does anybody really care about what the pope thinks? seriously.....if this is truly america, and we believed in seperation of church and state, we'd tell the pope to shove his ideas straight up his.......

Originally posted by CommonSense
DaTruth,
If you recognize DaTruth, dosen't it just make CommonSense to make the changes in your life to live DaTruth and not be a doubting Thomas but someone who is preparing his eternal Crowne?

I like the play one words .

But to respond to your question. There are a lot of people out there in search of truth. At one point I was in search of truth too. But I have found that in this human body there is only one truth you can be sure of, I think there for I am.

Also when people think they know truth it's almost like an ego trip. You have a chance of becoming conceded or even worse and evil elitists. I created this name a while ago and now I wish I could change it but hey it's only an Internet name. I'm not in search of truth anymore I just want knowledge so I can better myself and the people around me.

DT
Thanks for the thoughtful post. I'm still seeking the truth, but I know the truth rests with God. In understanding Him more, and my relationship with Him, leads me to the truth. You are right though, many who claim to ahve found the truth do wind up with an ego problem because they possess a false truth. I think the pope is worried about the US with good reason. We seem to be losing it very quickly.

Commonsense - I like your signature line and that is exactly what I was thinking. A huge problem with most industrialized nations (not just the US) is that with our increased knowledge, technology and wealth has come an arrogance. It seems the more we achieve the less we (humanity) rely on or even seek God. We become puffed up and believe that we have accomplished these things on our own without the help of our creator. We forget that it is God that has given us this ability and knowledge - heck we seem to have forgoten about God entirely. As one of the previous posts said - it is pure humanism. We think we can handle everything on our own. Our arrogance will be our downfall. Greed and materialism are just symptoms of the greater problem - our self worship.

While I am not catholic - I have a great respect for the current pope. I remember when he became the pope. I actually felt a peace coming from him. Despite all the problems the Catholic church has had - I truly believe he is a man of God. And I am concerned for him and even more concerned for the world once he leaves it. Just last week I had a dream that the pope died (as I said I'm not Catholic). But this dream really disturbed me. I saw the white somke from the vatican indicating a new pope had been chosen. And the new pope made an appearance and a speech - and I found his presence extremely disturbing. He wore black and had an accent that seemed to me either German or Austrian, not sure. But the point is - I am concerned that Pope John Paul will not be with us long and his replacement concerns me.

CS - thank you for point me to that thread. I am going to take some time and read through the whole thing. I have not heard of this before and it is very interesting. Actually you just gave me the shivers with the Pope info. I wonder though if there actually will be no more popes or if it is only that future popes will no longer be true men of god - as in evil has infiltrated the highest level of the church. To me that would be even more frightening than no pope at all. While I am not Catholic I am a Christian and respect the religion and its followers as my brothers and sisters in Christ. I fear the mighty ship is sinking and we will all suffer for it. I find it odd in this Garabanal prophecy that she states the warning will be recognized as coming from God. I hope so - but there are so many non-believers I wonder just who and how many will really recognize it is from God.

I have recently been having discussions on other boards with personal friends of mine about how we as a nation have turned our backs on God and will regret it. They think I am a zealot freak. But it angers me so much that these people are trying to rewrite our history and remove God from every aspect of our society. They are going to curse our country and they are draggin us down with them.

I will say that I agree with his holiness Pope John Paul II completely on this issue, however what he is saying isn't anything new. He has been calling for Americans to help the less fortunate for a long time, and he is absoutely right.

The worship of matterial wealth is rampant in America, I have said this many times before, anyone who reads the mud pit may have heard me. The point though is that there are those who need our help, and our care. Americans need to share their huge wealth, only good may come of it.

Also America has grown increasingly hostile to her fellow countries as of late, this I believe has also greatly troubled the Pope (he did give Bush quite a tounge lashing last week,) and i do think he is right there as well.

Now as a Pagan, I do not think that the path to America's salvation lies in becoming more Christian, but the teachings of Christ are what the United States needs. People should be free to worship whatever god or goddess or whatever they want, but the ideas of caring, helping, and above all forgivness should be what Americans hold true. This can be done quite easily with separtation of Church and State, America does not need to do exactly what is considdered Christian, but instead what is ethical and open minded.

May Peace Travel With You
~Astral