I realize this issue is debatable, delicate, and as dangerous as an attempt to shave a bobcat in a phone booth. Millennials should do their research about phone booths.

Same-sex “marriage” was wrong yesterday, today, and tomorrow regardless of what any court, church, legislative body, or professor declares. If a million experts claim an error, no one is expected to believe it but must call out their mistake, even with a lonely voice.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2015 that same-sex marriage was legal. However, they could not determine if it was right or moral. After the Court recently decided abortion was not in the Constitution, there has been speculation that the Court may realize that same-sex “marriage” is also absent. Hence, the stir, especially in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, and various cities in the hinterland.

In a seizure of common sense, the Court might decide that pretending to be a different gender is insane, attempting to change genders is illegal, and drag queen shows for kids are illicit, illegitimate, insane, and illegal.

The natives on the LGBTQ reservation are restless, raging, and rebellious.

Most people will assert that I am beating a dead horse because almost everyone believes in same-sex “marriage,” but that does not deal with the issue.  Cities have been destroyed by flaunting their wicked behavior in the face of God. You may faintly remember Sodom and Gomorrah.

Many decent people are experts at straddling the perversion fence, while the LGBTQ crowd profess motives of love, inclusion, equality, and justice. Informed people know that that crowd only thinly disguises their hatred of all things normal. Hatred for Christians is blatant. They enthusiastically wave the colorful LGBTQ flag reminiscent of a Jim Jones Peoples’ Temple cult rally. Although the grape Kool-Aid would be absent.

I suggest the muted response to perversion by usually decent, even Christian people is motivated by fear of being laughed at, ostracized, and an inadequate ability to defend the biblical position.  So, it’s easier and more popular to go with the flow–even if it’s over Niagara.

It is dreadful that any court, especially the U.S. Supreme Court, would discuss, debate, and presume to decide same-sex “marriage”!  God decided it a long time ago!  Even 20 years ago, the subject would not have been discussed in polite company, and anyone who predicted that sane people would seriously discuss homosexual “marriage” would have been hooted out of the marketplace of ideas.

When the U. S. Supreme Court said that same-sex “marriage” is legal, it was a sad day in the U.S. and signaled a dark, dismal, decadent future. Frankly, I don’t believe we have a future.  The fact that same-sex “marriage” is debatable indicates our depravity, disobedience, and destiny.  Disobedience to God is costly.  I think payday is coming, and the chickens are about ready to roost.

I believe the above because, as a nation, we rejected the Bible as our standard and guide.  We expelled God and the Bible from our schools, making them incompetent nut factories.  Until recently, we have been killing innocent, helpless, unborn babies for decades, even after they survived abortion!  For decades, the media have ridiculed genuine Christians dismissing principled living, Christian schools, biblical authority, personal conversion, etc.  Now we have national leaders of both parties, who have endorsed, encouraged, and engaged in perversion.  Maybe it would be helpful if I reminded everyone that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of those evil activities.

We are at this juncture because the American people have rejected God’s standard and now base their decisions on how they “feel” or “think” about something.  Nothing can be affirmed, advocated, and approved when there is no absolute standard.  But where does it end? Some things are wrong if done by anyone, at any time, under any conditions. Murder, rape, perversion, cursing, thievery, and personal hate are always wrong.  Same with drunkenness, abortion, and illegal drugs.

It matters not how one feels, thinks, or believes.  Nor does it matter if some misfit, cowardly preacher gives such offensive (and sinful) behavior a pass and seeks to make such behavior acceptable and respectable.  No person on earth has the right to do those things even if they don’t believe in a Supreme Being.  To say otherwise is to drive society to the place where “everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”  With the present debate about same-sex “marriage,” we are at that place.

Can anyone defend multiple wives or husbands or sex with children?  How about sex with a favorite goat? Aren’t some things naturally, unquestionably wrong? How about heterosexuals living with barnyard morals? Preachers of permissiveness ridicule those questions, but they don’t reply to them!  It matters not what I think, or anyone else thinks, but it sure matters what a holy, all-powerful God thinks.  And we will all stand before Him and give a personal account of what we believed and how we lived.  The Bible is the only safe, sure standard by which anyone can decide any issue.  To live any other way is anarchy and treason against God and the Bible.

Since homosexual “marriage” is still lawful (but never right), I wonder if the broadminded proponents will be broadminded and tolerant of preachers who refuse to marry Fred to Frank and Frick?  Will the LGBTQ paragons of equality support those churches that refuse to hire homosexuals as staff persons?  Of course, they will not support resisting churches since most of the proponents of perversion are hypocrites. They are defending a castle in ruins. Inconsistent homosexuals tell Christians not to moralize about perversion while they moralize about those who moralize about perversion.

Therefore, those who want to live without any restraints and support homosexuality proving their broadmindedness, are defending the indefensible.

Apostles of permissiveness denounce marriage inequality, not knowing that inequality came from God’s original creation as humanity was divided into separate but equal genders, man and woman.  The earliest civilizations followed this pattern because it was best for society.  Differences between men and women will not disappear because some court changes laws or definitions.

No court or politician can change basic math. Under all conditions, four plus four will always equal 8. It doesn’t matter how anyone feels about it and what laws are passed. No court can successfully require a man to produce a baby. No court can successfully change a male into a female or a female into a male. Names can be changed; documents altered; everyone can pretend; celebrations can be held, but human nature will not change.

Furthermore, dedicated Christians will never adjust their convictions whatever the price, privation, pressure, persecution, or prosecution. Weak, sniveling, compromising Christians may embrace and even defend sodomy, adultery, pornography, etc.

No Christian can choose to be exempt from this warfare and live peacefully with their conscience.  Consenting to unquestioned evil is a disgrace, disobedience, and disaster for the cause of Christ and the compromising person.  Many EvanJellycals, not wanting to swim against the tide of public opinion, have taken a cowardly stand; others, including some Fundamentalists, are standing in safe shadows, having taken a vow of silence–at least on this hot issue.

Silence may be golden, but in this case, it is yellow.

In this case, a definite stand should not require any defense to thinking people because it is so evident that old-fashioned Christians are on the right side. The honest Christian realizes that personal integrity is dearer than life itself and is more important than receiving awards, especially from a corrupt, compromising, and craven populous.

Many silent preachers are not morally bad or scripturally deficient but are simply cowards.  Most people fear someone or something; thus, leaders live in fear and stand silent in safe shadows or join the herd on controversial issues.

Evangelical writer Philip Yancey said, “I’ve met wonderful, committed Christians who attend MCC churches [Metropolitan Community Churches], and I wish that the larger church had the benefit of their faith.” Grovel, crawl, cower.

Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions, saying: “Homosexuals are children of God and have the right to be in a family.”

Evil is evil if everyone says it is good, and the Pope cannot change it. Evil is still evil even though some Fundamentalists and Conservatives are bigots, haters, and unchristian. That doesn’t change the fact that evil is always evil and will be punished by God. And it can be forgiven by God!

Deviant behavior, if left unchallenged, always becomes the accepted norm. We have observed this in free nations over the last few years.

There is a natural tendency for some critics of perversion to take a stand against it without taking a stand against it. They tell us it is all right to be a homosexual as long as homosexuality is not practiced! Others will say it is acceptable to believe perversion is wrong but will not go a step further and say perversion is always sinful.

Advocating everyone’s rights is not enough. Fight also for what is right. Grab the Sword and join the fray. Don’t whine in safe shadows. Don’t simply defend the right of LGBTQ critics to be critical but make it clear that the defense and practice of perversion are always wrong under all circumstances.

I just lost most of my readers, even Christians.

Martin Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him.  Where the battle rages there, the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefront besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

I stand with Luther and God. Pretty good company.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former Indiana House of Representatives member who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for eight years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Please send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”  John Bunyan, Baptist Preacher

Man, apart from God, is capable of doing anything. Jeremiah 17:9 reveals, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” It is also a fact of human nature that vile individuals almost always try to assuage their own guilt by enticing others to participate in similar evil practices as the present push to promote perversion through Pride parades and drag queen depravity.

Make no mistake: drag queens and their defenders, especially with children present, are despicable, depraved, and dangerous people.

For decades, decadent men have dressed as women (even though the Bible forbids cross-dressing), but today unprincipled men have taken it to a new level. Homosexual men, dressed as women, with false breasts and garish makeup, perform lewd dances for children’s entertainment. Moreover, such lewd activities are even sponsored by the military, schools, churches, and libraries! Spectators are expected to push money into the waistband or brasserie as tokens of appreciation. Those who do so are as perverted as the “drag queens.”

At school or church, or library drag queen story hours, debauched men dressed as women teach children there are no boundaries and no absolutes.  We are told the story hours teach literacy, personal expression, self-acceptance, and other positive attributes. But they teach far more.

Everyone knows this push for deviate, degrading, and damaging story hours for kids is to make perversion acceptable and groom kids for future degeneracy.  Hey, if you can be arrested for taking a child to a strip show, why can’t you go to prison for exposing innocent kids to depravity in a library?

The New York Post reported a group incorporated as Drag Queen Story Hour NYC “has received a total of $207,000 in taxpayer funds since 2018 from the city and state.” So, kids are being groomed for homosexuals at public institutions and funded by stupid taxpayers.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “Drag storytellers, and the libraries and schools that support them, are advancing a love of diversity, personal expression, and literacy that is core to what our city embraces.” No, NYC reflects lawlessness, danger, depravity, high taxes, and sane citizens have been fleeing the city in droves for years.

While schools, churches, and libraries are exposing children to such vileness, San Francisco Bay area authorities are investigating a possible hate crime because a group of men shouted anti-LGBTQ slurs during Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo Library. Wow, those local authorities sure know what’s important. But then San Francisco has been run by descendants of Sodom for decades.

The Speaker of the House gave enormous credibility by appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars reality show. Nancy Pelosi groveled saying, “My honor to be here, to say to all of you how proud we all are of you. Thank you for the joy and beauty you bring to the world. Your freedom of expression of yourselves in drag is what America is all about.”

That maggot-gagging statement will be read at America’s funeral. And maybe at hers. Anyone who gives any credibility to such child-damaging events is lower than a snake’s belly in a deep well.

A few days ago, Pelosi added to her debauched résumé, by being honored by pathetic Pope Francis at St Peter’s and received communion that her principled local archbishop had refused her since she is a major voice supporting baby killers. Her husband, presumed to be sober at the time, accompanied her.

It seems American Legion halls have higher standards than most churches.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said during a drag event in Lansing that “drag queens make everything better” and there should be “a drag queen for every school.” Yes sir, a drag queen for every school. Schools don’t need the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule, or a phonics’ chart, or McGuffey’s Reader. They might grow up to be honest, decent, kind, principled, even Christian. And know how to read.

A popular drag queen, “Kitty Demure” issued a stark warning to parents about drag queen shows saying, “There is a lot of filth that goes on, a lot of sexual stuff that goes on.” That is obvious from watching any drag queen performance or homosexual parade.  It was a characteristic of Sodom as Isaiah wrote in 3:9, “they show their sin as Sodom; they hide it not…”

One pervert performer whined, “It’s a way to make people feel happy. It’s to entertain. It’s to make people smile.” No, it’s to make kids be more pliable to sexual deviancy and acceptance of perversion and reject biblical, normal living. Another promoter of perversion said the story hours are “lifesaving.” No, they are life-twisting.

The media reported last week that a Pennsylvania drag queen was charged with 25 counts of pornography. He could not post bail and was locked in the pokey. That’s where he/she/it belongs. Now, they should throw away the key.

Parents are told that while the men are pretending to be women, the story hour is not about sexuality or sexualizing children or grooming children. But that is dishonest. That should not surprise anyone since people who twist, confuse, and harm children are capable of doing anything. We must remember the words of Christ who said in Luke 17:2, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”

Stories are read, sometimes benign, however, there is always dancing, bouncing, bright colors, singing, sparkles, glitter, etc. While those things can be interesting and alluring to children, kids should not be taught to associate sex with glitter and sparkles, balloons, and music.

And it is parents’ responsibility to teach sex and sexual awareness to their children. Parents decide on when a girl wears a brassiere, makeup, and high heels. Parents decide how short a skirt is and how it fits a daughter. Parents decide on when a child goes on sleepovers (almost never) and starts dating and what music is heard. It is parents who instill in children about physical contact such as holding hands, hugging, kissing, etc., not any other group. Parents, not teachers, teach children that sex is one of the greatest gifts to mankind but dangerous if abused outside of marriage. Parents should teach children that sex is not sinful but sacred and special and follows a lifetime commitment of marriage.

Children are in school to learn the basics of living in a corrupt world. Their values about sex, morality, religion, etc., are not the bailiwick of educators but of parents. It is shocking that parents have shown such restraint in response to drag queen hours exploiting their children. If parents took a school apart, brick by brick, I would be averse to finding them guilty as a jury member. Maybe a $20 fine—suspended.

