Submitted by: M Mulukin
Vatican Unveils Hideous Nativity Scene in Saint Peter’s Square.
13 December 2020
Pope Francis and the Vatican uncovered its 2020 manger scene in Saint Peter’s Square Friday, leaving onlookers scattered, scandalized, and scornful. If Satan had a nativity scene, this is what it would look like. This pontiff has done more to discredit his false religion than most of its past leaders have managed – his constant liberal changes to many of Rome’s harsh and false doctrines is now being rivalled by totally weird depictions of Biblical narratives. In 2017 the Vatican’s nativity scene featured a naked homoerotic figure!
The Vatican uncovered its 2020 manger scene in Saint Peter’s Square Friday, leaving onlookers scattered, scandalized, and scornful. Observers shovelled abuse upon the unfortunate spectacle, rivalling each other to come up with the most appropriate epithets to describe the appalling scene.
“Mummified Mary,” “Weeble Jesus” (after the ovate children’s toys launched by Hasbro in the 1970’s), “Martians,” “toilet paper rolls,” and “astronauts” were some of the comparisons made to the cylindrical figures meant to represent the Holy Family, the Magi, and the shepherds at Bethlehem.
Others saw in one ominous figure the helmeted image of “the Mountain” from the Game of Thrones television series, while another conjured up memories of the Robot from Lost in Space:
A sneak peek at the Vatican Nativity. Official unveiling tomorrow. Looks like some car parts, kid toys, and an astronaut. pic.twitter.com/4ZeBkf1Huy
— The Catholic Traveler (@MountainButorac) December 10, 2020
As one irate Italian wrote on social media of the Vatican manger scene, “Ugliness is the first thing you notice, followed by a lack of familial warmth and the distancing guaranteed by the cylindrical figures. If you wish to judge harshly, the cylinders call to mind the sacred poles of Satanic cults condemned in the Bible.”
Traditionally, a manger scene is intended to evoke feelings of piety and devotion — not pity and revulsion — over the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, and thus this particularly regrettable work offends not only aesthetic sensibilities, but also the religious reverence of the faithful.
The Vatican said the Nativity scene exhibited in St. Peter’s Square was created by the students and faculty of the FA Grue Art Institute, a state-run high school for design, which in the decade of 1965-1975 devoted its scholastic activity to the theme of Christmas.
“We believe that this year’s experience of a Nativity scene donated by an Artistic High School is really a powerful summons for everyone to invest more in the training of the new generations both at the level of middle and high schools and for the university world,” said Bishop Lorenzo Leuzzi in a statement guaranteed to garner broad consensus.
Elizabeth Lev, an American art historian living and teaching in Rome, told Breitbart News she thinks the choice was a poor one.
“The Nativity celebrates the Incarnation, God who comes into the world as flesh, not in a totemic form,” Dr. Lev declared. “At the end of this extremely difficult year people are looking for beauty, for something to elevate, inspire, and unite them, and the scene offered in Saint Peter’s Square gives them something else altogether.”
“The misshapen figures in the Nativity scene lack all the grace, proportion, vulnerability, and luminosity that one looks for in the manger scene,” she said. “The entire point of this holiday is the second person of the Holy Trinity taking human form, born as a baby of flesh and blood, and there is nothing particularly human about the forms we see before us.”
“Context is also important and these works are surrounded by Bernini’s majestic colonnade, capped with the monumental figures of the saints, with Saint Peter’s Basilica in the background containing a thousand years of [idolatrous] beautiful statuary,” Lev continued.
“It has been a dark year and many have had their faith challenged. Perhaps it would have been better to give them a symbol to rally round rather than an object of mockery,” she said. “This scene leads people to heap derision upon an icon representing the Holy Family. It is unfortunate we couldn’t find something to inspire at least tenderness if not full-on reverence.”
Moreover, Lev concluded, “In the context of last year’s polemics over the Pachamama statue, it seems ill considered to use images that will confuse people and further a sense of division.”
Aliens? Really?
By Jim Fletcher – 12 December 202
Since movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still were produced in Hollywood, the idea of “space aliens” has seeped into the national consciousness. The 1951 film, comical today with its clumsy space suits and flying saucers, frightened people just after World War 2. It also though convinced many that intelligent, highly developed extra-terrestrial life exists in the universe.
Even though there is no proof!
This week, a wild story emerged from Israeli media. It seems that a very distinguished member of the Israeli space research community claims that not only are there space aliens, but that Israel—and President Trump—know about them. Haim Eshed [pictured below] claimed that President Trump was “going to blab” but that the “Galactic Federation” urged him not to do that. He went further, saying that there is a joint station on Mars!
I find it curious and sometimes amusing that secular sources make these claims. Certainly, an entire cottage industry has emerged of alien researchers. The formerly serious History Channel now routinely promotes these theories in hour-long documentaries that gain ratings, but suspect evidence.
It is when Christians go too far down this road that I am troubled. Not surprisingly, Relevant magazine this week also ran a piece on the subject. Jamin Bradley has no problem with the concept of aliens, and adds the bias angle with this assertion:
“If we zoom out from Earth, we are forced to wonder if alien life might exist, for the universe is truly gigantic, possibly holding up to at least two trillion galaxies according to some estimates!”
We are “forced to wonder” at these things? No, we are not. We can choose to wonder about them, but belief in space aliens is a choice. You see, one of the big problems with this theory is theological:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)
A terrific book on the subject, Alien Intrusion, really puts the lie to the ET view. Author Gary Bates covers the theological arguments, as well:
“If extraterrestrial life exists, it creates a problem for the big picture of Christianity and the very reason that God incarnate — Jesus Christ — came to this earth and died for mankind.”
I am not saying that Christians believing in aliens are bad, or less intelligent than I am. I am saying that to believe in such comes from the minds of men, not the pages of Scripture.
As Bates has astutely pointed out, belief in aliens and other things like “alien abductions” has arisen largely because of…Hollywood. His research shows that things really accelerated in this area after Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released in 1977.
I find Bates’ conclusions compelling. Why were abduction stories largely absent from the conversation until such films put the idea in moviegoers’ minds?
Because they aren’t real.
Now, let’s come to the crux of the issue. I do believe humans are being influenced, and I don’t deny even physical manifestations of beings from another world. Evidently, Air Force pilots have experienced encounters. And, some of the “abduction” experiences have real elements. What then is the source?
Bates rightly says that we might not know the answers to some of these questions until we see Jesus, but the encounters do have the earmarks of demonic influence.
The spiritual realm is something we honestly know little about, but there is enough Scriptural evidence of demonic activity that we can make this claim with more realism than claiming aliens exist in the universe.
We live in unprecedented times. Satellites, ET claims, and truly frightening things like Bill Gates asserting that our DNA can be altered via vaccines have set the stage for perhaps a “visit” from said aliens.
My unsolicited advice to you: Look first to Scripture, then to the claims of men—not vice versa. Only then will your much-needed discernment kick-in.
Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits, and doctrines of demons; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 1 Timothy 4; 1-2
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