A Tale of Two Cities - A List of Present Day Martyrs

    Daniel Pearl

It is an unfortunate truth that there are more Christians and Jews being martyred in this era than any other era in history. 


In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens provides a vivid account of life in Paris and a small French town called Saint Anoine during the French revolution, an era when French people rose up against their oppresors, yet succumed to the evil one. 

Surprisingly this period of time has aspects of life in some parts of todays world.

Dickens writes:
The new era began; the king was tried, doomed, and beheaded; the Republic of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, declared for victory or death against the world in arms; the black flag waved night and day from the great towers of Notre Dame; three hundred thousand men, summoned to rise against the tyrants of the earth, rose from all the varying soils of France, as if the dragon's teeth had been sown broadcast, and had yielded fruit equally on hill and plain, on rock, in gravel, and alluvial mud, under the bright sky of the South and under the clouds of the North, in fell and forest, in the vineyards and the olive-grounds and among the cropped grass and the stubble of the corn, along the fruitful banks of the broad rivers, and in the sand of the sea-shore.

Members of a Christian Bible Study in Turkey Slaughtered April 18, 2007

What private solicitude could rear itself against the deluge of the Year One of Liberty- the deluge rising from below, not falling from above, and with the windows of Heaven shut, not opened!

Orthodox Priest Daniel Alekseevich Sysoev

There was no pause, no pity, no peace, no interval of relenting rest, no measurement of time. Though days and nights circled as regularly as when time was young, and the evening and morning were the first day, other count of time there was none. Hold of it was lost in the raging fever of a nation, as it is in the fever of one patient. Now, breaking the unnatural silence of a whole city, the executioner showed the people the head of the king- and now, it seemed almost in the same breath, the bead of his fair wife which had had eight weary months of imprisoned widowhood and misery, to turn it grey.

Sister Dorothy Stang S.N.D

And yet, observing the strange law of contradiction which obtains in all such cases, the time was long, while it flamed by so fast. A revolutionary tribunal in the capital, and forty or fifty thousand revolutionary committees all over the land; a law of the Suspected, which struck away all security for liberty or life, and delivered over any good and innocent person to any bad and guilty one; prisons gorged with people who had committed no offence, and could obtain no bearing; these things became the established order and nature of appointed things, and seemed to be ancient usage before they were many weeks old. Above all, one hideous figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze from the foundations of the world- the figure of the sharp female called La Guillotine.

      The Holocaust

It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey, it imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine, looked through the little window and sneezed into the sack.
It was the sign of the regeneration of the human race. It superseded the Cross. Models of it were worn on breasts from which the Cross was discarded, and it was bowed down to and believed in where the Cross was denied.

It sheared off heads so many, that it, and the ground it most polluted, were a rotten red. It was taken to pieces, like a toy-puzzle for a young Devil, and was put together again when the occasion wanted it. It hushed the eloquent, struck down the powerful, abolished the beautiful and good. Twenty-two friends of high public mark, twenty-one living, and one dead, it had lopped the heads off, in one morning, in as many minutes. The name of the strong man of Old Scripture had descended to the chief functionary who worked it; but so armed, he was stronger than his namesake, and blinder, and tore away the gates of God's own Temple every day.

Bishop Luigi Padovese

As I read this section of the book it occurred to me both the Cross and the guillotine are devices of execution. This has always puzzled me. 

My Catholic friends hold up a cross with the crucified Jesus on it as a reminder of the Crucifixtion.  My Protestant friends hold up an empty cross as a sign of the resurrection.  I had wondered years ago, what if Jesus was put to death in the electric chair, would we wear pendants of electric chairs around or necks and large replicas of electric chairs on our Church walls?

Father Rageed Azziz Ganni

Thanks be to The Lord our God that He is God and I am just plain ol' Marc, because He knows what is best.  If He wants the cross to be a symbol of rememberance than so be it.

The people of the French Revolution certainly had reason to overthrow tyranical rule that they lived under, but to throw away God in favor of man's rule is beyond the pale.  However this is going on today in many foreign lands where brothers are executing brothers and Christians are considered to be infidels.  May God have mercy on us all.

The Pentagon vs. Christianity

There is some outrage within the Christian community regarding the National Day of Prayer and the Pentagon.


