Progressive Left Seeks the Politicalization and Destruction of Christian Principles

THE POLITICALIZATION OF RELIGION IN REAL TIME. It happens every day in the United States. Here is a current example. • • • VICE PRESIDENT PENCE TO SPEAK AT A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT. Or is he??? The Christian Post reported on Wednesday that : "Thousands of students, alumni and supporters of Taylor University, a Christian college in Indiana, are calling on school officials to disinvite Vice President Mike Pence as their commencement speaker because his politics are 'not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear.' " • What does that mean? Here's what a Change.org petition to disinvite him says : 'Inviting Vice President Pence to Taylor University and giving him a coveted platform for his political views makes our alumni, faculty, staff and current students complicit in the Trump-Pence Administration's policies, which we believe are not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear,” Alex Hoekstra, a 2007 graduate of Taylor, wrote in a Change.org petition he launched on Friday, which has already garnered more than 4,000 signatures." • Taylor University was founded in 1846, and it describes itself as a premier, nondenominational, Christian liberal arts university and the number one college in the Midwest. Taylor president Paul Lowell Haines announced VP Pence as the school’s 2019 commencement speaker in a release last Thursday that contradicts the Change.org petition stance : “Taylor University is pleased and honored to welcome to our campus and its 2019 Commencement exercises, Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Pence has been a good friend to the University over many years, and is a Christian brother whose life and values have exemplified what we strive to instill in our graduates. We welcome the Vice President and his wife, Karen Pence, to this 173-year-old premier institution of Christian higher education, and thank them for their love and service for our nation, our state, and our institution.” • As we might expect, the Christian Post say : "The petition has triggered divided opinions about Taylor’s decision to invite Pence. 'I attended Taylor University for two years in 1974-75 and am upset that TU has invited VP Mike Pence to speak. His actions in office have not reflected any Christian values that I recognize. He has been judgmental and divisive. His unwillingness to speak out when President Trump puts children in cages is the antithesis of Christianity,' Sara Hare wrote on the petition Tuesday." Wrong, Sara -- it was President Obama who put migrant children in cages, and the photos of those children were used by Progressives who labeled them as Trump administration caged children. • The Christian Post pointed out that some disagreed with the Change.org petition : "Others like Velma Landrum argued that Pence should be allowed to speak. 'Many of my kids teachers graduated from Taylor. I thought it was a strong Christian school. It seems that no place is immune from the left liberal agenda. I think Pence should be allowed to speak and welcomed with respect!' she wrote. • Then, the Reverend Franklin Graham took up the controversy on Tuesday, arguing that the protesters “should be absolutely thrilled” that Pence will be speaking at the school. For the life of me I don’t understand this. Some students and alumni at Taylor University in Indiana, a Christian college, are objecting to Vice President Mike Pence speaking at their upcoming graduation commencement. They should be absolutely thrilled. But instead, this group started a petition to rescind the invitation because they say the Administration is ‘not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear,’ he wrote in a statement on Facebook. 'What are these people smoking? This reminds me of Paul’s words, ‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?’ (Galatians 3:1). Vice President Mike Pence recently told CNN that he is ‘a Bible-believing Christian.’ Is that what they are objecting to? I appreciate the fact that Taylor’s president, Paul Lowell Haines, has stood firm on the decision to invite the vice president and publicly praised him as a ‘good friend to the University over many years,’ and ‘a Christian brother whose life and values have exemplified what we strive to instill in our graduates.’ There couldn’t be a better, more qualified, more inspirational speaker for graduates to hear from or a better example for them to follow in life. Thank you Mr. Vice President,” Graham said." • Why is this an example of the 'politicalization of religion'? Because the Change.org petition is undoubtedly being managed by Change.org for financial benefit -- Change.org is a FOR-PROFIT company that makes money on the petitions it hosts. So, there is no real religious ideology at work here -- only the profit motive. Okay. But, why pick on a Christian college inviting a Christian Vice President to speak at a commencement of Christian graduates? My guess is that the petition launcher Alex Hoekstra doesn't like Mike Pence's stands on abortion, or on same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ issues. And, those are political issues for the Progressive Left and the Democrat Party. They do not believe Christians have the right to hold an opinion on these matters. But, instead of debating them on the political and social merits of the issues, Progressives simply attempt to shut down Christians who speak about the matters. Thus, religious beliefs are transformed into political issues that Progressives and Democrats do not think worthy of the rights granted by the First Amendment. Politicalization of Religion at work. • • • THE ABORTION vs PRO-LIFE ISSUE. This is even more egregious in its ProgDem political effort to stifle Christian religious views about abortion. In the US today, pro-life views are treated as political poisons that must be eradicated form American life. • The Western Journal Conservative Tribune's Joe Saunders wrote on Monday : "It’s a truism of politics that the mainstream media will never talk about, but when a Democrat starts complaining about hypocrisy, it’s time to look for lies. That truism was on full display on Friday, when Hawaii’s Senator Mazie Hirono, a woman who became a liberal star by helping peddle the vicious, baseless attacks on then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last year, turned her tongue on the pro-life cause. And this staunch defender of