Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
I wonder what I would do if this happened to me:
The Protestants were forcibly displaced in early 2010 after village authorities destroyed their church and issued an ultimatum to the Protestants to convert to Catholicism.
I wonder what side of this story is offered by the village authorities.
I wonder what the Protestants did or didn’t do to trigger this action.
I wonder what the Pope’s stance is on this. Read it all
Tsar Nicholas II wanted to spring a little surprise on the evangelical Christians. So he did. In 1905.
But he was a weak man who began to take back his concessions almost as soon as he made them. But if he hadn’t… Read it all
They despised his beliefs. They branded him a heretic. They opted for intolerance and unwillingness to co-exist. Their final solution for him was contrary to justice…and the godliness they professed to defend.
No, this didn’t happen recently. Yet Schlaffer’s testimony lives on, unsilenced by the executioner’s sword.
Hans lost his head for his faith in Jesus, but he gained an eternal reward which hasn’t faded a bit after all these years (years which I don’t suppose he has noticed). (I wonder if Ernie Miller has met him yet.) (Grammarians, am I allowed a parenthetical train like this?!)
Well, here’s an introduction to Hans Schlaffer’s story on this day 486 years ago:
The December evening was cold. As Hans Schlaffer left the Anabaptist meeting in Schwaz, he was headed up the Inn River toward his home in the mountains of Austria. There he planned to sit out the winter months until Spring, when he would renew his ministry. But the plans of this former Roman Catholic priest received a rude shock.
On this day, December 5, 1527, Hans Schlaffer was arrested by local Roman Catholic authorities. […]
When asked on what foundation the Anabaptists rested, he replied, “Our faith, actions, and baptism rest on nothing else than the commandment of Christ.”
I am fascinated by these excerpts from one of his last recorded prayers: Read it all
Manitoba social workers want parents of an orthodox Mennonite community to promise they will only spank kids on their behinds and not use objects, such as belts, as punishment.
Makes sense to me. (“But I suppose that comma after objects shouldn’t be there,” said the Grammar Guardian.)
The parenting rules and discipline guidelines are spelled out in a recent letter from the government’s Child and Family Services Department to members of the tiny community, where Mounties made arrests over several weeks this summer.
The Canadian version of CSD actually allows spanking?! 😯 Read it all
God has so blessed America that we can happily relegate such terror to Asia and Europe and say it can’t happen here—but it could if churches content themselves with blessing bicycles, bees, and yaks instead of teaching about sin and what happens to societies that encourage it rather than restrain it. We need to learn about real ghouls.
Some laws, codes, and ordinances boggle the mind for their brazen assault on freedom.
“It shall be prohibited for any person or group of persons to loiter or congregate on Bourbon Street for the purpose disseminating any social, political, or religious message between the hours of sunset and sunrise.”
Threatened With Arrest for Preaching on Bourbon Street After Sunset