Religious Lunacy is Going to Kill People

FYI, I believe God heals and protects people from disease.
I don't believe we get to choose when He does so.
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‘They have the blessings of God’

 Modi party official says those who offer ritual prayers won’t get infected with coronavirus

FILE PHOTOS: (L) Medics wearing protective gear examine a patient at a hospital in Kozhikode in the

southern state of Kerala, India; (R) Hindu women hold offerings during the religious festival of Chhath Puja,

in Ahmedabad, India. © Reuters / Stringer; Reuters / Amit Dave

A president of India’s ruling BJP party in the state of West Bengal has said that people who turn out for prayer during mass events are immune to the coronavirus, as they enjoy the protection of higher forces.

Dilip Ghosh, president of West Bengal’s branch of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared to brush off mounting concerns over the novel coronavirus after he took part in a Hindu prayer ritual known as “puja” in the city of Egra on Tuesday.

Look what is happening here... Thousands of people have come out to offer puja.

They are drinking water and using the same hands to have the Prasad

[food offered to a Hindu deity, consumed by worshipers]...

Nothing will happen, they have the blessings of the almighty.

Ghosh has dismissed the measures put in place to stop the outbreak around the globe, such as lockdowns and other restrictions of movement, arguing the traditional way of life in India would be incompatible with such policies.

“Mothers and sisters traveled a long distance after fasting to offer puja,” he said. “This is our culture and we see it everywhere in India. This is the identity of our country and we are progressing like this.”

The regional party chief also lamented the atmosphere of fear that has engulfed entire nations, arguing that waiting out the latest health scare in self-isolation is not befitting of people whose forefathers conquered space travel.

The entire world is scared of the coronavirus and millions are staying at home. Those who have conquered the whole world, reached the moon... they are scared of coming out of their homes.

So far, 50 cases of COVID-19 – a flu-like virus particularly menacing for the elderly and people with preexisting medical conditions – have been reported on Indian soil. That includes 34 Indians and 16 Italians – hailing from the Mediterranean nation that has emerged as an unlikely viral hotbed in Europe.

No deaths have resulted from the disease in India. In a bid to shield the public from the global outbreak, New Delhi rolled out a new spate of travel restrictions on Tuesday, barring entry to nationals from France, Germany and Spain, having suspended visas issued to the residents of China, South Korea, Iran, Japan and Italy earlier.

OMGoodness! If COVID19 takes hold in India, lookout! Worshiping of false gods will not help! The only good news here is that there are very few infected people in India, but such festivals in the next several weeks could be disastrous.

Pope tells priests in live-streamed Mass

to go out and meet coronavirus patients

..

He live-streamed the mass rather than deliver his sermon

from an open window onto St Peter's Square

By Yaron Steinbuch

St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

In a livestreamed Mass, Pope Francis on Tuesday urged Catholic priests to summon the courage to visit people sickened by the coronavirus amid Italy’s national lock-down due to the deadly illness.

“Let us pray to the Lord also for our priests, that they may have the courage to go out and go to the sick people bringing the strength of God’s word and the Eucharist and accompany the health workers and volunteers in this work that they are doing,” said the pontiff, who was alone at the Casa Santa Marta chapel in Vatican City.

Meanwhile, St. Peter’s Square was almost empty Tuesday with only a few dozen people strolling around, most of them without masks.

The Italian government on Monday extended restrictions on movement from the hard-hit northern regions to the rest of the country — affecting all 60 million inhabitants.

The restrictions, which involved checkpoints on roads and at railroad stations, are set to remain in place until April 3 in efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which has claimed over 460 lives in the country. 

UPDATE: 827 as of Wednesday, March 11th.

More than 9,000 people have been diagnosed with the illness in Italy as of Tuesday.

More than 12,000 as of Wednesday!

The Vatican, a walled city-state in the heart of Rome, is respecting the lock-down and has imposed restrictions on movement and contact among personnel.

One person inside Vatican City has tested positive for the virus and five people who came into contact with that individual are under precautionary quarantine.

More Than a Dozen Killed at Nigeria Church After New Year's Service

War on Christianity - Nigeria

Islam's first massacre of the year came just 20 minutes after midnight, New Years

By Susan McFarland

UPI -- At least 14 people were killed Monday by gunmen in southern Nigeria after a New Year's Day church service, police said.

Gunmen attacked two different locations at the church, in a coordinated effort targeting Christians returning from church around 12: 20 a.m., officials said.

Officials said shooters fired at random at the church, killing some at close range during the early morning ambush after a group attended midnight service in the region of Rivers state.

Fireworks during celebrations in Omuku made it difficult to hear the gunfire, witnesses said. More than 26 people were shot in the attack, about 50 miles from Port Harcourt.

The area has seen an increase in violent crime after a government amnesty program for former gang members was allowed to lapse. The program halted violence in the region, which had been inundated by militants who demanded that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be kept in oil-producing regions.

This massacre was probably not an economics statement, but rather an Islamic assault on Christianity. Dropping the amnesty program may have induced more criminals to be sympathetic to Islamic beliefs and intolerance, but this was certainly an anti-Christian assault.

And it is not surprising that it took Islam just 20 minutes into the new year to perpetrate its first massacre of 2018. Unfortunately, too few people will learn anything from this. Too few people know anything about Islamic history or even the current situation. The west will pay a heavy price for its deliberate ignorance and liberal lunacy.

United Church of Canada Passes Israel Divestment Resolution

This policy by the UCC is just wrong on so many levels. It reveals a remarkable lack of knowledge of what is going on in the middle east. It also reveals an inherent antisemitism that is extremely unbecoming of a Christian church.

Protesters shout slogans during a rally in Paris, France, Thursday, June 3, 2010, as they demonstrate against Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, and man in foreground wears a t-shirt calling for a boycott on Israel. (Jacques Brinon/AP)Protesters shout slogans during a rally in Paris, France, Thursday, June 3, 2010, as they demonstrate against Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, and man in foreground wears a t-shirt calling for a boycott on Israel. (Jacques Brinon/ AP)

Josefin Dolsten
RSSNEWSROOM

Nonbinding decision by country’s largest Protestant denomination 

further expands a three-year boycott policy

The United Church of Canada passed a resolution Tuesday during its 42nd General Council encouraging divestment from Israel in order “to address the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories by the State of Israel.”

The new resolution called for “initiating and developing a program of education and advocacy in cooperation with our partners, related to divestment from and economic sanctions against all corporations and institutions complicit in and benefiting from the illegal occupation,” according to the UCC 42nd General Council website.

The UCC is Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, with more than two million members. In 2012, the organization passed a resolution boycotting settlement-produced goods.

The statement also urged members to discourage “tourism which bolsters the oppression of Palestinians.”

The new decision was meant to be understood as focusing on “advocacy and encouragement, rather than a mandatory or binding direction to the church.”

United Church of
Canada logo

Not all UCC members, however, were in favor of the resolution.

Rev. Andrew Love, the founder of Bridges Not Boycotts, a group that opposes anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) policies in liberal Protestant churches, said, “The ugly face of anti-Semitism has found a warm embrace in the BDS campaign against Israel.”

“Now the United Church has added a divestment strategy to its boycott campaign. It is targeting Israel for attack; yet, it still thinks it can be in genuine dialogue with the Jewish community in Canada,” added Love.

The anti-BDS organization noted in a press release that UCC had also approved a policy to strengthen the relationship with Canada’s Jewish community, which the organization saw as being in “obvious contradiction” with the divestment policy.

Rev. Love, you are right-on. You are my hero for today for trying to speak truth and sense to a pathetic, uninformed policy.