the murderer of her father. Clues to the eventually outcome are hidden in an internet game which has become a huge hit amongst young people.
"De grote oversteek" (The big crossing) is another television programme which attracts a huge audience because it involves humour and lots of strange situations. This series features men and women as they move from one village to another and, at the same time, change gender roles for a full week. So, a woman who worked in a newspaper shop has to start work on a farm and since the owner has a bad back, she has to do almost all the jobs on the farm. In another case, an older man who could not cook and never washed the dishes was matched with a younger male from the other village who was equally useless in the kitchen. To avoid going hungry, they had to learn how to cook and run the household. The older host, who had always preached that housework was a task for women, made a real laughing stock of himself when forced to take on a homemaker role.
The Peer Review that is being organised by the Flemish ESF Authority will provide a forum for the producers to present these innovative elements of the campaign and to discuss them with counterparts from 12 European Member States. Workshops will provide the chance to view film footage with English subtitles and also enough time for a sharing of experiences and ideas. This Peer Review will not only involve media professionals but also the decision-makers who have responsibility for programme content and financing. Representatives of European institutions have also been invited to join the debate.
Previous Peer Reviews have brought together decision-makers and practitioners from regional and local governments, employment offices and enterprises in Graz, enabled exchange and networking amongst gender equality bodies and experts in Dublin and promoted gender equality as part of personnel development of public and private enterprises in Florence. All these events are documented on the Internet platform of the GM CoP which is a meeting place for all those interested in gender equality and gender mainstreaming within the context of the ESF and acts as a warehouse that stocks gender equality products and tools from throughout the European Union.
Click here to have a look at the programme for the Peer Review in Leuven.
Film footage will shortly be available at the GM CoP's web platform but a little taster is only four clicks away: go to MV United then navigate via "De Grote Oversteek" and "Ondeek meer" (it's at the bottom of the first article on the "De Grote Oversteek" page) to "Bekijk de generiek."
January 2008
"MV United" is a Gender Mainstreaming Peer Review which will be hosted by Flanders, in Leuven, on 28th and 29th February 2008. From its title you might think that the event will focus on gender issues in football teams or in company mergers but instead it will be all about the vital role that the media can play in redressing inequality between women and men.
This Peer Review is one link in a chain of events organised by different Member States within the framework of the European Community of Practice on Gender Mainstreaming (GM CoP). The idea is that key people who are in a position to transfer good practices that have been developed either in EQUAL or European Social Fund Programmes can meet their counterparts from other Member States and explore together how these achievements can be used to integrate the gender dimension into their respective policy areas. Whilst past events have covered education and training, employment and business support and regional and local development, the Leuven gathering is targeting public and private media. During the event, Flanders will proudly present its awareness raising campaign that aims to overcome traditional gender roles and stereotypes. This campaign has a particular emphasis on television channels, but other media are also used to reinforce the message.
"Programme makers" and "decision-makers" from other Member States are invited to run a professional eye over "telenovelas," reality shows and "docu-soaps" that were, or are currently being, produced in Flanders, thanks to EQUAL funding. They will also have the chance to look at all the other products and projects including the interactive website that is at the heart of the campaign, a magazine that focuses on the reconciliation of work and family life, a theatre play, internet games and the various focus groups, which were organised to encourage open debates amongst different target groups: men from immigrant communities, young people and men who just became fathers. Questions discussed were about how participants plan to reconcile work and private life; if they wish to spend more time with their family or to share the unpaid work at home more evenly with their female partners. A white book documents the results of those roundtables.
All the different activities are intended to reach the public-at-large, and especially children, teenagers and young adults. The message is geared to stimulate thinking and discussion about gender roles in private life, in the labour marker and in society as a whole.
Even small glimpses of the stories reveal the innovative approaches used by the producers. For instance, "Emma", the telenovela named after its heroine, follows her difficult pathway to the labour market after her father has been murdered. Thrown out of the house by a cruel step-mother and after a modest start as a receptionist, she eventually builds a successful career in television. A story "à la Cinderella," but it then turns into a thriller with Emma chasing the murderer of her father. Clues to the eventually outcome are hidden in an internet game which has become a huge hit amongst young people.