Of course, children are sexual beings, but that does not mean they need to know and experience the many complicated sexual facts that would be appropriate when older. Forty-two to seventy-three percent of children exhibit sexual behaviors by age 13 according to an article in the National Library of Medicine.  At a very young age, children begin to examine and explore their body by touching, and rubbing various body parts, including their genitals. It is parents’ obligation to provide guidance and knowledge about these body parts and their functions. Small children commonly try to view the genitals or breasts of others, stand too close to other people, and touch their own genitals; however, after age five, “sexual behaviors become less common, less frequent, or more covert.”

Children, at a young age, should be taught to respect each other, and it is not acceptable to touch anyone else’s private parts. Children need age-appropriate explanations. They must be strongly advised to always tell if another child or adult touches their private parts. Children should know that private parts are covered by a swimming suit. Furthermore, younger children should be taught to respect the privacy of their older siblings and parents. Your child knows it’s also your job to protect them. Never permit a child to have access to a television or computer in seclusion.

Proponents of perversion defend the offensive story hours in another attempt to make degeneracy acceptable to normal people. They accuse normal people of hate, bigotry, narrow-mindedness, etc., not even giving a nod to the possibility that we love our kids and want them to be normal. Moreover, cross-dressing, multi-genders, transgenders, perversion, and any sexual activity before marriage is wrong. Any parent who willingly permits a child to be exposed to such story hours should be investigated by proper authorities. I remember when kids were removed from their homes because a television set was not permitted and many examples of parents losing children for a smack on the rear end.

No one ever accused Democrats of being very bright, and now they are positioning themselves as defenders of drag queen shows. Good, that may be the only positive thing that comes from this deviant debacle. They can ride this all the way to crushing defeat in November and in 2024.

God created us, male and female, and planned for it to remain that way. To pretend to be the opposite gender is rebellion against God. Teaching such depravity to children is even worse in my opinion than the depravity at Sodom, and everyone knows what happened to Sodom.

Much archeology is going on near the Dead Sea site of ancient Sodom so it would not surprise me if archeologists uncover a worn, dirty, faded rainbow flag providentially protected (and discovered) in the debris of ancient Sodom. Maybe not, but I’m sure such flags will be discovered in the ruins of the greatest experiment in history—the once-great American Republic.

Maybe someday in the future, after freedom has disappeared from the earth, freedom-seeking immigrants exploring what used to be New York City and New York Harbor will find a portion of the 450,000 pound Statue of Liberty. No longer a symbol of freedom and broken but still clearly discernable protruding out of the water. It would be apropos if a rainbow flag should be found wrapped around the broken torch of the lady.

Of course, the lady’s torch will no longer shine since freedom was surrendered much earlier thanks to the LGBTetc. crowd, a distinct group who only faintly disguise their hatred of normal families.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan

What do Bill Clinton, George Bush, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden have in common? They all fornicated, and Clinton lied to America then insulted us with a confession. All these men should be kicked out of their churches, but that won’t happen because many religious leaders are unfaithful to the religious principles they profess so loudly. They are without courage, convictions, and commitment and are as dishonorable as the politicians.

Some courageous and conscientious Roman Catholic clergy are making noises about refusing Biden communion because he supports the butchering of innocent babies on the taxpayers’ credit cards. However, the chances of Biden being refused communion are about the same as Pope Francis resigning and hiring on as a Hulu dancer in Hawaii.

The clergy were not always so supine.

Ambrose Bishop of Milan wrote to a church member in 390 A.D., warning him that he had been excommunicated because of his public and heinous sin. He also warned him that he would not be permitted to receive communion; however, that member was not just Larry Layman. He was Theodosius, the top honcho of the Roman Empire!

It seems that a Roman official had been murdered during a political disturbance in Thessalonica, and Theodosius ordered his army to the Greek city to exact a pound of flesh. They took a little more than that since about 7,000 people of all ages were killed. Like most dictators, presidents-for-life, emperors, and others, Theodosius planned to teach the untutored, unwashed, and unarmed citizens a lesson about “who’s the boss.”

Ambrose knew that he might be killed or exiled for his reprimand of the Emperor since emperors don’t like to be corrected or threatened by religious leaders. However, Ambrose’s principled action resulted in Theodosius repenting! That is the desired result of all church discipline. Ambrose said, “The emperor is in the Church, not above it.” The religious pressure on the Emperor may have prompted his repentance, so its genuineness is in question.   Coerced repentance, if not heartfelt, is not repentance.

No one knows if Theodosius sincerely repented or not but at least, he satisfied the Bishop and was not excommunicated.

Bill Clinton is a Baptist, and his many trysts, affairs, romps, assaults, rapes, etc., with Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick, Sally Perdue, Paula Jones, ad infinitum screamed for biblical discipline. In the mix was his televised denial of an affair, so he became a public liar. You may remember that women were not always believed about their affairs as they are now. In the old days, they had to support an accusation; now, they only have to speak it.

Clinton’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) pastor refused to bring disciplinary charges against him, thereby disgracing all SBC pastors, making a mockery of church membership.

Some foremost Evangelical leaders made periodic trips to the White House to advise Clinton in spiritual matters when they should have imitated the prophet Nathan and shouted, “Thou art the man.” Clinton lived eight years in the White House when he should have been in the big house.

George W. Bush was haunted by two sex scandals that received little notice. One involved a criminal complaint and lawsuit of rape as charged by Margie Denise Schoedinger, a 38-year-old black woman from a Houston suburb who alleged she dated Bush as a minor. She charged Bush with rape in October 2000 alleging, “race based harassment and individual sex crimes committed against her and her husband.” She shot herself in the head nine months after filing suit against Bush.

Usually, that would be worldwide news, but it was subdued.

The second scandal was an accusation by former Austin stripper Tammy Phillips of having an affair with Bush that ended in 1999. She was a 35-year-old partner in a Carrollton, Texas gym. She asserted that she had been introduced to then-governor Bush by her prominent Republican uncle in December 1997 during a political function at a hotel in Midland, Texas.

The Phillips’ scandal was reported in The National Enquirer, New York Post, and other media outlets but disappeared as the 2000 presidential campaign got underway. After that, Phillips dropped off the face of the earth.

Bush moved into the White House with the help of prominent Evangelical leaders.

Donald Trump had numerous affairs, even boasted about them, denied them, paid off prostitutes, and showed no remorse, repentance, or restitution. Yet, his Presbyterian Church never disciplined him as a layman or president, and effervescent Evangelical leaders continued to fawn over him. It was one thing to prefer him as president above another Clinton and another thing to pretend he was a conscientious Christian.

