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'How Would Jesus Drive?': Vatican Tips on Driving
John O. Edwards
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Drive unto others, as you would have them drive unto you.


That pretty much sums up the position of the Vatican, which recently addressed in surprisingly specific detail just how Catholics should change their driving behavior to save lives and souls.


Why would a church founded in an era of camels and burros concern itself with modern automobile driving behavior?


Noting that 1.26 million people died on the roads in the year 2000 alone, Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, which issued the "Guidelines For The Pastoral Care Of The Road," explained, "That's a sad reality, and at the same time, a great challenge for society and the church."



The new Commandments are as follows:


l. You shall not kill. This, the document states, means not only driving in a safe manner, but also ensuring that cars are maintained in safe working condition and knowing and obeying highway laws.



2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.


3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.


4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.


5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination and an occasion of sin. The Vatican notes the role automobiles play in prostitution, saying, "'Customers' approach street women from their cars, which may even be where the trading of their bodies takes place.'"


6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.


7. Support the families of accident victims, including payment of reparations and willing acceptance of legal punishment when you cause an accident.


8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.


9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party, such as children and pedestrians.


10. Feel responsible toward others.


The Vatican even takes notice of the "road rage" phenomenon. "Cars tend to bring out the ‘primitive' side of human beings, thereby producing rather unpleasant results."


The danger of "car envy" looms for Catholics, and the guidelines state, "Cars particularly lend themselves to being used by their owners to show off, and as a means for outshining other people and arousing a feeling of envy."



Then there's the "multi-tasking" driver blabbing on a cell phone, putting on makeup, eating a sandwich, all while risking lives.


"Obviously, someone who allows their attention to be diverted whilst driving by a mobile phone or television is not behaving in accordance with prudence."



It's not the first time the Vatican has addressed the sins of lousy driving. Pope Paul VI stated, "Too much blood is spilt every day in an absurd competition with speed and time."


The document recommends that Catholics set up chapels along roadways and celebrate church liturgy at "major road hubs, motorway restaurants and lorry [truck] parks."


And if that's not enough to keep you safe while driving today's crazy highways, there's always one last ditch hope:

Drivers should not "forget the importance of the sign of the cross, to be made before setting out on a journey . . . During a journey, it is also beneficial to pray vocally, especially taking turns with our fellow travelers in reciting the prayers, as when reciting the Rosary, which, due to its rhythm and gentle repetition, does not distract the driver's attention."

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It's not the first time the Vatican has addressed the sins of lousy driving. Pope Paul VI stated, "Too much blood is spilt every day in an absurd competition with speed and time."

Quoted from bumblethru

Okay...that's it...I have the answer to our auto industry problem. Let the vatican produce POPE MOBILES! Yeah...that's it, manufacture and sell them to the other countries that seem to have all those evil drivers. Let's see, it has comfortable seating with every safety measure known to modern man and it goes...what....maybe 10, 20 or 30 mph? AND it would come already blessed! WOW...now there's a thought for ya!

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Roman Catholic not the only true church

   I was deeply saddened by the statement from the Vatican emphasizing that “The Church of Christ exists fully only in the Catholic Church” (July 11 Gazette). The document goes on to state that “Ecclesial Communities which have not preserved the valid Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery are not churches in the proper sense.” It also indicates that even those denominations that have preserved the historic Episcopate and the Eucharist, but are not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, are somehow defective.
   As the pastor of a church which is not in full communion with the bishop of Rome, I must affirm that the source of our grace and life is Christ Jesus. It is His approval we seek and no other. I feel confident in saying that all Protestant churches would agree that the validity of our existence as a church is not determined by the primate of any other denomination. Our validity to exist as a full church and as part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church comes directly from God, revealed in His incarnate son Jesus, and affirmed through the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is my most profound hope that this recent statement will not hinder the progress we have made in our ecumenical dialogue and ministry. I will joyfully continue to work with and pray with my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. I will support and love them as fellow pilgrims on the road to the Kingdom of God. However, I will do so as one who shares equally in the grace of God.
REV. TED J. MONICA
Johnstown The writer is rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

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Court rules witnessing is still free speech

Ed Thomas
OneNewsNow.com
July 13, 2007



Charges have been dismissed against a man who was arrested last year for sharing the gospel and distributing religious literature on the campus of Schenectady County Community College in New York state.  According to attorneys for minister Greg Davis, a Schenectady city court judge acquitted him of alleged criminal trespass that led to his arrest in September.