"De grote oversteek" (The big crossing) is another television programme which attracts a huge audience because it involves humour and lots of strange situations. This series features men and women as they move from one village to another and, at the same time, change gender roles for a full week. So, a woman who worked in a newspaper shop has to start work on a farm and since the owner has a bad back, she has to do almost all the jobs on the farm. In another case, an older man who could not cook and never washed the dishes was matched with a younger male from the other village who was equally useless in the kitchen. To avoid going hungry, they had to learn how to cook and run the household. The older host, who had always preached that housework was a task for women, made a real laughing stock of himself when forced to take on a homemaker role.
The Peer Review that is being organised by the Flemish ESF Authority will provide a forum for the producers to present these innovative elements of the campaign and to discuss them with counterparts from 12 European Member States. Workshops will provide the chance to view film footage with English subtitles and also enough time for a sharing of experiences and ideas. This Peer Review will not only involve media professionals but also the decision-makers who have responsibility for programme content and financing. Representatives of European institutions have also been invited to join the debate.
Previous Peer Reviews have brought together decision-makers and practitioners from regional and local governments, employment offices and enterprises in Graz, enabled exchange and networking amongst gender equality bodies and experts in Dublin and promoted gender equality as part of personnel development of public and private enterprises in Florence. All these events are documented on the Internet platform of the GM CoP which is a meeting place for all those interested in gender equality and gender mainstreaming within the context of the ESF and acts as a warehouse that stocks gender equality products and tools from throughout the European Union.
Click here to have a look at the programme for the Peer Review in Leuven.
Film footage will shortly be available at the GM CoP's web platform but a little taster is only four clicks away: go to MV United then navigate via "De Grote Oversteek" and "Ondeek meer" (it's at the bottom of the first article on the "De Grote Oversteek" page) to "Bekijk de generiek."
Gay and Lesbian Studies
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies
Individual subscribers and institutions with electronic access can view issues of GLQ online. If you have not signed up, review the first-time access instructions.
Providing a much-needed forum for interdisciplinary discussion, GLQ publishes scholarship, criticism, and commentary in areas as diverse as law, science studies, religion, political science, and literary studies. Its aim is to offer queer perspectives on all issues touching on sex and sexuality.
In an effort to achieve the widest possible historical, geographic, and cultural scope, GLQ particularly seeks out new research into historical periods before the twentieth century, into non-Anglophone cultures, and into the experience of those who have been marginalized by race, ethnicity, age, social class, body morphology, or sexual practice. A notable feature is "The GLQ Archive," a special section featuring previously unpublished or unavailable primary materials that may serve as sources for future work in lesbian and gay studies.
GLQ has expanded to include Lesbian and Gay Studies Newsletter book reviews and calls for papers, and members of the GL/Q Caucus for the Modern Languages now receive a subscription to GLQ as part of their membership dues.
The Bible says about the Gay and Lesbians: Romans 1:18-32
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them; because God has made it plain to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling a mortal human being and birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 1:25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 1:32. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
Individual subscribers and institutions with electronic access can view issues of GLQ online. If you have not signed up, review the first-time access instructions.
Providing a much-needed forum for interdisciplinary discussion, GLQ publishes scholarship, criticism, and commentary in areas as diverse as law, science studies, religion, political science, and literary studies. Its aim is to offer queer perspectives on all issues touching on sex and sexuality.
In an effort to achieve the widest possible historical, geographic, and cultural scope, GLQ particularly seeks out new research into historical periods before the twentieth century, into non-Anglophone cultures, and into the experience of those who have been marginalized by race, ethnicity, age, social class, body morphology, or sexual practice. A notable feature is "The GLQ Archive," a special section featuring previously unpublished or unavailable primary materials that may serve as sources for future work in lesbian and gay studies.
GLQ has expanded to include Lesbian and Gay Studies Newsletter book reviews and calls for papers, and members of the GL/Q Caucus for the Modern Languages now receive a subscription to GLQ as part of their membership dues.