When Biden “joined” a Roman Catholic Church or when he came of age, he knew the church taught that abortion was not only a sin but also a crime. Thus, approving, applauding, and advocating abortion is not like disagreeing with the Pope’s ludicrous comments about capitalism or social justice. If Biden (and others) had character, they would do the principled thing and remove their membership, and if their pastors had character, they would confront the offenders.

Joe Biden should be refused communion for his numerous lies, plagiarism, cursing, and his flaunting of Catholic doctrine. But worse than that, Biden took Jill, I mean Dr. Jill, away from her husband, although both Joe and Jill try to make their illicit fling a starry-eyed fairy story. However, the breakup of a family and the stealing of affection are never romantic. It is worthy of being booted from church membership, not simply being refused communion.

The current and former presidents have filthy mouths, proof that their mothers did not wash them out with soap. While cursing is not as vile as adultery, it is enough to forbid him communion or remove from him church membership.

The following quotes of Bush are so revolting, I even refused to disguise his words. I have become weary of the vile words used by so many lowlifes in recent months. Some think disguising vile words gives a pass, but would I be prompting my readers to mentally say the words, thereby coarsening their lives. So I refuse to “think” the words myself. Yeah, I know, I’m living in a bubble, but that’s my preference. Decent, normal, educated, people don’t think that way and don’t talk that way.

According to Time (March 23, 2003), George Bush told three U.S. Senators (and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice), “[*&%] Saddam. We’re taking him out!” Before his election, Bush called the Wall Street Journal’s Al Hunt a “[*&%] in a Dallas restaurant in the presence of Hunt’s wife and 4-year old son! The president also said (into a live microphone) that New York Times reporter Adam Clymer was a “major-league [*&%].” Evidently, Mr. Bush doesn’t know that Christians don’t talk that way, and even non-Christian gentlemen don’t talk that way in the presence of ladies.

Whatever we say should be unambiguous and not be embarrassing, or an insult to others who believe their yea should be yea and their nay should be nay. Vulgar (even non-vulgar) curse words are never acceptable by civil, cultured, and Christian people. I am told that such filthy speech does not affect one’s public office, but that is not the issue. The issue is membership in a professing Christian church.

Ephesians 4:29 commands, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.” That is a command of God to the president of the U.S. as it is to the lowliest member of his church. Their pastors should say, “Even if you confessed those public sins to Christ, they must be confessed to our church, so our youth and the general public will understand that Christians don’t talk that way, not even the president of the United States. You, sir, are not an exception.”

Clinton is a Baptist, Bush is a Methodist, Trump a Presbyterian, and Biden is a Catholic. Not one of their pastors has the moral courage to call for—even demand their repentance. But what is shocking, even alarming, is that Evangelical leaders are so silent! Where are all the pro-family representatives? Some of them applauded Clinton, Bush, Trump, and Biden when they should be appalled!

It seems most Evangelicals are Evan.jelly.cals.

It is my opinion that many Evangelical churches are an appendage to the Republican Party, and their pastors are aging and graceless cheerleaders for the GOP. Others, especially Black preachers, have been in bed with Democrats for decades and would support Louis Farrakhan for President as long he was a Democrat! Such people are strong on preaching and soft on principle. Churches used to be the moral compass of America, but instead of a force to be reckoned with, they have become a farce to be ridiculed.

None of the above men should receive special attention because they are powerful celebrities. In the local church, everyone, and I mean everyone, is equal. However, it seems some are treated more equally than are others. Not only are the offending men guilty and reprehensible, so are their do-nothing pastors!

All above men should be called into their pastor’s office for possible repentance with a public apology the following Sunday or be removed from church membership! If they refuse to publicly repent, each pastor should say, “Since you will not repent and confess, you will be publicly removed from our membership since you refuse to abide by biblical standards.”

After all, when a person joins a church, he knows what the church believes and that the church has the right, yes even duty, to see that all members follow their teaching. However, the above men, through arrogance, lust, lack of character, etc., chose to disobey God and their church rules. Yet, no one has called for their dismissal, and many argue that they should not be disciplined in any way!

Some social clubs and lodges have higher standards than many churches.

Everyone knows the above offenders will not stand at the church altar sobbing uncontrollably, confessing, as did another head of state thousands of years ago: “Have mercy upon me, O God…blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin….Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Moreover, because I demand that U.S. presidents are not exceptions and must experience remorse, repentance, and restoration, radical leftists will accuse me of being a sanctimonious Bible-thumper.

Frankly, I seldom thump my Bible and never really hard!

Moreover, I’ve been called worse things by better people.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent being Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning!  The eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog.  Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his  articles, and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

Fanatics in India “actually believe and are taking cow dung baths to prevent or cure themselves from sustaining the deadly virus.” And the Evening Standard reported, “a Hindu group in India was hosting a cow urine drinking party as a means to immunize themselves from the coronavirus.”

Of course, Americans have their fools as well. One famous televangelist (worth $760 million) “would like people to believe that coronavirus can be cured through their TV sets, so long as those televisions are tuned into his show.” The Evangelical preacher Kenneth Copeland urged viewers to “put their hands on their screens and be cured of the coronavirus.” Copeland, who occasionally stumbles on the truth destroys any credibility with the “name it and claim it” teaching and his emphasis on money. While people have a right to give to whomever, it is usually the poor who keep the likes of Copeland in expensive suits, living in mansions, and flying around the world in plush private jets.

The above reactions are old news for old plagues. Men have not changed and they react the same way under similar circumstances during all ages.

When bubonic plague reached Paris in 1348, Philip VI called in his top medical people from the University of Paris to give him some answers relating to the origin of the pestilence that was ravaging the city. His learned academicians decided that the answer was astrology! Their explanation was so reasonable that anyone would accept it–anyone, that is, whose I.Q. equaled, but did not exceed his hat size.

The esteemed professors informed his Majesty that there had been a conjunction of Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter in the house of Aquarius on March 20, 1345–at 1:00 P.M. However, they did not indicate if that was Eastern Standard Time or Central Time. They told the king that the conjunction of Saturn and Mars meant death and destruction, and the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter released pestilence into the air. This was a Royal Con Job, and the king should have had a―You‘ve got to be pulling my royal leg look—but they assured him that the warm and humid Jupiter sucked up the water and nefarious vapors from the earth. Then, naturally, Mars, known to be hot and dry, ignited a fire.

Of course.