The headlines state Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham and the entire National Day of Prayer task force, including Shirley and Dr. James Dobson were uninvited to the National Day of Prayer observance at the Pentagon.

The apparent reason the invitation was rescinded was Graham’s post 9/11 comment that Islam, as practiced, is evil. The Dobson’s suggest the Pentagon’s rejection of Christian leaders is much broader than previously recognized.


A Pentagon spokesman, George Wright went on to confirm this information saying, “While we appreciate Franklin Graham’s worldwide outreach and his willingness to speak at this Pentagon multi-faith event, his presence would be inappropriate. Mr. Wright had no comment about Franklin Graham’s organization, Samaritan’s Purse, which aids millions of the needy around the world.


Wright stated the Pentagon event "will continue as scheduled under the administration of the office of the Pentagon Chaplain." Asked which chaplains, representing which faith traditions, will be involved in the upcoming event, Wright replied, "The agenda has not been finalized."

Graham has stuck to his views and stated that he loves the Islamic people. Through his ministry he has provided assistance to people in Muslim countries. He states, “I do not agree with their religion at all...look at what their religion does jut to women...it is horrid. I speak out for people that live under Islam that are enslaved by Islam and I want them to know they can be free.”


Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council had this to say. "This decision is further evidence that the leadership of our nation's military has been impaired by the politically correct culture being advanced by this administration," Perkins said. "Under this Administration's watch we are seeing the First Amendment, designed to protect the religious exercise of Americans, retooled into a sword to sever America's ties with orthodox Christianity.

"For those Christian leaders who have avoided the controversy of political issues, saying they just wanted to preach the gospel -- this should be a wake-up call!"


However, Franklin Graham says, "The military never extended the invitation to me," Franklin Graham explained Friday on CBN. "I got a call from the Pentagon, from the head chaplain, and he asked if I would rescind this invitation. I said, 'Sir, I never got the invitation.' The invitation is actually to the National Day of Prayer (task force). It wasn't give to me. I said 'You'll have to go to the National Day of Prayer. I'm their honorary chairman, but the invitation didn't come to me directly.' So they disinvited, is my understanding, the National Day of Prayer."


While Graham and the National Day of Prayer task force will be excluded from the Pentagon event, Graham will still be the keynote speaker at the other major National Day of Prayer observance to be held May 6 in the Nation's Capital, at the Cannon House Office Building.

On Sunday, President Obama visited Billy Graham's residence in Montreat, N.C. Franklin Graham said that during Sunday's visit, he spoke briefly with President Obama about the Pentagon's decision to spurn the task force, which has participated in the Pentagon event for several years. Graham says he told the president that anti-Christian activists are trying to remove all traces of religion from the U.S. military. "I wanted to make him aware of that. He said he would look into it,"


The National Day of Prayer became law under the Truman Administration. The National Day of Prayer task force is a privately funded organization that has been involved in the Pentagon’s observance in past years.


Graham also said the Pentagon decision was an ominous sign for the future of religious freedom in America.

"I think no question … religious freedom is under attack," he said. "There has been an erosion now for many years, but we have seen it really accelerate in the last 10 years. This political correctness that has crept in, that if we stand for what we believe in, all the sudden we are not tolerant. They almost make it look like we are participating in hate speech, when we say that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and there's no way to God except through Christ and Christ alone. They are interpreting that now as being hostile and hate speech."


Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of Wisconsin ruled that holding a National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, maintaining it violates the First Amendment's prohibition against the establishment of a religion by the federal government. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2008 by a group of atheists and agnostics.

For what its worth, my suggestion is we all pray for our Country and it's leaders.  May they recall the principals under which The United States of America was founded and not forget them.

The Last Supper Grew to Ungodly Portions

Paintings Reveal That Plate, Portion Sizes Gradually Grew in the Past Millennium

By Bill Hendrick from WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD




March 24, 2010 -- Paintings of the Last Supper over the past millennium show that plate and food serving sizes have gotten larger throughout history, possibly foretelling today’s supersized portions, according to a new study.

The findings suggest that the phenomenon of serving bigger portions on bigger plates, which pushes people to overeat, has occurred gradually over the past 1,000 years, says co-author Brian Wansink, PhD, a marketing and economics professor at Cornell University and an expert on eating habits.

“We took the 52 most famous paintings of the Last Supper and analyzed the size of the entrees, bread, and plates, relative to the average size of the average head in the painting,” he says in a news release.