The Bible says about the Gay and Lesbians: Romans 1:18-32
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them; because God has made it plain to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling a mortal human being and birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 1:25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 1:32. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
Dissertations in North America
This listing of dissertations in progress or recently completed resumes a survey published between 1982 and 1986 in Byzantine Studies/Études Byzantines, which lapsed when the journal ceased publication. The present listing of dissertations in Byzantine subjects undertaken at North American universities is based on information supplied to Dumbarton Oaks and makes no claims to comprehensiveness. Please send additions and notification of completed dissertations to the director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, so that the listing can be updated periodically.
Completed Dissertations
Dissertations in Progress
Art, Archaeology, and History
Amelia Brown (Amelia[at]cape.com), Cities of Sinners, Cities of Saints: Corinth, Thessaloniki and Urbanism in Late Roman Greece, University of California, Berkeley (Susanna Elm), Exams December 2005.
Elisabeth O'Connell (elisabet[at]socrates.berkeley.edu), Tombs for the Living: Monastic Reuse of Monumental Funerary Architecture in Late Antique Egypt, University of California, Berkeley (Susanna Elm), Exams May 2003.
Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Vessela Anguelova (vna100[at]psu.edu), Place as Spiritual Experience in Middle and Late Byzantine Art, Ninth to the Eighteenth Centuries, Pennsylvania State University (Anthony Cutler), Exams December 2002.
Bojana Bjelicic-Miletkov (bbjelic[at]uga.edu), Monuments of Art Commemorating the Council of Ferrara-Florence, 1438–39: The Italian and the Byzantine Responses, University of Georgia, Athens (Asen Kirin), Spring 2009.
Travis Lee Clark (tlclark[at]temple.edu), Imaging the Cosmos: The Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes, Temple University (Elizabeth Bolman), Exams April 2003.
Robert J. W. Crow (robcro[at]princeton.edu), The Forum Romanum in Late Antiquity: A.D. 330–638, Princeton University (Hugo Meyer), Exams October 1994.
John Michael Frey (yanni[at]berkeley.edu), Speaking through Spolia: The Language of Architecture Reuse in late Roman Greece, University of California, Berkeley, Exams Fall 2006.
Mary Margaret (Molly) Fulghum, The Transitive Form: the Place of Textiles in Byzantium, Harvard University (Ioli Kalavrezou).
Sofia Georgiadou (sgeorgi2[at]uiuc.edu), Architecture and Statehood in Late Byzantium, 1204–1460: A Comparative Study of the Courts of Nicaea, Trebizond and Epirus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Robert Ousterhout).
Elizabeth Gittings, Architecture Representations in the Mosaics of the Church of Hagios Georgios, Harvard University (Ioli Kalavrezou), Exams February 1997.
Ayse Henry (ayseblgn[at]gmail.com), The Pilgrimage Center of St. Symeon the Younger: Designed by angels, supervised by a saint,constructed by pilgrims, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Robert Ousterhout).
Ashley Jones (ashley.jones[at]yale.edu), Lord Protect the Wearer',: Late Antique Numismatic Jewelry and the Image of the Emperor as Talismanic Device, Yale University (Diana Kleiner).
James Magruder (james.magruder[at]jhu.edu), Byzantine stone icons in Greece and Asia Minor, 9th–14th centuries, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Abigail G. McLaughlin, Patterns of Culture: The Origin and Development of Christian Decorative Systems in Catacombs of the Third and Fourth Centurie, Rutgers University (Archer St. Clair), Exams May 1995.
Barbara McNulty, Cypriot Donor Portraiture: Constructing the Ideal Family, Temple University (Elizabeth Bolman).
Marina Mihaljevic (marmi[at]princeton.edu), Constantinopolitan Architecture of the Komnenian Era (1080–1180) and Its Impact in the Balkans, Princeton University (Slobodan Ćurčić), Exams 2002.
Elizabeth Moss (betsy.moss[at]utoronto.ca), Framing the Holy: Revetments and Frames on Byzantine Icons, University of Toronto (Linda Safran).
Maureen O'Brien (mobrien[at]loyola.edu), Art and Text in the Vienna Genesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Dorothy Verkerk), Exams April 2004.
Andrea Olsen (andreaolsen[at]yahoo.com ), The Birth and Rebirth of the Visitation in Byzantine Art, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Areti Papanastasiou (pap9[at]midway.uchicago.edu), Gendered Stories and Middle Byzantine Art, University of Chicago (Robert S. Nelson), Exams June 1993.