Davis's attorney Brian Raum says his client has a regular ministry of public evangelism on college campuses, but on the day in question last fall, an assistant dean at the school told him he "had no right to be there and had to leave."
"After a little while," Raum explains, "they called the police and the police handcuffed Reverend Davis and arrested him for what amounts to preaching the gospel in a public place."
Raum says the case was tried in January of this year, with the judge's decision being released this week -- a decision which acquitted Davis of any charges and affirming that the college had no right to ask him to leave just because he exercised his First Amendment rights.
"The Supreme Court has said time and time again that religious speech is protected like any other speech," says the attorney, "and in this case there's obvious hostility toward that message -- but the First Amendment prevailed in this case and we're very grateful."

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8 Compelling Reasons why Christ is coming very soon!
http://jesussoonreturn.com/

The evidence for the soon return of Jesus Christ is overwhelming. It could be any moment. One scholar lists 167 converging clues just in the last few years. The following are eight:

Israel’s rebirth. As Jesus prophesied, the Jews were scattered during the Jewish-Roman war of A.D. 70 (Luke 21:24). Also prophesied to occur before Christ’s return, the nation of Israel was miraculously reborn on May 14, 1948. Israel is called “God’s time clock.”


Plummeting morality. Studies show a shocking breakdown just since mid-century (2 Timothy 3:1-4).


Famines, violence, and wars. Jesus said the signs before his return would come as intensifying birth pangs, seeing increased famines, violence and wars, a clear picture of our planet (Matthew 24:6-.  One of six people on earth suffers from hunger. Violence is epidemic. A study of wars since 500 B.C. shows a recent dramatic increase. More than 100 conflicts have erupted since 1990, about twice the number for previous decades.


Increase in earthquakes. Also prophesied to be as birth pangs (Matthew 24:7), a recent study shows a dramatic increase in earthquakes worldwide, just since the decade of Israel’s rebirth. Between 1920 and 1990, a 70-year span, there were 10 major earthquakes.  But in 1990 to the year 2005, a 15-year span, we have had 13 major earthquakes." (Associated Press) The U.S. Geological Survey data shows in 2000, there were 22,256 recorded earthquakes worldwide but steadily increased to 31,199 earthquakes in 2004. (WorldNetDaily)


Explosion of travel and education. Two key conditions described about 2,500 years ago for the Second Coming are that “travel and education shall be vastly increased” (Daniel 12:4, Living Bible).  In all of history, the vast increase in travel has come just since mid-century with the explosion of both ground and air transportation; in education, with the advance of science and computers.


Explosion of cults and the occult. Counterfeit spirituality is everywhere with cults and false Christs (Matthew 24:24), psychic phenomena, spiritism, Satan worship, witchcraft, nature worship and the New Age movement (1 Timothy 4:1). What is a cult or the occult? See "What is a cult or the occult" Report on this website.


The New World Order. Increased centralization of world financial and political power is a prelude to the soon-coming world power system in the hands of the “Antichrist,” who will be the incarnation of Satan and who will deceive most of the world (Daniel 7-12, Matthew 24:15, Revelation 13). Beware of the “mark of the beast”. Beware of the Mark of the Beast Report" on this web site


Increase in both apostasy and faith.  The Bible predicts in the last days, “A form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). Today, many churches deny the eternal truths of Scripture and power of the Holy Spirit, replacing them with ungodly, temporal and “politically correct” values.  But also, a prophesied outpouring of God’s Spirit is causing hundreds of millions worldwide to come to true faith in Christ in record numbers, virtually unnoticed by the media.