Wansink and his brother and co-author, Craig Wansink, professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College, used computer-aided design technology that allowed items in 52 paintings to be scanned, rotated, and calculated, regardless of the orientation of the objects in the artwork. “To account for the varying dimensions of the paintings, the average sizes of these items were indexed based on the average size of the heads depicted in the paintings,” the authors write.

The main discernable dishes depicted in the paintings included fish or eel (18%), lamb (14%), and pork (7%), and 46% of the paintings had no discernable main dish.

'Last Supper' Portions Growing



The study, published in the April 2010 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, finds that the size of the entrees in Last Supper paintings has progressively increased 66%, plate size 66%, and bread size 23% in the past 1,000 years.

“The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance, and affordability of food,” says Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.

“We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history’s most famous dinner,” he says.



The researchers used 52 paintings depicting the Last Supper that were featured in the 2000 book Last Supper by Phaidon Press.

Craig Wansink tells WebMD in an email that “the use of the head in measuring the size of the bread was simply to focus on proportionality between the paintings.”

In short, the scholars say the trend of larger plates and portion sizes detected in recent years and linked to obesity is a phenomenon that started hundreds or even more than 1,000 years ago.

They examined 10 paintings of the Last Supper completed between 1000-1300, five done between 1300 and 1400, 15 between 1400 and 1500, 13 between 1500 ad 1600, and nine between 1600 and the year 2000.

“Perhaps the increasing portion sizes and food availability we have recently noticed is rooted in a general trend that has been artistically depicted for more than a millennium,” the authors write.

Left vs. Right Article

I have friends that have conservative views and friends that have liberal views.  I love them all, although the ones that are liberal are somewhat of an enigma to me. 

A few years back my wife and I were invited to a Reform Synagogue in Cincinnati.  If you did not know it, Cincinnati is a major center for Reform Judaism and home to Hebrew Union College.  Reform Jews are definitely liberal in their religious views and can have liberal views in politics. 

The experience of worshipping with the people that attend this schul was wonderful, unforgettable and treasured.

I don't think we can lump all liberals and all conservatives together as society and the media often portray the two groups.  I certainly do not want to be hurtful to anyone.

I found this article yesterday in the Jewish World Weekly online.  It was written by Dennis Prager.  I have reprinted the text just to share it with my friends and family. 

Prager is a gentleman on the far right of the playing field. Some of his views are rather extreme.  However I found this article to provide some insight into cultural differences.  (I can hear some of my liberal friends groaning.)  Email me if you disagree.  Keep in mind it was geared to a Jewish audience. And keep in mind Prager's views are not entirely my views. I disagree with some of his points.

Many Americans find it difficult to understand why Jews on the Left — including many who would call themselves "liberal" rather than "Left" — continued to enthusiastically support President Obama after the revelations about the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the religious mentor and close friend of Obama. This confusion is all the greater now that Obama has humiliated the prime minister of Israel and created the most tense moment in American-Israel relations in memory.

Likewise, many Americans wonder how Democratic congressmen who claim to be faithful Catholics and are pro-life could vote for the health care bill that allows for federal funding of abortions — after opposing it up to the last day.

There is an explanation.

Leftism, though secular, must be understood as a religion (which is why I have begun capitalizing it). The Leftist value system's hold on its adherents is as strong as the hold Christianity, Judaism and Islam have on their adherents. Nancy Pelosi's belief in expanding the government's role in American life, and therefore her passion for the health care bill, is as strong as a pro-life Christian's belief in the sanctity of the life of the unborn.

Given the religious nature and the emotional power of Leftist values, Jews and Christians on the Left often derive their values from the Left more than from their religion.

Now, of course, most Leftist Jews and Christians will counter that Leftist values cannot trump their religion's values because Leftist values are identical to their religion's values. But this argument only reinforces my argument that Leftism has conquered the Christianity and the Judaism of Leftist Christians and Jews. If there is no difference between Leftist moral values and those of Judaism or Christianity, then Christianity is little more than Leftism with "Jesus" rhetoric added, and Judaism is Leftism with Jewish terms — such as "Tikkun Olam" ("repairing the world") and "Prophetic values" — added.