Stephanie Payne (spayne[at]mail.utexas.edu), Forming Friendship and Fraternity in Byzantine Monasticism: Illustrating the Romance of Barlaam and Joasaph from the Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries, University of Texas at Austin (Glenn Peers), Exams October 2006.
Brandie Ratliff (br135[at]columbia.edu), Image and Relic at Byzantine Pilgrimage Sites, Columbia University (Holger Klein), Exams March 2001.
Brooke Shilling (Brooke.Shilling[at]jhu.edu), Three Apse Mosaics of the Virgin in Early Byzantine Cyprus, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Galina Tirnanic (gtirnani[at]midway.uchicago.edu), The Art of Punishment: The Spectacle of the Body on the Streets of Constantinople, University of Chicago (Robert Nelson), Exams September 2001.
Cristina Toma (cris_st04[at]yahoo.com), Everyday Life and Cultural Exchange: The Evidence of Material Culture from Rhodes, Cyprus and Crete from the Thirteenth through the Sixteenth Century, University of California, Los Angeles (Sharon Gerstel).
Fusun Tulek (Fusuntulek[at]kocaeli.edu.tr ), Late Roman/ Early Byzantine Floor Mosaics of Cilicia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Henry Maguire), Exams December 2001.
Christine Zitrides, Carthage in Transition, Late and Post-Roman Habitation AD 400–800, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
History
Aslihan Akisik (aslihan_1071[at]yahoo.com), Self and Other in the Fifteenth Century: Laonikos Chalkokondyles and Late Byzantine Intellectuals, Harvard University (Angeliki Laiou and Cemal Kefadar).
Silviu Anghel (sa588[at]columbia.edu), Burying the Gods: Protecting statues from Christians in late antiquity, Columbia University.
Michael Bjornlie (bjornlie[at]princeton.edu), The Variae of Cassiodorus Senator: Circumstances of Political Survival, ca. 540–545, Princeton University (Peter Brown and Robert Kaster).
Catherine Burris (cburris[at]email.unc.edu), Solomon the King: Reception and Transmission on Extracanonical Traditions in the Christian East, University of Missouri, Exams May 1999.
Craig Caldwell (ccaldwell[at]princeton.edu), Society in a War Zone: Civil Wars and Their Effects upon the Provinces of Southeastern Europe in the Fourth Century A.D., Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Rangar Cline (rhc115[at]psu.edu), Negotiating Heaven and Earth: Angel Veneration in Late Antiquity, Pennsylvania State University (Dr. Paul B. Harvey Jr.), Exams Spring 2002.
Aurélie Goudal, Cases of possession and exorcism in primitive Byzantine hagiography (IV–VII century), University of Montréal (Pierre Boglioni).
Kevin Kalish (kkalish[at]princeton.edu), Learning to Write Poems in Late Antiquity: the Codex of Visions from the Bodmer Papyri and the Emergence of a Christian-Byzantine Poetics, Princeton University (Peter Brown and Daniel Heller-Roazen).
Young Richard Kim, The Imagined Worlds of Epiphanius of Cyprus, University of Michigan (Raymond Van Dam).
Dusan Korac (dkorac[at]wam.umd.edu), The Political Ideology of Serbian Emperors: A Survey of Serbian Imperial Charters, University of Maryland (George Majeska), February 1996.
Ian Mladjov (imladjov[at]umich.edu), Basileia Refracted: Adaptation of Byzantine imperial ideology beyond Byzantium by the Empire's Northern Neighbors in Medieval Bulgaria, University of Michigan (John V.A. Fine).
Richard Payne (rpayne[at]princeton.edu), Creating Christian Aristocracies in Sasanian and Early Islamic Iraq, Princeton University (Peter Brown, John Haldon), Exams May 2006.
Srdjan Rajkovic†, Byzantium and the Fall of Constantinople under the Ottomans in 1453, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp).
Daniel Sarefield (sarefield.2[at]osu.edu), Burning Knowledge: Studies in Religious Violence and Book burning in the Late Roman World, Ohio State University (Timothy Gregory).
Pamela Gail-Berjouhie Sayre (psayre[at]hfcc.net), Lombards and Byzantines: From Pannonian Allies to Italian Enemies, University of Michigan (John V. A. Fine).
