Religion

From Cuban Blog

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Here is the profile of the lady in Cuba who writes the Cuban blog Generation Y. Yoani Sánchez, born in Havana, 1975.

I studied for two terms at the Pedagogical Institute, majoring in Spanish Literature.  In 1995, I moved to the Faculty of Arts of Letters, and after five years finished a degree in Hispanic Philology.  I majored in contemporary Latin American Literature, presenting an incendiary thesis entitled, “Words Under Pressure: A Study of the Literature of the Dictatorship in Latin America.”  On finishing at the University I realized two things: first, that the world of the intellectual and high culture is repugnant to me and, most painfully, that I no longer wanted to be a philologist.

In September 2000, I went to work in a dark office at Gente Nueva publisher, meanwhile arriving at the conviction—shared by most Cubans—that with the wages I earned legally I could not support my family.  So, without concluding my social service, I asked to be let go and dedicated myself to the better-paid labor of freelance Spanish teacher for German tourists visiting Havana.  It was a time (which continues today) when engineers preferred to drive a taxi, teachers would do almost anything to get a job at the desk of a hotel, and at store counters you could find a neurosurgeon or nuclear physicist.  In 2002, disenchantment and economic suffocation led me to emigrate to Switzerland, from where I returned—for family reasons and against the advice of friends and acquaintances—in the summer of 2004.

In those years I discovered the profession I continue to practice today: computer science.  I discovered that binary code is more transparent than affected intellectualism, and that if I’d never really come to terms with Latin, at least I could work with the long chains of HTML language.  In 2004 I founded, with a group of Cubans all based on the Island, Consenso, a magazine of reflection and debate.  Three years later I work as a web master, columnist, and editor of the site Desde Cuba [From Cuba].

In April 2007, I entangled myself in the adventure of having a blog called Generation Y that I have defined as “an exercise in cowardice” which lets me say, in this space, what is forbidden to me in my civic action.

To my surprise, this personal therapy earned me, in a short time, the attention of thousands of people around the world.  Thanks to the virtual citizens’ network that has woven itself around GY, I have been able to update this blog every week.  Since March 2008, the Cuban government has enforced a computer filter that prevents seeing my blog from public Internet sites in Cuba.  So I need the solidarity of friends off the Island to post my texts on the web.  Thanks also to other volunteer collaborators, Generation Y is translated into fifteen languages.

In May 2008, my personal exorcism also won me the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award in the digital category.  I was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in the “Heroes and Pioneers” category, and my blog was included on the list of the 25 Best Blogs in the World issued by Time Magazine/CNN.  I won the Jury Prize on the Spanish blog contest, Bitacoras.com, and top honors in the well known blog contest, The BOBs Awards, with more than 12,000 participants from around the world.  The weekly magazine of the Spanish newspaper El Pais named the 100 Most Notable Hispanic Americans of 2008 in November of that year; Foreign Policy listed its 10 Most Influential IberoAmerican Intellectuals of 2008 in December; as did the Mexican magazine Gate Pardo. Your humble servant is included in each of these lists.  Much more than I could have dreamed of, when I started to combine sentences to upload my first post!

I live in Havana, I opted to stay and every day I am more computer scientist and less philologist.

Translator’s note:

Yoani has continued to receive international recognition for her work since she wrote this profile. In 2009 she became the first — and so far only — blogger to interview U.S. President Barack Obama, who commented that her blog “provides the world a unique window into the realities of daily life in Cuba.” and applauded her efforts to “empower fellow Cubans to express themselves through the use of technology.” Also in 2009, she received a special citation for journalistic excellence in Columbia University’s Maria Moor Cabot Awards, was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, and Time magazine named Generation Y one of the 25 Best Blogs.

In 2010 she received the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute, and the Prince Claus Award from the Prince Claus Foundation in the Netherlands.

Strange Experience

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It was I think several years ago that I went into the hospital because I was prone to falling. At some point I fell into a coma for 3 or 4 days. I didn’t hear or feel anything the whole time although they moved me all over to get MRI’s, Lumbar Punch, CT’s, X-Ray’s and other things that I don’t even know about. At one point my temperature got high and they ran cold water over towels and threw them over me and turned on a fan to try to lower my temperature and I didn’t know it happened.

At some point after the 3 /4 days I sense being in a big dimly room and sense other beings around the room, there wasn’t details, just impressions; I just sensed they were there. At some point I sense being in the center of the room with some being and silently we moved outside and they took me to the road and left me; I looked up and saw a street light not terribly bright but it was there. In a few moments I heard someone say “His eyes are moving and opening.