The Escape Plan

            Christ’s death and resurrection have opened the way to heaven and life with the Father forever for all who put their trust in Him and His great sacrifice on our behalf. Christ will soon come and rescue His people from the approaching “Great Tribulation” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-1. He will later rule and bring peace on earth- after He judges the world and every person (Matthew 25:31-46).

            God’s judgment is indeed coming on a world in rebellion. He cannot deny His nature. His attributes of perfect holiness and justice demand judgment for sin, of which we are all guilty.  “For all who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

            The result of sin is death, or separation from God. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Wages are something we earn, or deserve.

            But “God is love” (1 John 4:. Is “love” in conflict with “judgment”? Answer: God’s wisdom reconciled the dilemma- the Son of God would take all our judgment upon Himself! “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:.



            To escape God’s judgment, we each must receive His free gifts of forgiveness and love, “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). A gift is something we do not earn, or deserve.



How to receive Him

            In any gift exchange, there has to be giver and receiver. God has already given us the gift, His Son; now we must receive Him. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

            We receive Him by faith. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).

            We receive Him by personal invitation, (Christ speaking) “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20). Do you hear His voice?

            The following is a suggested prayer: “Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God and that you died on the cross for my sins to save me from eternal death. I open the door of my life and receive you as my Savior and Lord. I give you my life. Help me to be what you want me to be. Amen.”

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Religious traditions melting away?
Shrinking glacier imperils Hinduism’s holiest river
BY EMILY WAX The Washington Post

ARANASI, India — With her eyes sealed, Ramedi cupped the murky water of the Ganges River in her hands, lifted them toward the sun, and prayed for her husband, her 15 grandchildren and her bad hip. She, like India’s other 800 million Hindus, has absolute faith that the river she calls Ganga Ma can heal.
   Around Ramedi, who like some Indians has only one name, people converged on the riverbank in the early morning, before the day’s heat set in. Women floated necklaces of marigolds on a boat of leaves, a dozen skinny boys soaped their hair as they bathed in their underwear, and a somber group of men carried a body to the banks of the river, a common ritual before the dead are cremated on wooden funeral pyres. To be cremated beside the Ganges, most here believe, brings salvation from the cycle of rebirth.
   “Ganga Ma is everything to Hindus. It’s our chance to attain nirvana,” Ramedi said, emerging from the river, her peach-colored sari dripping along the shoreline.
   But the prayer rituals carried out on the water’s edge may not last forever — or even another generation, according to scientists and meteorologists. The Himalayan source of Hinduism’s holiest river, they say, is drying up.
INTENSE DEVOTION
   In this 3,000-year-old city known as the Jerusalem of India for its intense religious devotion, climate change could throw into turmoil something many devout Hindus never thought possible: their most intimate religious traditions. The Gangotri glacier, which provides up to 70 percent of the water of the Ganges during the dry summer months, is shrinking at a rate of 40 yards a year, nearly twice as fast as two decades ago, scientists say.
   “This may be the first place on Earth where global warming could hurt our very religion. We are becoming an endangered species of Hindus,” said Veer Bhadra Mishra, an engineer and director of the Varanasi-based Sankat Mochan Foundation, an organization that advocates for the preservation of the Ganges. “The melting glaciers are a terrible thing. We have to ask ourselves, who are the custodians of our culture if we can’t even help our beloved Ganga?”
   Environmental groups such as Mishra’s have long focused on pollution of the Ganges. More than 100 cities and countless villages are situated along the 1,568-mile river, which stretches from the foothills of the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, and few of them have sewage treatment plants.
   But recent reports by scientists say the Ganges is under an even greater threat from global warming. According to a U.N. climate report, the Himalayan glaciers that are the sources of the Ganges could disappear by 2030 as temperatures rise.
   The shrinking glaciers also threaten Asia’s supply of fresh water. The World Wildlife Fund in March listed the Ganges among the world’s 10 most endangered rivers. In India, the river provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people.
   The immediate effect of glacier recession is a shortlived surplus of water. But eventually the supply runs out, and experts predict that the Ganges eventually will become a seasonal river, largely dependent on monsoon rains.
   “There has never been a greater threat for the Ganges,” said Mahesh Mehta, an environmental lawyer who has been filing lawsuits against corporations dumping toxins in the Ganges. He is now redirecting his energies toward the melting glaciers. “If humans don’t change their interference, our very religion, our livelihoods are under threat.”
   Mehta and other environmentalists want to see the Indian government here enforce strict reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of climate change.
   But during last month’s Group of Eight conference of the major industrialized nations, both India and China, eager to protect their market growth, joined the United States in refusing to support mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. President Bush has instead pushed a plan for nonbinding goals to reduce emissions.
   While India is one of the world’s top producers of greenhouse gas emissions — along with the United States, China, Russia and Japan — it argues that the United States and other developed countries should reduce their own emissions before expecting developing nations to follow suit.
STRONG LAWS URGED
   Environmentalists say that kind of thinking is shortsighted and that India desperately needs strong laws in place at a time when the country is growing so quickly.
   “Economic growth is important, but can you imagine a billion cars in India?” Mehta asked. “As people become affluent, they want cars and air conditioners and refrigerators. What effect is that going to have on the environment?”
   About one million pilgrims a year visit this ancient city, many traveling hundreds of miles on foot. Many of them leave with vials of Ganges water to wear around their necks or display in their homes, sometimes sprinkling droplets of water into their town’s wells, spiritually purifying their drinking water.
   On the stone steps leading up to the Ganges’ famous temple ghats, graffiti reads: “Happy is the person who lives by Ganga, Ma” and “I love my India.”
   “The government should realize that climate change will hurt not just communities, but also businesses and even the Ganga itself, our most sacred river,” said Srinivas Krishnaswamy, a climate and energy expert for Greenpeace in India.
   “When the Ganga River is threatened, Indians will have to wake up the government to this crisis.”