Edward Schoolman (emschool[at]ucla.edu), Civic Transformations between Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Ravenna and Antioch 300–800 AD, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp), Advanced 2008.
Philip Venticinque (pfventic[at]uchicago.edu), Common Causes: the Social World of Guilds and Associations in Roman and Late Antique Egypt, University of Chicago (David Martinez).
Tim Watson (twwatson[at]uci.edu), The Rhetoric of Corruption in Late Antiquity, University of California, Irvine (Michele Salzman).
History of Science
Craig Martin (cmartin[at]fas.harvard.edu), Theory and Practice in Aristotelian Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Tradition of Meteorologica IV, Harvard University (John E. Murdoch).
Language and Literature
Adam Goldwyn (AGoldwyn[at]gc.cuny.edu), A Literary History of the Trojan War from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, CUNY Graduate Center (Paul Oppenheimer).
Mark Moussa (markmoussa[at]msn.com), The Treatise 'I Have Been Reading the Holy Gospels' (Discourses 8, Work 1) by Shenoute of Atripe: Edition, Translation and Commentary, Catholic University of America (David W. Johnson, S.J.), Exams October 1998.
Religion, Theology, and Liturgy
Gail Armstrong (Gail_Armstrong[at]brown.edu), Narrative Identity and Narrative Landscape: The Ancient and the Modern Acts of Mariamne and Philip, Brown University (Ross Kraemer).
Antonia Atanassova (antonia.atanassova.1[at]bc.edu), Container of the Uncontainable God: the Theotokos in the Writings of Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy, Boston College (Khaled Anatolios).
Benjamin Delee (bendelee[at]ucla.edu), Niketas Byzantios and the Problem of Islam, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp), advanced 2008.
Nicholas Denysenko (81denysenko[at]cua.edu), The Blessing of the Waters on the Feast of the Theophany in the Byzantine Liturgy: Historical Formation and Theological Implications, Catholic University of America (Dominic Serra).
Linda Honey, Thekla: Text and Temenos, University of Calgary.
Oleh Kindiy (okindiy[at]hotmail.com), Christos Didascalos: The Christology of Clement of Alexandria, Catholic University of America (Robin Darling Young).
Hisa Kusabu (kusabu[at]uchicago.edu), Comnenian Orthodoxy and Byzantine Heresiology in the Twelfth Century: The Study of the Panoplia Dogmatica of Euthymios Zigabenos, University of Chicago (Walter Kaegi), Anticipated completion in 2008-2009.
Steven J. Larson (steven_larson[at]brown.edu), Displacing the Gods: The Christian Response to Temples, Brown University (Susan Ashbrook Harvey).
Jonathan Latham (jal10[at]umail.ucsb.edu), Making Rome Christian: Ritual Processions from Roma Aeterna to Roma Christiana, University of California, Santa Barbara (Christine Thomas).
David Michelson (dmichels[at]Princeton.edu), Philoxenos of Mabbug & the Intersection of Christian Doctrine and Praxis in Late Antique Culture, Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Leonidas Pittos, Sacredly Narrating, Sacredly Praising: Theology, Encomium, Tradition, and Intellectual history in Late Byzantium [on Gregory Palamas], University of Chicago (Walter Kaegi), Anticipated completion in summer 2008.
Kathleen Quinn (quinnka[at]nku.edu), Panhellenic Sanctuaries in Greece during Late Antiquity: The Impact of Imperial Edicts Against Paganism, University of Cincinnati (C. Brian Rose), Exams May 1999.
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent (Jeanne-Nicole_Saint-Laurent[at]brown.edu), Apostolic Memories: Differentiation and the Construction of Orthodoxy in Syriac Missionary Literature, Brown University (Susan A. Harvey).
Daniel Schwartz (dlschwar[at]princeton.edu), Christian Education and Worship in the Making of the Late-Antique Church: Paideia and Cult in the Catechetical Orations of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Jack Tannous (jack.tannous[at]gmail.com), On the trail of la Syrie trilingue: Jacob of Edessa and his Circle, Princeton University (Peter Brown), Exams May 2006.