Those professionals were certified experts! The big surprise is that the king and his court did not fall down to the floor holding their sides with hysterical laughter; however, we must remember that it was an age of superstition and ignorance. At least the king got the message that Paris was not the place to spend that spring and summer. The Paris Medical Association had decided on the origins of the plague, so they could now give expert advice about how to escape being cut down like grass before the scythe.

The experts told the king, not to eat fat meats, poultry, and olive oil. The learned doctors told their patients not to sleep past dawn, don‘t bathe, and forego sexual intercourse since it could be fatal! During those days, quackery was part and parcel of most of the disciplines. The quacks wore academic gowns and were a part of the intellectual brotherhood—just like today. Moreover, as today, no one dared say, “But that‘s quackery.” After all, one might be accused of being an independent thinker! Horrors!

The people spent their hard-earned money for pills, potions, and preservatives, and in a later plague, infected folk sought a cure by bathing in urine collected from people who had eaten cabbage!

When it was decided that the Black Death was airborne, they were told to visit, even live in foul-smelling sewers among the rats that carried the disease! Victims would often bathe in urine several times a day and drank a glass of urine. Others cut open their sores and applied a paste made from tree resins, flower roots, and human feces. I don’t think their medical plans covered such an alternative treatment.

Dr. Thomas Vicary, the surgeon to Henry VIII, invented the very popular treatment called the Vicary Method. With a live chicken, he would shave its butt and strap it to their swollen lymph nodes. Then, when the chicken got sick, they would wash it and repeat the process until only the chicken or victim was dead or alive.

During most plagues, it was commonly believed that a lucky charm would keep the plague away. Dr. George Thomson, a famous physician, wore a dead toad around his neck.

I assume Dr. Thomson was board certified.

Pope Clement VI declared that all people who died of the plague were forgiven of all their sins so they could enter Heaven. Since no man on the face of the earth has such ability, the Pope gave the plague victims false hope. Admittance to Heaven comes only through faith in Christ.

Recently, the Catholic Church granted forgiveness of sins to the faithful who died of the Chinese coronavirus. The decree also covers healthcare workers and relatives who care for their sick family members. To qualify for forgiveness, one must read the Bible “for at least half an hour.” Pope Francis, like Pope Clement VI, assumed authority he does not have and gave dying people and relatives a false hope.

I don’t know if Clement and Francis were fools, frauds, or fanatics, but I do know their statements were false, and the coronavirus races on.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles, and click here to support his work with a donation.)

Usually three strikes and you’re out but Francis is still in—for now. But Catholics keep asking if the Pope is a Catholic. A Catholic writer suggested that while there are echoes of concern among Catholics, the Church has survived much worse including: Pope Stephen VI (896–897) who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, de-fingered, and thrown in the Tiber; Pope John XII (955–964) murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife; Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048) who “sold” the Papacy; Pope Urban VI (1378–1389) who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured; Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin; and Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.

Of course, many more problem popes could be mentioned but I will not do so. Moreover, I could produce a list of scandals among Fundamental Christian leaders, but I won’t.

Referring to those who rescued migrants on the Mediterranean Sea five years earlier, Francis said, “I thank the rescuers for embodying in our day the parable of the Good Samaritan, who stopped to save the life of the poor man beaten by bandits,” Francis said. “He didn’t ask where he was from, his reasons for travelling or his documents…he simply decided to care for him and save his life.” Francis called for treating migrants as Jesus had treated the poor and disadvantaged, but also stressed that migrants ought to be properly integrated into society.

Francis is a better theologian than that.

Christ told the parable to establish an individual Christian’s responsibility to be a compassionate, caring, and committed person in his or her daily interaction with others, especially the hurting, the innocent, and the poor. The parable has nothing to say about immigration, integration, or whether a nation should have open or closed borders. The Pope tried to take a teaching obviously for individuals and applied it to government action. Francis was like many Baptists who take a text then depart therefrom to say what they want to say under the color of biblical support.

That is mishandling, malfeasance, and a mistake and God warned about misusing His Word.

Two thousand years ago, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for its danger and difficulty. I have travelled that same road many times and it is again dangerous today because it is part of the Palestinian Authority not controlled by Israel. In Christ’s day, anything could happen on that difficult road that made its way through rough desert terrain where dangerous robbers hid in caves waiting to attack unsuspecting travelers.

Tensions were particularly high in the early decades of the first century B.C. because Samaritans had desecrated the Jewish Temple with human bones during Passover. Josephus reports frequent violent conflicts between Jews and Samaritans throughout the first half of the first century. The Samaritans and Jews hated each other that went back hundreds of years. The hatred was so intense, Jews traveling to Galilee in the north would be expected to take a direct route north, but that would take them through Samaria. Instead, they travelled much out of their way to stay away from Samaria.

Christ made a point of going through Samaria in John 4 to contact, confront, and convert a rejected, immoral woman. It was a shocking thing to do. He did that because she was a woman and a Samaritan and had many needs. Christ was making a statement and giving us an example to love even the despised even going out of our way to do so.

In His parable, a traveler is robbed and beaten and left for dead on the road to Jericho. Two highly trained and highly principled men, a Levite and a priest, refused to help him but a hated Samaritan helped victim onto his beast and took him to an inn to be cared for at his expense! Christ made a “good guy” out of the “bad guy” as this individual of a social group all Jews disapprove of exhibited moral behavior superior to individuals of their own group.

Oh, my! A mixed breed and theologically messed up Samaritan more principled than a Jew! Impossible!

Continuing his mishandling and misapplying the parable, the pope promised his “solidarity and encouragement” with migrants, and called for all segments to “work out together the path of integration.” Pope Francis upbraided those who fail to open their doors to migrants, comparing them to the oppressed poor of the Old Testament who were “trampled on.”

Pope Francis tried to make the Good Samaritan parable an immigration problem but it had nothing to do with borders or separated children. It was simply an instructive parable to inform Christians how to react to others during their everyday lives. It has nothing to say about any government action or crossing borders.

Commenting on this parable, Calvin pointed out that people are not born merely for themselves, but rather “mankind is knit together with a holy knot … we must not live for ourselves, but for our neighbors.” Most of the early church fathers allegorized this parable, but Calvin was correct.

I seldom quote Martin Luther King, Jr. but he commented on this parable turning it into a political/social problem. He said, “One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial.”

With a caveat, I agree, but then King ran into tall weeds when he added, “It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” The implication is that government was to be blamed for making the traveler a victim and must step in and do whatever is necessary to see that no one is injured on that dangerous road again. Or, maybe mandate that the priest and Levite be required to come to the aid of injured men. At least mandate that beggars will no longer exist.