I have thought about that a lot and I just don’t know what to make of it and I haven’t told anyone of this; I wouldn’t know how to explain it and answer any questions. I just have a feeling that it was God helping me .

The Sounds of the Crisis in Cuba

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Posted on her blog “Generation Y”

Posted on by Yoani-Sánchez

I have been reading her blog for a very long time and I love it. I wish I could have the thoughts to write like her for my own blogs. . . . here it is.

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 24 August 2021 — Dawn breaks and the sound of some chickens from a nearby patio can be heard throughout the neighborhood, when midday comes we can hear the shouts of a neighbor letting us know there are bananas in the market on Tulipán Street and, in the afternoon, the squeaking of a wheelbarrow with two little kids nostalgic for the amusement park.

Although the images of long lines, unsmiling faces and empty shopping bags are the most recurrent when it comes to describing the current situation on this Island, there is a soundtrack of the disaster that is barely mentioned but that surrounds us on all sides. Some of the sounds echo what we heard in the 90s during the Special Period, as if the needle on the record player of our lives had skipped and went back to playing the same music.

These times remind me of that period when some neighbors in our building raised a pig in their bathtub and, so it wouldn’t bother everyone too much, they operated on its vocal cords, leaving the animal to emit a hoarse breathy sound much more disturbing than its original grunts. Now, on a nearby balcony, someone has a cage with several turkeys that cluck all the time, a practice intended to guarantee protein for families fearful there are worse times ahead.

But there is also another permanent ringing and it is that of irritability. The swearwords of domestic fights, fueled by the lack of resources and the forced confinement the pandemic has brought to families with positive cases of covid-19; the crying of children who do not understand why they can’t go out to play; and the sobs of the son whose mother died for lack of oxygen or medicines.

A suffocating resonance, the chorus of a city and of a desperate country.

From Beauty Beyond Bones

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Another great post from Caralyn Colar

Savior in Chief?

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To listen to this post as a podcast, Click Here!

Last Thursday, I was censored by Facebook. Again.

Yes, my most recent post, “Check Your Snark at the Door, Sister” — which very diplomatically expressed my light criticism towards Biden parading his “Catholic faith,” — was rejected by the powers that be over at Facebook.

Apparently, if you don’t have anything nice to say about Biden, you can’t say anything at all!

Sadly, this encroachment on my personal liberty of free speech, is nothing new. Every time I post something even remotely “pro-life” in stance, Mark Zuckerberg and his minions over at the tech mega-giant reject it. It’s happened now five different times.

But this time, it is just egregious. You read my post — 200 of you commented on it. There was absolutely nothing in it that warranted a censor!

Unless, of course, seeing a woman’s collar bones is now scandalous…

Which begs the question…what the hell is going on here?

How have we gotten to this point, where tech giants and liberal politics are now in bed together? And what does that mean for the future of this country? I don’t know about you, but my mind can imagine some downright terrifying scenarios, which…unfortunately, I doubt are strictly out of the realm of possibility, all things considered.

As though censoring my article examining Biden’s faith was enough, today, the Internet decided to pour salt in my wound.

Because what comes across my desk, but The New York Time’s headline story for today:

Twist the knife, why don’t you!

In case you didn’t catch that, allow me to repeat: the headline cites Biden as “the most religiously observant commander in chief” and that “his Catholic faith grounds his life and his policies.”

I literally laughed out loud when I read that.

Are you kidding me? His Catholic faith grounds his policies?

I’m not going to sit here and judge the man’s life, that is between him and God. And like him, I too, have a lot that I will need to answer for, when I reach the Pearly Gates.

But I can comment on his policies.

They are anti-Catholic. But you know where I’m going with that. You heard me vent about that in last Thursday’s censored article.

But what I want to pause and focus on tonight, is the terrifying slight of hand that the NY Times is expertly executing in this article. So seamlessly, that you may not have even noticed it.

The Ascendant “Liberal Christianity.”

Liberal Christianity.

Headed by, none other than our Savior in Chief: “Catholic” Joe Biden.

Quoting from the article: “And with Mr. Biden, a different, more liberal Christianity is ascendant: less focused on sexual politics and more on combating poverty, climate change and racial inequality.

Do you see what they’re doing? They’re splitting the Church in two.

The Church, arguably the only organization left that has the means and influence to threaten the power of the woke, liberal left. They’re trying to undercut it and divide it in two, by creating the narrative that this “new liberal Christianity,” headed by the sound-of-mind and inclusive Joe Biden, is the future of the faith.