This listing of dissertations in progress or recently completed resumes a survey published between 1982 and 1986 in Byzantine Studies/Études Byzantines, which lapsed when the journal ceased publication. The present listing of dissertations in Byzantine subjects undertaken at North American universities is based on information supplied to Dumbarton Oaks and makes no claims to comprehensiveness. Please send additions and notification of completed dissertations to the director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, so that the listing can be updated periodically.
Completed Dissertations
Dissertations in Progress
Art, Archaeology, and History
Amelia Brown (Amelia[at]cape.com), Cities of Sinners, Cities of Saints: Corinth, Thessaloniki and Urbanism in Late Roman Greece, University of California, Berkeley (Susanna Elm), Exams December 2005.
Elisabeth O'Connell (elisabet[at]socrates.berkeley.edu), Tombs for the Living: Monastic Reuse of Monumental Funerary Architecture in Late Antique Egypt, University of California, Berkeley (Susanna Elm), Exams May 2003.
Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Vessela Anguelova (vna100[at]psu.edu), Place as Spiritual Experience in Middle and Late Byzantine Art, Ninth to the Eighteenth Centuries, Pennsylvania State University (Anthony Cutler), Exams December 2002.
Bojana Bjelicic-Miletkov (bbjelic[at]uga.edu), Monuments of Art Commemorating the Council of Ferrara-Florence, 1438–39: The Italian and the Byzantine Responses, University of Georgia, Athens (Asen Kirin), Spring 2009.
Travis Lee Clark (tlclark[at]temple.edu), Imaging the Cosmos: The Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes, Temple University (Elizabeth Bolman), Exams April 2003.
Robert J. W. Crow (robcro[at]princeton.edu), The Forum Romanum in Late Antiquity: A.D. 330–638, Princeton University (Hugo Meyer), Exams October 1994.
John Michael Frey (yanni[at]berkeley.edu), Speaking through Spolia: The Language of Architecture Reuse in late Roman Greece, University of California, Berkeley, Exams Fall 2006.
Mary Margaret (Molly) Fulghum, The Transitive Form: the Place of Textiles in Byzantium, Harvard University (Ioli Kalavrezou).
Sofia Georgiadou (sgeorgi2[at]uiuc.edu), Architecture and Statehood in Late Byzantium, 1204–1460: A Comparative Study of the Courts of Nicaea, Trebizond and Epirus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Robert Ousterhout).
Elizabeth Gittings, Architecture Representations in the Mosaics of the Church of Hagios Georgios, Harvard University (Ioli Kalavrezou), Exams February 1997.
Ayse Henry (ayseblgn[at]gmail.com), The Pilgrimage Center of St. Symeon the Younger: Designed by angels, supervised by a saint,constructed by pilgrims, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Robert Ousterhout).
Ashley Jones (ashley.jones[at]yale.edu), Lord Protect the Wearer',: Late Antique Numismatic Jewelry and the Image of the Emperor as Talismanic Device, Yale University (Diana Kleiner).
James Magruder (james.magruder[at]jhu.edu), Byzantine stone icons in Greece and Asia Minor, 9th–14th centuries, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Abigail G. McLaughlin, Patterns of Culture: The Origin and Development of Christian Decorative Systems in Catacombs of the Third and Fourth Centurie, Rutgers University (Archer St. Clair), Exams May 1995.
Barbara McNulty, Cypriot Donor Portraiture: Constructing the Ideal Family, Temple University (Elizabeth Bolman).
Marina Mihaljevic (marmi[at]princeton.edu), Constantinopolitan Architecture of the Komnenian Era (1080–1180) and Its Impact in the Balkans, Princeton University (Slobodan Ćurčić), Exams 2002.
Elizabeth Moss (betsy.moss[at]utoronto.ca), Framing the Holy: Revetments and Frames on Byzantine Icons, University of Toronto (Linda Safran).
Maureen O'Brien (mobrien[at]loyola.edu), Art and Text in the Vienna Genesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Dorothy Verkerk), Exams April 2004.
Andrea Olsen (andreaolsen[at]yahoo.com ), The Birth and Rebirth of the Visitation in Byzantine Art, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Areti Papanastasiou (pap9[at]midway.uchicago.edu), Gendered Stories and Middle Byzantine Art, University of Chicago (Robert S. Nelson), Exams June 1993.