Maybe by government fiat!

When will Liberals learn that government cannot mandate love and compassion?

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

In early September of 1997, a London talk show host asked me, “Well, Dr. Boys, does that mean Mother Teresa is not in Heaven?” I gulped, thought for a second, and said, “Well, I can’t know any person’s heart but if Teresa trusted the Roman Catholic Church, baptism, or her good and admirable works to get her to Heaven, she is not there.” The hostess and the audience members gasped!

I had been asked to do the show dealing with Princess Diana since some Christian groups in England were saying that the recently deceased Diana was now in Hell. After dealing with where I thought Diana was, the host hit me with the Teresa question since the Catholic nun (known as the Saint of the Gutters) had just died. It is one thing to suggest that an adulterous, drinking, former princess was in Hell but something else to suggest that one of the most kind, sacrificing, and famous do-gooders of history might not be in Heaven!

I told the host “Good people don’t necessarily go to Heaven and bad people don’t necessarily go to Hell.” She was astounded and said, “Would you please explain that?” I was thrilled to do so. I made it very clear that people go to Heaven only by placing personal faith in the shed blood of Christ.

I was on a roll so I said, “In fact, there are people in Hell tonight who, while on this earth, lived a better life than some people in Heaven.” She was shocked again and said, “Will you please explain that?” I was thrilled to do so–again. I explained that some people are genuine Christians but are very nominal in their daily living while there were non-Christians who are more noble, kind, decent, and generous but have never experienced the New Birth. I emphasized again that people go to Heaven because they trust Christ as Savior.

There is no doubt that evangelical and fundamental Christians can learn something from Teresa who ministered to the unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. No one should be more concerned for the poor, disadvantaged, hurting, sick, and hungry people of the world than Christians. I think we could be more involved than we are although many of us give to world missions, feed the hungry, provide clean water, medical missions, go to mission fields, etc., but we could certainly do more without diminishing the essential message that only Christ saves.

Teresa did not appear sophisticated; however, she or her handlers were very astute in using the media for her own end—raising money for her cause. She had connections with rich, famous people (sugar daddies) who funded her charity according to Christopher Hitchens in The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. (Hitchens, an atheist, did an incredible television movie titled “Hell’s Angel” that exposed Teresa. He also claimed Teresa was “a fanatic, a fundamentalist and a fraud.” Well, not like the Fundamentalists I know.) Some of those “sugar daddies” were disreputable, unscrupulous people such as Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier (who plundered Haiti), Communist Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha, Charles Keating, and other scoundrels.

One egregious example is her relationship with Charles Keating of the Lincoln S&L fame, or more correctly, shame. When his savings and loan company failed in 1989, it left about 23,000 people holding worthless bonds and cost the federal government over $3 billion. Keating was convicted in both federal and state courts in the early 1990s of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and served four and a half years in prison.

Keating gave more than a million dollars to Teresa and flew her around in his jet. During his trial, Teresa wrote Judge Ito telling him what a good guy Keating was and asked for leniency in sentencing. Teresa advised the judge to “do what Jesus would do.” I’m not sure what Jesus would have done, but the judge put Keating in the pokey for four and a half years!

Following the trial, Teresa received a letter from the Deputy District Attorney telling her that the money Keating had given her was stolen from hard working people and suggested that she return the money. I would have suggested, “After all, that is what Jesus would have you do.” The good nun never answered his letter (nor returned the stolen money). After all, it was for the “poor.”

It seems the nun was an opportunist, especially when it fit her agenda. Her agenda was to raise money for her charity by toadying up to rich and famous people. She raised a fortune but never built a hospital for children in India but did build convents in more than 150 countries! There has never been an accounting for the fortune she raised.

CNN reported on Teresa’s charity declaring, “It’s true there’s no transparency–and very little information available–on the group’s bookkeeping. CNN‘s request to interview the current head of the organization was declined.” But the sainthood continued.

The Catholic Church requires two “miracles” to confirm “sainthood” and one of the two alleged miracles is bogus. Monica Besra said she was healed of cancer by praying to Teresa; however, her husband admitted on video that she was healed by medicine not prayers to Teresa. In fact, some physicians claim that she did not have cancer but a cyst caused by tuberculosis. Furthermore, in an interview with Time magazine, Besra’s husband said, “It is much ado about nothing. My wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle.” But it seems Pope Francis was determined to have a miracle even if the facts are otherwise. Now, Besra’s husband has denied making the allegations.

The Washington Post reported of Teresa, “Her saintly reputation was gained for aiding Kolkata’s poorest of the poor, yet it was undercut by persistent allegations of misuse of funds, poor medical treatments and religious evangelism in the institutions she founded.” Moreover, the British medical journal Lancet published a critical account of the care in Teresa’s facilities in 1994, repeating what many others has reported. Many former volunteers have testified of patients receiving no pain medicine and nuns washing needles in cold water to be used again!

To her credit, Teresa was a long-time anti-abortionist and, after winning the Nobel Prize in 1979, she said in her acceptance speech that the “greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.” She also angered Bill and Hillary Clinton when she spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February 1994, where she argued that abortion was a mother murdering her own child! Bill and Hillary “sat there, in the glare of the hot lights, all eyes in the crowd fixed upon them, as they tried not to move or be noticed, conspicuous in their lack of response, clearly uncomfortable as the applause raged on.”

Teresa had theological problems as well as problems with principle. She was asked if she ever converted people (or only feed the hungry, lifted the poor, etc.) and she replied, “Of course I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you’ve found God, it’s up to you to decide how to worship him.” That is heresy. No real Christian believes that.

But then, maybe I was correct on that London talk show when I suggested that she was not a Christian but only a Catholic. Just as there are many Baptists who are not Christians.

My critics will be angry that I did not call her Mother Teresa but she was not my mother. My mother was Emma and while she was not an activist in the slums of Zanesville, nor did she lift the sick and poor from the gutters, she was a godly woman who knew Christ as her savior. I am convinced she is in Heaven.

I’m not sure of “Saint” Teresa’s present location!

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy,  click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Moreover, the Church owns several billion dollars’ worth of gold according to the United Nations World Magazine with a large portion of it stored as gold ingots at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank with the remainder stockpiled in Swiss and British banks.

The Vatican is headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church and represents 1.2 billion people in 180 nations of the world. The Vatican is a two-and-a-half square mile complex on the Tiber River in Rome.

The Church’s real estate holdings are enormous in that they own local churches (220,000 worldwide), massive cathedrals (3,300 worldwide), and colleges (1,358 worldwide) along with monasteries and nunneries all over the globe. The Church has been squirrelling away billions of dollars of inheritance from the faithful that have been invested worldwide for hundreds of years .