Joe Biden’s “Liberal Christianity” is full of love and inclusivity — not focused on “sexual politics” (aka, protecting the unborn, defining marriage and gender on biblical and scientific principles) — but rather, combating poverty, climate change and racial inequality.

They’re trying to redefine what it means to be a Christian. Belong to the “old, unwoke” Christianity, and you’re just a cotton headed ninny muggins with their head buried in the sand, concerned with “sexual politics.” OK Boomer — why don’t you go answer your rotatry phone…I bet it’s another closeminded homophobe calling.

No. The new liberal Christianity has evolved. It’s higher thinking. It’s woke.

First of all, news flash: Christianity has always been concerned with combatting poverty and seeking racial equality. Have they never heard of social justice?? That movement is flourishing in the Church, and is the foundation of Christian thought and the Christian walk. Hello, Mother Teresa!?

And secondly: the Bible is unchanging. Thou shall not kill…last I checked, still stands. Love your neighbor…yep, still in effect.

But here’s the real kicker.

Again, watch for the slight of hand….quoting from the article: “Mr. Biden’s policy priorities reflect those of Pope Francis, who has sought to turn the church’s [sic] attention from sexual politics to issues like environmental protection, poverty and migration.

Did you see that? They’re trying to align Joe Biden and Pope Francis as the new “woke Catholic” sect that’s here to “rebrand” this whole Catholics-are-stuck-on-pro-life-garbage image. They’re trying to instill doubt and lure those wavering away from the sound dogma and teachings of the Church.

The fact is, Catholics, as it stands, are rather divided over the issue of abortion. Those who ardently adhere to the faith are staunchly against abortion, and are prolife. But those who are Catholic in name only tend to pick and choose which of the biblical and Church teachings they’re going to adopt, and pro-life views are often not on that list.

So what the NY Times is expertly doing here, is luring that crowd to the “dark side.” Oh look, you see? Biden AND the Pope are woke. They’ve turned away from pro-life policies. YOU SHOULD TOO.

Ah, the power of suggestion. Manipulation at its finest.

Turns out, though, that when it comes to Pope Francis, they’re absolutely wrong.

And this is the last thing.

I know, everyone and their brother has an opinion about Pope Francis. The media love him – because he will say things just vaguely enough, that the liberal media can take his soundbites and twist them to make it look like he’s abandoning traditional Catholic teachings, and is a radical force to be reckoned with.

Which, is not all wrong.

But when it comes to abortion, Pope Francis could not be more clear: abortion is wrong, and the Catholic faith is pro-life through and through.

Quoting Pope Francis in an audience he had with US bishops from January 2020, “protecting human life is the preeminent social and political issue.”

He could not have been more clear: “It is the most fundamental right. This is not first a religious issue; it’s a human rights issue.”

I will end with a powerful quote from Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, who released this statement just a few days ago on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, after President Biden and VP Harris celebrated the decision as an advancement of women’s rights and health:

“It is deeply disturbing and tragic that any President would praise and commit to codifying a Supreme Court ruling that denies unborn children their most basic human and civil right, the right to life, under the euphemistic disguise of a health service. I take this opportunity to remind all Catholics that the Catechism states, ‘Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.’ Public officials are responsible for not only their personal beliefs, but also the effects of their public actions. Roe’s elevation of abortion to the status of a protected right and its elimination of state restrictions paved the way for the violent deaths of more than 62 million innocent unborn children and for countless women who experience the heartache of loss, abandonment, and violence. We strongly urge the President to reject abortion and promote life-affirming aid to women and communities in need.”

Game. Set. Match.

“This is what the Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” Ez 37:5

Election 2020

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Foolish me I would have thought that the Republicans would have forseen all of the fraud and cheating and planned to stop it. And the Democrats have had such a free ride from the Media it just got easier and easier for them to cheat more and more.

Every time someone dares to tell the truth the Liberal mobs start smearing and threatening them and their families. And the media goes along with them. Regardless whether it is Qanon or Proud Boys or Tea Party they are bashed and smashed relentlessly. And the American people eventually believe all of the crap they are fed by the Media.

Liberal groups have literally burned and looted major cities and taken over ; and the police were told by the liberals to stand down.

This cancer that is taking over our country is spreading and I just don’t know what can be done to turn things around. I think maybe a revival of our religious beliefs would help to bring back our moral values.

Oh yes, and Pray for our country.

Religion from Facebook

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Duke Hergatt

1d  · In my Before Christ days I was a political activist and enraged at the depravity of others. I was always angry and ready for a fight on most any front. Then Jesus came into my heart and my own depravity became front and center and I was no longer enraged by others. My anger was turned into sorrow for them and into hope that I could help bring this deliverance to them. Neither political side will win in the end. Both sides are invited to the cross. Kingdom tickets were purchased by the blood of Christ for whosoever will. So sad to bad for the whosoever won’ts.