Stephanie Payne (spayne[at]mail.utexas.edu), Forming Friendship and Fraternity in Byzantine Monasticism: Illustrating the Romance of Barlaam and Joasaph from the Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries, University of Texas at Austin (Glenn Peers), Exams October 2006.
Brandie Ratliff (br135[at]columbia.edu), Image and Relic at Byzantine Pilgrimage Sites, Columbia University (Holger Klein), Exams March 2001.
Brooke Shilling (Brooke.Shilling[at]jhu.edu), Three Apse Mosaics of the Virgin in Early Byzantine Cyprus, Johns Hopkins University (Henry Maguire).
Galina Tirnanic (gtirnani[at]midway.uchicago.edu), The Art of Punishment: The Spectacle of the Body on the Streets of Constantinople, University of Chicago (Robert Nelson), Exams September 2001.
Cristina Toma (cris_st04[at]yahoo.com), Everyday Life and Cultural Exchange: The Evidence of Material Culture from Rhodes, Cyprus and Crete from the Thirteenth through the Sixteenth Century, University of California, Los Angeles (Sharon Gerstel).
Fusun Tulek (Fusuntulek[at]kocaeli.edu.tr ), Late Roman/ Early Byzantine Floor Mosaics of Cilicia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Henry Maguire), Exams December 2001.
Christine Zitrides, Carthage in Transition, Late and Post-Roman Habitation AD 400–800, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
History
Aslihan Akisik (aslihan_1071[at]yahoo.com), Self and Other in the Fifteenth Century: Laonikos Chalkokondyles and Late Byzantine Intellectuals, Harvard University (Angeliki Laiou and Cemal Kefadar).
Silviu Anghel (sa588[at]columbia.edu), Burying the Gods: Protecting statues from Christians in late antiquity, Columbia University.
Michael Bjornlie (bjornlie[at]princeton.edu), The Variae of Cassiodorus Senator: Circumstances of Political Survival, ca. 540–545, Princeton University (Peter Brown and Robert Kaster).
Catherine Burris (cburris[at]email.unc.edu), Solomon the King: Reception and Transmission on Extracanonical Traditions in the Christian East, University of Missouri, Exams May 1999.
Craig Caldwell (ccaldwell[at]princeton.edu), Society in a War Zone: Civil Wars and Their Effects upon the Provinces of Southeastern Europe in the Fourth Century A.D., Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Rangar Cline (rhc115[at]psu.edu), Negotiating Heaven and Earth: Angel Veneration in Late Antiquity, Pennsylvania State University (Dr. Paul B. Harvey Jr.), Exams Spring 2002.
Aurélie Goudal, Cases of possession and exorcism in primitive Byzantine hagiography (IV–VII century), University of Montréal (Pierre Boglioni).
Kevin Kalish (kkalish[at]princeton.edu), Learning to Write Poems in Late Antiquity: the Codex of Visions from the Bodmer Papyri and the Emergence of a Christian-Byzantine Poetics, Princeton University (Peter Brown and Daniel Heller-Roazen).
Young Richard Kim, The Imagined Worlds of Epiphanius of Cyprus, University of Michigan (Raymond Van Dam).
Dusan Korac (dkorac[at]wam.umd.edu), The Political Ideology of Serbian Emperors: A Survey of Serbian Imperial Charters, University of Maryland (George Majeska), February 1996.
Ian Mladjov (imladjov[at]umich.edu), Basileia Refracted: Adaptation of Byzantine imperial ideology beyond Byzantium by the Empire's Northern Neighbors in Medieval Bulgaria, University of Michigan (John V.A. Fine).
Richard Payne (rpayne[at]princeton.edu), Creating Christian Aristocracies in Sasanian and Early Islamic Iraq, Princeton University (Peter Brown, John Haldon), Exams May 2006.
Srdjan Rajkovic†, Byzantium and the Fall of Constantinople under the Ottomans in 1453, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp).
Daniel Sarefield (sarefield.2[at]osu.edu), Burning Knowledge: Studies in Religious Violence and Book burning in the Late Roman World, Ohio State University (Timothy Gregory).
Pamela Gail-Berjouhie Sayre (psayre[at]hfcc.net), Lombards and Byzantines: From Pannonian Allies to Italian Enemies, University of Michigan (John V. A. Fine).