abortion -- a procedure that literally destroys more than half a million American children every year -- accused Republicans of NOT CARING about children." • Saunders pointed out Senator Hirono's remarks at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill that would essentially ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced the bill on Tuesday, according to CBS News. It’s one he’s sponsored every year since 2013, CBS reported. Saunders says : "Lawmakers have passed abortion restrictions in numerous states, though court challenges by the abortion industry are inevitable. Graham’s bill hasn’t been able to make it out of the Senate because it was unable to attract the 60 votes necessary to proceed with debate in previous years. This year, with the House under Democratic control, the bill has zero chance of getting to President Donald Trump for a signature. But that hasn’t stopped Graham from trying. He said the bill is necessary because even within the womb, infants at 20 weeks are capable of feeling pain, though abortion supporters dispute that. 'I think science is on our side,' Graham said a news conference on Tuesday, according to CBS. 'I’m not under any illusion here, getting 60 votes will be difficult any time soon, but this is a journey worth taking.' " Joe Saunders calls Senator Graham's position "a frankness that’s refreshing to hear from a Washington politician." • What about Senator Hirono? Saunders reports that : "In a bizarre attack on the pro-life movement -- and a defense of abortion rights if only through gut-churning brazenness -- Hirono called on lawmakers to pay more attention to children who are alive. 'The word ‘hypocritical’ doesn’t even begin to capture what’s happening to women and children across our country,' Hirono said, after listing a variety of Republican actions she disagreed with -- like proposed Medicaid cuts, plans to get rid of Obamacare and cuts to pre-school development grants. 'I hope that supporters of the bills we’re talking about today, both in the states and in Congress, turn their efforts to improving the lives of children who are very much here already and who are so poorly served by the Trump administration and its policies.' ” • "Seriously?" says Saunders, " A woman who is an ardent defender of the deaths of an estimated 61 million children in the United States (and counting) since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973 has the gall to talk about caring for the 'lives of children who are very much here already.' ” • Saunders reminds us that Senator Hirono voted earlier this year "AGAINST the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, basically sentencing babies who managed to escape death at the ends of an abortionist to death anyway. Even more oddly for a Democrat, her concern for children who are 'very much here already' would seem to get in the way of her party’s evident desire to bring in children from all over the world through the country’s crisis-ridden southern border." • The politicalization of religion can be an unwalkable tightrope. Here is Joe Saunders' explanation : "If American children are in need because the government isn’t providing for them, isn’t that a good reason to stop the government from providing for the children of other countries until its own are taken care of? That might be a legitimate question, if Democrats like Hirono argued in good faith. But they don’t, and they can’t -- because the truth isn’t on their side. Just as during the Kavanaugh hearings, when barefaced lies and liars were paraded in front of the American people in a shameless bid to assassinate the character of an innocent man, Democrats will marshal their lies to attack Graham’s bill and his battle on behalf of the unborn. For Democrats, the abortion regime is sacred, and they will do anything to protect it. Hirono has already proved her lack of character on the national stage, but her statement on Friday did provide one service. It proved the truism that when a Democrat starts complaining about hypocrisy, get ready for the lies to fly." • Abortion IS a religious issue. It is resisted by CHRISTIANS all over the world, while most other religions and the Progressive Left see it as simply one more way to garner the votes of specific issue groups. And, because there are no sound arguments for aborting unborn infants who can feel pain or whose heartbeat is audible and visible on ultrasound, the ProgDems in the US turn the argument in one of several ways -- there are children alive now who need more care; abortion is a woman's constitutional right according to the Supreme Court; abortion is a women's health issue -- that make argument on the facts about abortion impossible. • • • TRANSGENDER MEN ATHLETES COMPETING AS WOMEN. This is perhaps the most outlandish device to garner voters that the ProgDems have come up with. And it flies in the face of the women whose votes the ProgDems also need and pander to. What is sad to see is that these brainwashed young women athletes don't even see that their very future is at risk if men can compete on an equal basis in their sports. • Christian Post wrote on April 11 that : "It’s been funny (and by funny, we mean chilling) to watch this play out. Not very long ago, it would have been unthinkable outside a handful of secretive gay bars that young men pretending to be young women would ever be allowed access to female-only sports. Then, just a few years ago, the idea gained acceptance along with the greater transgender movement. Finally, in the last couple of years, we’ve seen a handful of states take the position that this should indeed be the policy, and we’ve seen the results : Extraordinarily well-muscled 'girls' dominating in track & field, wrestling, and any other sport they should choose to compete in. And now, with the cultural tide behind them, the Democrats want to turn this absurd situation into the law of the land. All of the House Democrats but one have put their names to the Equality Act, a piece of legislation that would update the Civil Rights Act to make it so 'sexual orientation and gender identity' are protected characteristics under the law. This would make it illegal to discriminate against anyone on the basis of either of these traits, which means that any school that denied a biological boy access to female sports would be setting themselves up for a lawsuit. A lawsuit they would lose." • The politicalization of religion is lurking here, but it is not obvious. If Christians oppose