Apart from the horded gold, thousands of church buildings, thousands of estates, they own thousands of art, books, sculpture, and relics that are impossible to even guess their value.

The Roman Catholic Church’s emphasis upon relics is an embarrassment to sane people. In 1881, The New York Times published an article condemning “the silly worship of relics” and recounted an amusing anecdote of two rival French monasteries that each possessed a head of John the Baptist! The monks, with amazing mental gymnastics, explained this uncomfortable detail by saying that the first skull belonged to John as a man while the smaller skull was from “when he was a boy.” Sure.

I saw one of John’s skulls in a mosque in Damascus although I’m not sure which skull it was! Not sure what Muslims are doing with John’s skull. He sure would pound them for having multiple wives since preaching against King Herod’s adultery with his brother’s wife was what got John beheaded.

One expert whose work was financed by National Geographic said, “There are about eight or nine skulls of John the Baptist out there. He added with a massive understatement, “They can’t be all John the Baptist.” Even this simple Baptist preacher can understand that!

A church in St. Omer boasted of having the lance that pierced His side; some manna that dropped from Heaven to feed the Jews; Aaron’s rod; and the original stone Ten Commandments! Three different churches in France boasted of the complete corpse of Mary Magdalen and five different French churches boasted of the relic of Christ’s circumcision! One cathedral boasts of having some hairs of the Lord’s beard and the left arm of John the Baptist while other monasteries claim to have the right arm. If some enterprising monks got to work, they might be able to put John back together again.

Calvin wrote of His Holy Blood that was “exhibited in more than a hundred places.” That is not only relic worship but blasphemy. But each item would sell at a premium and if they sold everything quickly, they could always “discover” more relics.

In Bethlehem they claim to have a drop of Mary’s milk and a 17th century painting shows a statue of Mary holding baby Jesus as she squirts milk into the mouth of a male worshipper standing below! Great shot!

During the mid-fourth century, Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 315-386) wrote that “already the whole world is filled with fragments of the wood of the Cross.” More than forty shrouds of Jesus exist, so the story goes. Exeter Cathedral displayed parts of the candle that the angel of the Lord used to light the tomb of Jesus and fragments of the bush from which God spoke to Moses! I seem to remember the words of P. T. Barnum that are most appropriate here.

The Roman Catholic Church is the wealthiest corporation in the world. Nothing compares to it yet it was allegedly started by Jesus Christ. So, the former carpenter, turned itinerate preacher, is the source for the wealthiest institution on earth? Doesn’t pass the smell test.

We are expected to believe that Christ lived and died poor and passed on to Peter and future popes the office that permitted them to wear gold embroidered silk robes and possess wealth and treasures unknown and have a mansion with 1100 rooms!

Francis, it’s time to make history, secular and religious, by having the biggest and richest yard sale in history at St. Peter’s Square and at the same time clean out your closets of those relics that are only gathering dust. Sell everything. Christ was the poorest of the poor and your church is the richest of the rich. Get poor again and gain a little credibility. On with the yard sale! I’ll see you in St. Peter’s Square.

Next, I hope to attend a yard sale sponsored by some of the super-rich television evangelists with the proceeds going to poor non-Catholics. Get ready Benny, Trinity, Morris, Kenneth, Creflo, Joel, and Paula.

I’ll not hold my breath since I don’t look good in blue and I don’t trust the televangelists any more than I trust Francis!

(Boys’ new book, The God Haters, will be published in hardback on Oct. 21 by Barbwire Books and on Amazon.com as an eBook.)

The hawkers have arrived before him and prepared the way with all kinds of merchandise for the faithful–for a price. With a choice of 193 “official” items, you can choose a T-shirt with the Pope’s likeness; an “exclusive Pope Francis Bobblehead” for $19.95; an “I Love Pope Francis” mug for $14.95; a “Pope Francis Rosary Keychain” for $4.95; a 4-inch “Pope Francis Figurine” for $11.95; a “Pope Francis Plush Doll” for $24.95; a “Pope Francis Holy Bear” for $11.95; a pair of “Team Pope Boxer Shorts” for $12.95; and on and on and on.

This is similar to the religious junk sold in almost all Protestant, even Baptist, bookstores that sell nail clips with “I Love Jesus”; “Hand and Body Cream” with Scripture verse; hand soap with “God Bless Our Home”; a whole food Bible Bar; Bobble Heads of Mary and Jesus; a glass ash tray with a “picture” of Jesus; pens, jewelry, etc. ad nauseam. But all promote cheap Christianity. And I am not referring to the price.

I suppose in this day of materialism the above is to be expected; however, there are limits–lines many Catholics will not cross. If the Church pitches an all-natural breakfast “Pope-tart” then many Catholics will dispose of their rosaries  quicker than long underwear in a Texas heatwave.

At the Pope’s first meeting with the international press he said, “How I would like a church that is poor and for the poor.” Well, he can take care of that. He has had much to say about the poor (whom Christ said would always be with us) and the disadvantaged; however, I will believe Francis is really concerned with the poor when he announces, advertises, and accomplishes a massive yard sale of the Vatican’s vast assets in St. Peter’s Square–with the proceeds going to poor Catholics.

According to the International Business Times, Francis is raffling off his espresso machine, wallets, a panama hat and other personal items with the proceeds going to the poor. Posters are all over the Vatican announcing this gambling venture that will aid the poor. Nice gesture but it is just that, a gesture. Now he should get serious and sell off the priceless works of art, jewels, books, etc. After all, the Roman Catholic Church is the richest institution on earth. That’s far from its alleged founder who didn’t have a place to lay His head.

Francis quoted the great Fourth Century preacher John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople who died in 407: “Not to share one’s goods with the poor is to rob them and to deprive them of life. It is not our goods that we possess, but theirs.” Well, if it’s theirs then give it back. After raising maybe a trillion dollars in the world’s biggest and richest yard sale Francis could pass the proceeds to the poor in various nations depending on the percentage of Roman Catholics in those nations.

The Apostle Peter, allegedly the first pope, although there is no historical evidence that he was ever in Rome, didn’t only talk about the poor, he did something about it. In Acts 3:6, he was asked by a poor, lame man for some money and Peter replied, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” And he did! Pope Francis can’t say “Silver and gold have I none” because he sits on unknown wealth in the Vatican. Neither can he say, “Rise up and walk.” He has great possessions but no godly power.