Edward Schoolman (emschool[at]ucla.edu), Civic Transformations between Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Ravenna and Antioch 300–800 AD, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp), Advanced 2008.
Philip Venticinque (pfventic[at]uchicago.edu), Common Causes: the Social World of Guilds and Associations in Roman and Late Antique Egypt, University of Chicago (David Martinez).
Tim Watson (twwatson[at]uci.edu), The Rhetoric of Corruption in Late Antiquity, University of California, Irvine (Michele Salzman).
History of Science
Craig Martin (cmartin[at]fas.harvard.edu), Theory and Practice in Aristotelian Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Tradition of Meteorologica IV, Harvard University (John E. Murdoch).
Language and Literature
Adam Goldwyn (AGoldwyn[at]gc.cuny.edu), A Literary History of the Trojan War from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, CUNY Graduate Center (Paul Oppenheimer).
Mark Moussa (markmoussa[at]msn.com), The Treatise 'I Have Been Reading the Holy Gospels' (Discourses 8, Work 1) by Shenoute of Atripe: Edition, Translation and Commentary, Catholic University of America (David W. Johnson, S.J.), Exams October 1998.
Religion, Theology, and Liturgy
Gail Armstrong (Gail_Armstrong[at]brown.edu), Narrative Identity and Narrative Landscape: The Ancient and the Modern Acts of Mariamne and Philip, Brown University (Ross Kraemer).
Antonia Atanassova (antonia.atanassova.1[at]bc.edu), Container of the Uncontainable God: the Theotokos in the Writings of Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy, Boston College (Khaled Anatolios).
Benjamin Delee (bendelee[at]ucla.edu), Niketas Byzantios and the Problem of Islam, University of California, Los Angeles (Claudia Rapp), advanced 2008.
Nicholas Denysenko (81denysenko[at]cua.edu), The Blessing of the Waters on the Feast of the Theophany in the Byzantine Liturgy: Historical Formation and Theological Implications, Catholic University of America (Dominic Serra).
Linda Honey, Thekla: Text and Temenos, University of Calgary.
Oleh Kindiy (okindiy[at]hotmail.com), Christos Didascalos: The Christology of Clement of Alexandria, Catholic University of America (Robin Darling Young).
Hisa Kusabu (kusabu[at]uchicago.edu), Comnenian Orthodoxy and Byzantine Heresiology in the Twelfth Century: The Study of the Panoplia Dogmatica of Euthymios Zigabenos, University of Chicago (Walter Kaegi), Anticipated completion in 2008-2009.
Steven J. Larson (steven_larson[at]brown.edu), Displacing the Gods: The Christian Response to Temples, Brown University (Susan Ashbrook Harvey).
Jonathan Latham (jal10[at]umail.ucsb.edu), Making Rome Christian: Ritual Processions from Roma Aeterna to Roma Christiana, University of California, Santa Barbara (Christine Thomas).
David Michelson (dmichels[at]Princeton.edu), Philoxenos of Mabbug & the Intersection of Christian Doctrine and Praxis in Late Antique Culture, Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Leonidas Pittos, Sacredly Narrating, Sacredly Praising: Theology, Encomium, Tradition, and Intellectual history in Late Byzantium [on Gregory Palamas], University of Chicago (Walter Kaegi), Anticipated completion in summer 2008.
Kathleen Quinn (quinnka[at]nku.edu), Panhellenic Sanctuaries in Greece during Late Antiquity: The Impact of Imperial Edicts Against Paganism, University of Cincinnati (C. Brian Rose), Exams May 1999.
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent (Jeanne-Nicole_Saint-Laurent[at]brown.edu), Apostolic Memories: Differentiation and the Construction of Orthodoxy in Syriac Missionary Literature, Brown University (Susan A. Harvey).
Daniel Schwartz (dlschwar[at]princeton.edu), Christian Education and Worship in the Making of the Late-Antique Church: Paideia and Cult in the Catechetical Orations of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Princeton University (Peter Brown).
Jack Tannous (jack.tannous[at]gmail.com), On the trail of la Syrie trilingue: Jacob of Edessa and his Circle, Princeton University (Peter Brown), Exams May 2006.
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