But if Christianity is, morally speaking, really Leftism, why didn't Catholics or Protestants assert these values prior to 19th-century European Leftism? And, if Judaism is essentially a set of Left-wing values, does that mean that the Torah and the Talmud are Leftist documents? Or are the two pillars of Judaism generally wrong?

More questions:

Why are almost no Christians and Jews who believe that G-d is the author of the Bible (or, in the case of Jews, the Torah) on the Left?

Why are so few pro-life Catholic and Protestant Christians on the Left? Do they not care about "the poor"?

Of course, that is what people on the Left believe. As former head of the Democratic Party Howard Dean said, "Our moral values, in contradistinction to the Republicans, is, we don't think kids ought to go to bed hungry at night."

They believe such things despite the fact that traditional Protestants and Catholics have created more institutions to take care of the sick and needy than probably any other groups in the world. And despite the fact that religious Americans give more charity and volunteer more time than secular Americans do.

And why have the great majority of Orthodox Jews rejected the Left? For Jews on the Left, the explanation is simple: Orthodox Jews have primitive beliefs and therefore primitive values.

The obvious response is that for the Leftist, all opposition to the Left, secular or religious, is primitive and usually worse (Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Xenophobic, Ignorant, Bigoted, Intolerant, Mean-Spirited, etc.). So this doesn't tell us much. What might tell us much is this: With a handful of exceptions, Orthodox Jews know Judaism far better than non-Orthodox Jews do. Given how few of them are Leftist, this would suggest that Judaism and Leftism are indeed in conflict.

But that doesn't matter to most Jews on the Left because to be a good person (and, to those for whom it matters, to be a good Jew), one need not know Judaism, let alone follow Judaism. One needs only to feel what is right (Leftism is overwhelmingly based on feeling); and, when in doubt, one can determine what is right from The New York Times, not from sacred Jewish texts.

One of the many fundamental differences between Leftism and Judaism concerns evil. Jews and others on the Left (everywhere, not just in America) have a real problem identifying, let alone confronting, evil. Yet, for Judaism, identifying and confronting evil is as basic a Jewish value as exists. That is why, for example, there is no pacifist tradition in Judaism.
Regarding evil, the Psalmist writes — and this is recited in synagogue every Sabbath — "Those who love G-d — hate evil." And as regards pacifism, one of the Prophets, Joel (3:10), inverts what became the much more famous quotation of Isaiah and Micah: "Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears." And later, the Talmud, almost equivalent in importance to the Bible, teaches (Berachost 58a): "The Torah has said: If a man comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first."

In contrast, Leftists, including Leftist Jews and Christians:
 were the loudest in condemning President Ronald Reagan when he labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire."  

• much of their lives to opposing the war in Vietnam, which they labeled immoral even though it was a war against Stalinist tyranny.  
• opposed deposing the mass murderer Saddam Hussein.
• Many even opposed the Gulf War.
•  believe that the moral wasteland known as the United Nations is, or must be the greatest force for good on earth, not the United States.  
• oppose allowing the American military to recruit on campuses.
  

And the further Left one goes, the more one demonizes free Israel and supports the dictatorships that wish to destroy Israel.

Indeed, Israel provides the clearest proof of how Leftism is stronger than the Jewishness of most Jews on the Left. Israel is threatened with a Holocaust by Iran and tens of millions of Islamic supporters outside of Iran, and Palestinian society is saturated with the most virulent Jew-hatred since the Nazis. Yet while today's Jew- and Israel-haters call the Left home, Jews on the Left continue to be proud members of the Left. Such is the power of Leftism, the most dynamic religion in the world for the last 150 years.
And that explains Bart Stupak's vote, too. In his inner conflict between Catholicism and Leftism, the more dynamic religion won.

Romans 12:2

It takes knowledge, wisdom, and effort to be a Christian. No one said it was going to be easy.

Romans 12:2, which tells us that we are not to conform to the pattern of the world any longer, but rather we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In this context what does “World” mean?