The Ganges: A dying river
The Gangotri glacier , which feeds the sacred Ganges River , is receding by 120 feet a year and could disappear by 2030 . Length of the Ganges : 1 , 568 miles Width of river basin : 200 to 400 miles People dependent on the river for drinking water and farming : 500 million EMILY WAX/THE WASHINGTON POST Indians bathe in the Ganges River at Varanasi. The river is under threat from global warming, which is melting a glacier that feeds the waterway.

Quoted from bumblethru

Gee...does this mean that if there really and truly is global warming and Al Gore is right after all, it may wipe out an entire religion?

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Pope’s position is really nothing new

   While Rev. Ted Monica of Johnstown (July 13 Gazette) was deeply saddened by news about the Vatican’s assertion that “the Church of Christ exists only in the Catholic Church,” I did not feel sad, but bemused. Look back to Sept. 5, 2000, and you will find news about Cardinal Ratzinger’s document, “Dominus Iesus,” which made the same assertion.
   On the Vatican Web site, you can read the current document, “Responses to Some Questions... etc.” which says that this promulgation really changes nothing of the traditional doctrine.
   The gist of that document, which causes such irritation, is that the Church of Christ, constituted and organized in this world as a society, subsists in the Roman Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him. These men say that “substance” means a perduring (long existence), historical continuity and permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ Jesus. However, the principal element missing in the Eastern and Protestant churches is the pope! Ergo, they are deficient societies, just as I am a deficient man because I no longer have my wisdom teeth. (Thanks be to God and my dentist.)
   The dictionary definition of subsist, as a transitive verb, differs from the Vatican’s meaning: It means to maintain or support with provisions. Rev. Monica recognizes that Christ Jesus provides grace and life to his church. Who, outside of his church can disagree? He should know.
   Will the recent Vatican assertion bring more support to itself, an old society that looks to the past for direction, or will more people turn away from it? The re-institution of the Latin mass might be taken as a clue to the answer. If your local priest begins to wear shoes with silver buckles, and talks in a dead language that you do not understand, I suggest you beware.
   This issue has all the value and importance of the old conundrum, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”
   KERNAN DAVIS
   Glenville