St. Peter’s Square is an ideal place for a yard sale with plenty of room for two million books; 80,000 valuable hand-written manuscripts; paintings by Raphael; statuary and works by Leonardo de Vinci; artwork of Michelangelo with tools used in work on the Sistine Chapel; embroidered silk vestments, religious relics and a touchable cast of Pope John Paul II’s hand. Wow, a touchable cast. Right or left hand? Additionally, there are hundreds of mosaics, frescoes, and bone fragments of Peter and Paul. But then only a fool or fanatic would put any credibility in bone fragments. But many would and the price tag would be enormous. How many people can boast, “I own some of Peter’s bone fragments”?

The “Holy Towel of Jesus” on which Christ wiped His face, and bears His image is kept in the Pope’s private chapel and could demand a huge price from one of the faithful buyers. Many other relics of inestimable value would sell “like hotcakes.” Also there is a thorn from His crown of thorns, milk from the Virgin Mary, and an object that at one time contained Christ’s umbilical cord! Not the cord itself but the object that the cord was in at one time! Of course, there are some splinters from His cross although there are enough pieces of the “original” cross upon which Christ died to build a modern house! Hyperbole perhaps, but only slight.

The Church also has some “filings” from the chains of Peter that they permit the hoi polloi to see at times that would bring a huge sum. But since Peter was not in Rome either as pastor or prisoner, where did the “filings” come from? Just wondering.

It seemed when European Roman Catholic Churches got short of funds during later Middle Ages, they “discovered” more relics to dazzle, deceive, and draw the naïve. And such actions always filled the offering plate just as the sale of indulgences built St. Peter’s starting in 1506 and completed in 1626. The Pope’s very public avarice in the sale of indulgences to simple-minded peasants, who were promised perpetual happiness in this world and eternal glory in the next, precipitated the Reformation. Future Popes refused to learn from their sorry, sinful, and sordid history and continued to sell indulgences to get people out of purgatory.

In my opinion, the Pope should stop selling indulgences and start selling the Church’s opulent holdings, including all the relics. Indulgences are toxic according to history. Francis should keep in mind that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. When does the yard sale begin?

I haven’t been to Rome in a while but I’ll be one of his customers. Maybe I can afford to purchase a splinter from the “true” cross!

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”

First of all, there is no way to support the silly possibility that the bones are the remains of Peter. That is simply wishful thinking by the Catholic hierarchy as they add to their dubious list of relics. The Church has thousands of bogus relics that help prop up its weak, wavering, wondering, wandering, and wobbly adherents.

The chest in which the bones were cased is more interesting than the bone fragments. The bones rested on an ivory bed in a bronze chest. The chest was decorated with a carving of Peter “who was a fisherman before becoming the Church’s first pope, casting his nets into the sea.” But then no one on earth knows what Peter looked like and, for sure, he was not the first pope, or second pope. He may have been executed in Rome but there is no proof for that. The church in Rome existed before Peter or Paul got there so neither was the church founder. The Catholic Church is built upon a shaky, sandy, spurious foundation and is held together by wishful thinking.

The affable Pope has recently confused many people with some public statements dealing with homosexuality and atheists going to Heaven. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church has insisted very strongly for hundreds of years that only Catholics were going to Heaven! So Francis is rocking the church-boat. It may be that the Pope does not know what he believes. Anyway, his handlers must be in panic about what he may say next.

Honest historians, even Catholic historians, admit that Peter was not the first pope. Eusebius was Bishop of Caesarea about 314 A.D. and suggests in his classic and ground-breaking Church History that Paul and Peter were founders of the church in Rome. However, a footnote corrects the record: “Neither Paul nor Peter founded the Roman Church in the strict sense for there was a congregation of believers there even before Paul came to Rome, as his Epistle to the Romans shows, and Peter cannot have reached there until some time after Paul. It was, however, a very early fiction that Paul and Peter together founded the church in that city.” The possibility of Peter founding the church in Rome and serving as its pastor is a fiction, fib, fable, falsehood, and fraud.

Rome would rather discuss whether Peter was a founder (with Paul) of the church in Rome instead of supporting their assertion that he was the first pope exercising central control of all churches. No one was the pope for hundreds of years although each succeeding Bishop of Rome gradually grabbed power for his office. During those hundreds of years all priests in small villages were called, “papa” or pope.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Peter’s successors to the papacy were Linus (A.D. 67 to 79), Cletus (A.D. 79 to 91) and Clement I (from A.D. 91 to 100), all three of whom were bishop of Rome during the time that the Apostle John was still alive. In other words, each of the three pastors at Rome would have had a higher pecking order than the Apostle John who was still alive! Does anyone, not blinded by fanatical religion, believe that is possible?

When the Apostle Paul wrote his church epistles giving the offices and duties and qualifications for various church offices, he never mentions a pope! Not one New Testament author refers to the Pope or one-man rule or papal succession. Paul greeted 26 people in his epistle to the Romans without mentioning the alleged top honcho, Peter! Paul wrote four letters from his Roman prison without mentioning that Peter came by to visit him. In fact, Paul said that he was “alone.” If Peter was in Rome, he had cowardly abandoned his friend and Apostle who was Nero’s prisoner! I believe Christ said something about visiting those in prison.

It seems that the first definite report that Peter and Paul founded the Roman Church was made by Dionysius of Corinth about 170 A.D. Historians Shotwell and Loomis declared, “That is a long way from contemporary evidence. We have no lists of the early bishops of Rome until about the same period, and those we have do not quite agree.”

Gibbon clearly disposed of the Roman Catholic’s position as to the founders of the Roman Church: “It is quite clear that, strictly speaking, the Church of Rome was not founded by either of these apostles. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans proves undeniably the flourishing state of the Church before his visit to the city; and many Roman Catholic writers have given up the impracticable task of reconciling with chronology any visit of St. Peter to Rome before the end of the reign of Claudius or the beginning of that of Nero.” Peter was definitely in Israel during the time Catholics teach that he was in Rome. Even Peter couldn’t be in two places at the same time no matter how much “holy” water he had.

Knowing of the prestige of Peter, some people in Rome began giving him credit for being the first bishop at Rome and others picked up on that and continued to circulate that fabrication until the fable became a fact. Since then, Roman Catholics have taught the fiction rather than the fact since it plays better in Peoria and Pisa.

No bones about it: Peter’s bones have not been found and he was not the first pope. My critics will no doubt smell anti-Catholic bigotry as they read this, but facts are the facts: the Pope is wrong. Peter was not the first Pope and it was the Roman Catholic Church that broke away from the Church that Christ built.

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Eight minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.