I try to think of the fact that Jesus was Jewish. So was Paul who wrote this letter to the Romans. Jewish wisdom tells us that everything which God created in His universe comes into one of three categories:  

1. Creations made up of a combination of form (TzuRA) and matter (ChoMeR). These are constantly coming into being and ceasing to exist: for example, the bodies of man and animals, plants and metals.
2. Creations made up of a combination of form and matter that do not change from body to body or from form to form in the same way as those in the first category. The form of the creations falling into this second category is permanently fixed in their matter, and they do not change as the others do. Examples are the spheres and the stars and planets that revolve in them. The matter of which they are constituted differs from other kinds of matter and their forms from other forms.
3. Creations that consist of form but no matter, for example the MaLaChiM, angels. ["Angels" is the usual English translation of MaLaCh, but the Hebrew root, which is related to the word MeLaChaH, meaning "work" or the application of energy, indicates the spiritual "force" that is responsible for some process or other phenomenon in the world.] The creations in this category do not possess bodies or corporeal being, but rather are forms that are separate from one another.

The Greek word used here for “world” is not the Greek word kosmos, the created world, but rather aion, or “age.” The word aion does not just mean “age” in the sense that it is a finite period of time. "Aion" came to mean all that exists in the world under conditions of time.

Aion includes all the thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, impulses, and aspirations present in the world at any given time.


Hence we, as new creatures in Christ, need not to form our minds and hearts according to a pattern or mold of the ages past, present and future, but we are to be transformed, as opposed to being a conformist to the age, by not letting others mold you or think for you or becoming a follower and an imitator. 

We are to be transformed undergoing real change that continues as we go through life. It is this is a complete change that renews our mind and desire to learn more about God and His Son, Jesus.

PAT ROBERTSON SAID WHAT?

Wednesday, January 13th 2010, Pat Roberston stated on his Christian Broadcasting Network show, that the nation of Haiti has been devastated by a large earthquake because its people "made a pact with the devil."

In my humble opinion, the honorable Mr. Robertson(a man who has mastered the art of the continuous smirk) should get off his lazy keister and go to Haiti to aide in the earthquake recovery effort instead of sitting on his comfortable couch in his studio and passing judgement on some of the world's poorest people. The man has the resources to do this.

Didn't he make a similar comment a few years ago regarding New Orleans and hurricane Katrina? That was certainly helpful to the citizens of Louisianna. Thank you!

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. What is wrong with this man?



As always, I am expressing my opinion.

THE JESUS HOUSE

Israeli archaeologists announced Monday, December 21st, 2009 that they had uncovered remains of the first dwelling in the city of Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus.

The home is not far from Basilica of the Annunciation, where archaeologists found remains of a wall, a hideout behind a wall and a water system that appeared to collect rain water and condensation from the roof. Inside the home and nearby were found were clay and chalk vessels used by Galilean Jews of the time.

The findings indicate the home belonged to a simple Jewish family. They also suggest Nazareth was probably an extremely small village during this era based on evidence from the graves within the city. These graves suggest Nazareth at this time had an estimated 50 houses that were built on a plot of land that is less than four acres.


In antiquity Cities had honor ratings based on the size of the community. Since Nazareth was such a small village, it was at the bottom of the list. No small wonder one of Jesus’ disciple Nathaniel posed the question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Until this discovery, very little written evidence exists concerning Nazareth during Jesus’ lifetime. The only actual evidence prior to this discovery was obtained from graves of that era.

Only in the Bible do we have evidence that Jesus was in Nazareth. We now have an idea of what the town dwellings were like.



Alexandre works for the Israeli Antiquities Authorities at the dig in Nazareth and is directing this dig... He states the walls of the house itself and the pottery date this house to the early Roman period, which is to say, the era of Jesus. Palestinian Christians in Nazareth celebrated the announcement of this find as a Christmas gift to them from God.

He also stresses the Jewishness of the find based on the pottery and shards that have been found. Today Nazareth is currently mostly populated by Moslems and is the largest Arab city in Northern Israel with over 65,000 inhabitants. In this era it was a tiny Jewish village.

He also elaborates regarding the stone construction of this home. It suggests stability and the fact the residents were planning to spend their lives in this city. And though no glassware has been found, the stone construct implies permanency. Mud and wood constructed homes would have been built for residents planning on temporary dwellings.

The find gives credence to the fact that Jesus was a Jew living in a Jewish village. The clay and chalk vessels discovered there were used during his lifetime to ensure purity of food and water. The hiding places and caves discovered adjacent to some of the potential home sites bear out the division and politics between Jews and Roman that are outlined in the Gospels and exemplified in Jesus’ birth and death.

As with all discoveries of this nature, we draw closer and closer to actual physical evidence that is detailed in the Bible and sheds light on The Truth.