Kathy Cerwin

1h  · I want to say something about the spirituality debate. You don’t believe in God? Fine. Why is it so important for many of you to mock those of us who do? If we’re wrong, what have we lost when we die? Nothing! How does our believing in Jesus bring you any harm? You think it makes me stupid? Gullible? Fine. How does that affect you? If you’re wrong your consequence is far worse. I would rather live my life believing in God and serving Him, and find out I was right, than not believe in Him and not serve Him, and find out I was wrong. Then it’s too late.There’s no shame in my game! I believe in Jesus Christ. He said deny me in front of your friends & I will deny you in front of my Father. HE’S COMING BACK…Greatest man in history, had no servants, yet they called him Master. Had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. His name is Jesus.

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From Facebook, Melody Burns

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Repost from Facebook. She is so right and it makes me a bit scared.

Melody Burns

The real story is Americans are afraid to walk on the streets in a number of cities in this great nation. They are afraid they will be harassed, pushed, hurt and even killed. It does not matter if you are male, female, young, old…you are a target. Watching and reading all the videos and notes from last week in Washington DC, I now have a very different concern for this great nation. I believe this is only the beginning, it will get worse. Many times I have walked the streets in DC around the capital and monuments by myself or with one or two other people. We walked from our hotel at various locations each trip to view the monuments at night. Never once did I fear those walk, never once did I hesitate to explore the beautiful monuments to our men and women who served and gave the ultimate for this great nation. A nation of ideals and dreams. There is no feeling like the awe you get watching the sun come up as you stand at The Vietnam Wall. As we get ready to clean the face and pay respect to the over 58,000 names representing thousands of families that few moments of peace has no comparison. We have cleaned the Korean Monument, picked up garbage lazy people felt comfortable just tossing as they walked by and cleaned out the reflecting pool. We have scrubbed and picked up garbage at the Disabled American Veterans Monument and never worried about our safety. Each trip to DC holds a special memory for as I am sure it does for others. Now we have to fear our service to those we have lost because of people who don’t have a love for those who have served and gave the ultimate. I am willing to bet that if the media told the truth to all of America – the America who sits in front of their tv believing it is all politics and just a few kids acting out, then all of this violence and destruction would end. If you are not telling the truth about how wide spread this is, and still calling this a peaceful protest or kids just “doing what we did in the 60’s” then you are a part of the problem. Imagine being afraid to walk the streets of your nation’s capital …let that sink in. Afraid. If your “representative” is not talking about the destruction of American life then it is time to remove that “representative”. Each election we hear how “this is the most important”. The truth is, this is the most important election – we are voting to save America and will be paying the price for that – no matter what happens.

Yep I am white

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And I have no white guilt. It is about time that politicians and media slap these thugs around.The reason things are seemingly out of control is that no one is giving any resistance. Stop Giving In To Them

Yes I am male by birth; I don’t believe in this gender reassignment and certainly not more than two genders.

Yes I am Conservative. There was a time in my life that I was Democrat just like my family . . . but as an adult I realized that the party no longer stood for what I believed. I often thought that I might return to the party someday but they have really gone off the rails and my returning will not longer happen.

I am a Christian and resent the way Christians are treated in this day and age. And as soon as this China virus is over I will be going back to church.

I’ve lived a good life and right now I don’t have any black friends although I had a black friend in the church I went to up until last year. I do have spanish/Cuban friends and relatives.

If anyone wants to talk or exchange E-Mails I welcome you. My e-mail is dknight4@gmx.com.

Bring Back the U.S.A.

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When we were young we played sandlot ball and laughed out loud;  made jokes; listened to popular music watched TV and yes we went to Church on Sunday.   We did a few pranks but we never never never got pulled into the violence that todays kids are.  We never screamed and cursed at people and rioted, cursed, threw fire bombs  and looted stores, destroyed private property and then have the main stream media say they were protesting peacefully.

We followed all rules and laws.   If we did go slightly off the rails our parents and family made sure they put us back on the rails.

Back when I was young anyone could go to s store and buy a gun or bullets – and no one went on killing sprees.  Guns are not the problem the problem is a breakdown of morality.  We used to use the Bible as our compass but of course that is not the case in our Liberal Socialist county now.

Todays TV shows and Movies they show and say things that used to be taboo.  The toughest men and women in the past movies never had to curse and none of todays movie tough guys are half as tough as Lee Marvin or John Wayne.