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Campus receives a new commandment
Judge says community college wrong to order preacher off campus  
  
By MARC PARRY, Staff writer
First published: Friday, July 20, 2007

SCHENECTADY -- The school portrayed the preacher as a menacing zealot who shouted at the top of his lungs.
The Rev. Greg Davis' lawyer called him a gentleman who was only trying to spread the gospel on campus when Schenectady County Community College stomped all over his constitutional rights.

  
Davis won the court case that arose from the conflict. Last month, a Schenectady judge acquitted him of trespassing. This week, supporters trumpeted the verdict nationally as a victory for religious expression on campus.

"Because it's religious speech, it doesn't mean it has to be confined to inside a church," said Jim Trainor, Davis's Malta attorney. "I think it's important for anyone to realize that they have that right and should be able to exercise it in any public forum."

A federal lawsuit against the college and local officials is pending.

The character at the center of this case is originally from Olivebridge in the Catskills. Davis described himself as a former actor and director -- in "low budget" movies, "stuff down in Florida," as he put it -- before he "got saved" in 1995.

Now the 37-year-old is an ordained Baptist minister who hopscotches from campus to campus across the country. He travels in a camper with his family. Students call him "Bible Greg."

He brought his tour to Schenectady on Sept. 8, 2006. That morning, he showed up on the community college's grassy quad with the sandwich board he wears to display religious sayings. He also carried literature to hand out and a video camera to record the scene.

"I'm there to preach the Bible and tell people that Jesus Christ can make a difference in their life," Davis said Thursday.

Others don't think his motives are that simple.

Davis has been through this before. He sued Ulster County Community College in 2005, claiming the school violated his free speech rights by barring him from speaking on campus. When the case was settled in 2006, Davis got $2,000 in damages and the college paid $20,000 for his legal costs.

He went after the college with legal help from the Alliance Defense Fund. That's the same national organization that backed him in the Schenectady case -- and is promoting it as a victory for religious expression. Trainor, a lawyer affiliated with the group, said "you can probably call us the antidote to the ACLU."

"We're making headway, but there's a long way to go with the ACLU and its allies dedicated to establishing the fictional 'wall of separation' they claim exists between church and state," concludes a write-up about Davis's case on the alliance's Web site. "We have to stand and fight if we are to win!"

Davis knew from experience that, because the community college was public property, "he has a right to be there, and they can't just ask him to leave unless and until he is disruptive of the college operation," said District Attorney Robert M. Carney.

"I think it's a case of somebody who did what he did to -- I don't want to say provoke or incite -- but to obtain a reaction," Carney said.

He got one. After Davis set up on the quad, Assistant Dean Michael D'Annibale came up to the minister and repeatedly asked him to leave, according to court papers.

When he wouldn't, the school called Schenectady police. When a police officer asked him to leave and he again refused, he was arrested for criminal trespassing.
The charge was reduced to a violation, less than a misdemeanor.

D'Annibale claimed that one reason he ordered Davis to leave campus was that he "felt threatened" by the "disorderly, irrational and unstable" preacher, according to court papers.

"He described the defendant's behaviors as approaching individuals on the campus in an intimidating and threatening manner and shouting at the top of his lungs with his arms raised and flailing," the court papers say.

City Court Judge Vincent Versaci ruled that Davis' video does not match D'Annibale's description of his behavior.

Without evidence of any misbehavior, the judge wrote, "the People failed to establish a legitimate basis for ordering the defendant to leave the campus."

College spokeswoman Heather Meaney released a statement Thursday noting that Davis was "taping students" with a video camera, which he refused to turn off.

"He was asked to leave -- he refused," she said. "The police were called in order to avoid any further disruption to the educational process."

"Bible Greg" just wrapped up a Northeast tour. He's spending time in churches while he waits for the fall semester.