Daniel chapter 7:2-4 - Daniel spake and said, "I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings."
Daniel chapter 7:2-4 - Daniel spake and said, "I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings."
If a European country turned from Catholicism to Lutheranism (or, more broadly, to Protestantism) after the early 1500s, when Martin Luther (and a few other reformers, such as Zwingli and Calvin) launched the Reformation, that would have been a good indication that the nation would qualify for the adoption of the common European currency about five centuries later. If it had stayed predominantly Catholic, or even Greek Orthodox, then not.
With few exceptions, that simple rule would have saved hundreds of millions of people around the world a lot of despair, along with much of the animosity and frustration that now prevails — never mind trillions of euros in asset value.
Obviously, Germany would have been in the eurozone under that rule, as would Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Interestingly, financially solid Switzerland would have been in, too. So would, even more tantalizingly, the United Kingdom.
Ireland? Spain? Portugal? Italy? No. Never mind Greece, that highly (un-)Orthodox country when it comes to conducting a clean and proper economic policy.
Luther, if asked at Maastricht, would have nixed any suggestion of including these countries straight away. "Read my lips: No unreformed Catholic countries," he would have chanted. The euro, as a result, would have been far more cohesive — and the European economy in far less trouble...
I was baptised in an army chapel as "christian" and my father, a multiple divorcee married a young catholic woman who was promptly excommunicated, to help raise me after my Mother's suicide - which damned her to hell in most, if not all, religions. I was allowed to attend any service I wished and make up my own mind. In a southern baptist church, I watched as a curch leader pulled his daughters out of a summer youth camp because the youth leader had been a jew at one time and had converted to the baptist faith. I was twelve or so. The catholic church told me my step mom was not worthy of membership for marrying my father. I felt sorry for the jews - my Russian birth mother shared the concentration camp experience with them. I never understood the different divisions of christianity, but I read the bible hoping to learn why things were as they were. I watched friends who spoke in tongues and spouted scripture as though it was written in brail on the surface of their brains, scheme and plot and steal their way through their lives as though they were entitled because they were born again. I'm no longer confused. My connection to "God" is probably stronger than that of those who attend church every Sunday and I haven't stepped foot in a church in years. Organized religion certainly seems to me to be a necessity to those who really need the guidance to keep them from hurting others as they struggle through their otherwise meaningless lives. It offers hope too, for those who have none of their own. We have to be patient with those who think differently. We are all really one here on this planet.
Christians don't bother me. I don't have a problem with any religion, really: believe what you like, so long as you afford me the same space and the same respect.
I have far more respect for you than most "believers" - of whatever organized religion, my friend. As for space, we have a guest room whenever you care to visit.
I have far more respect for you than most "believers" - of whatever organized religion, my friend. As for space, we have a guest room whenever you care to visit.