transgender discrimination -- and we do -- then they are rounded on for opposing at the same time the right of transgenders to compete in sports or use bathrooms in whatever fashion they choose. The Christian Post says : "To little surprise, the bill drew support from the gay-centric Human Rights Campaign. In written testimony to Congress, HRC director Sarah Warbelow said, 'Opponents of equality in athletics for transgender athletes have argued that girls who are transgender have unfair physiological advantages over cisgender girls and as a result, will dominate women’s competitive sports.' She said that this well-established, factual premise is 'not rooted in fact.' " • There is a mouthful of Fake testimony. First, there is little history on which to base a statistically valid factual position -- so Christians are at a loss to argue rationally against the argument. Second, as the Christian Post says, the power of the social justice left allows it to use its current political muscle to make biological males "have no athletic advantage over females. If you refuse to admit it, it isn’t true!" That means there is simply no argument allowable from the religious side of the issue. And, we leave the equal rights and due process arguments for the Supreme Court that has already given one decision to the Progressive Left's poiliticalization of religion in Roe vs Wade. • • • ROE vs WADE AND AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY. American Thinker recently published an article on the new book by David Horowitz titled "Dark Agenda." In the article, American Thinker points out that Horowitz wrote : "Because Protestant groups were living side by side, it followed that in America there would be no institutional or governmental mediator between the individual and God. It also meant that each individual's rights were endowed solely by their Creator and that freedom of conscience and speech would be hallmarks of the new republic....'Cultural Marxism,' by contrast, represents the application of its 'oppressor versus oppressed' vision of society to various victim groups : blacks, 'people of color,' women, native Americans, homosexuals, transsexuals, and any other group claiming victimhood. For Marxists what stands between these oppressed groups and a world in which 'social justice' and equality is fully realized are the oppressors, those who supposedly establish the laws and mores that keep them in power. Thus, failure or success isn't the result of individual choices but the inevitable outcome of a system designed to unfairly help one group (white, Christian, males) and harm the others. Accordingly, what matters politically is destroying the patriarchal Christian system itself with its emphasis on individual moral and economic choices and replacing it with a group-focused system that, in my own words, oppresses the oppressors. Put quite simply, 'Christian doctrines were foundational to the American Republic, which the left despises.' " • American Thinker's Richard Kirk says : "The case of Roe v. Wade (1972), which awakened religious conservatives to the fundamental attack on Christian America, is cogently dissected in Dark Agenda, both from a constitutional perspective as well as through the eyes of Norma McCorvey, the anonymous 'Jane Roe' who was intentionally deceived and reduced to a legal prop to secure the Supreme Court's 'right to privacy' abortion ruling. (As Horowitz notes, in Marxist thought it's the grand arc of history and oppressed groups that matter, not mere individuals.) That ruling officially brought about the cultural civil war that for the anti-Christian left involves not simply a virulent hatred of President Trump but also hatred directed toward his supporters who are regularly vilified as Nazis, sexists, racists, homophobes, and 'deplorables' who are rightly denied freedom of speech and conscience. Trump's Oval Office predecessor did his best to stoke these emotions as Horowitz's litany of anti-Christian comments and actions by President Obama illustrate -- from avoiding religious references during a traditional Thanksgiving ceremony to pursuit of a foreign policy that led to the annihilation of the ancient Christian community in Syria." • Horowitz ends Dark Agenda with this chilling paragraph reminiscent of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address : "A nation divided by such fundamental ideas -- individual freedom on one side and group identity on the other -- cannot long endure, any more than could a nation that was half slave and half free. The urgency that drew the religious right into politics fifty years ago is now an urgency of the nation itself." Kirk says : "Even individuals well aware of the cultural Civil War that now rages in America would do well do arm themselves with the insights in this book -- insights that both explain the ideological roots of the conflict and document a host of grievous wounds that 'Christian America' has already suffered. Horowitz, an honest agnostic, is doing his best to prevent those wounds from becoming mortal." • Another online site, Newsmax, says about the book : "David Horowitz warns that left-wing activists, working in tandem with Democrats and radicals, are attempting to tear down our religious freedoms. They are waging a war against Christians in the courts and the media. Their goal : to destroy Christianity in America. Sounds unbelievable? Think again....He argues that even Jews -- and anyone who believes in God -- will be in danger if Christians are not protected....Horowitz is a New York Times bestselling author and leading conservative thinker. You have seen him on Fox News, Newsmax, CNN, and all the major networks. His Dark Agenda shows how liberals and their radical allies envision a new millennium in which Christianity is banished. Horowitz argues that Judeo-Christian values are at the very root of America’s democracy and success. Kill off such values and all of our freedoms could perish." • William Sullivan wrote in American Thinker : "The purpose of the judiciary is to protect from usurpations of the other two branches. It is not to invent new rights and new government powers, as the Court did with Roe. Justice Byron White observed this in his dissenting opinion : 'There is nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court's judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new Constitutional right for pregnant women and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes.'....Antonin Scalia cited Hamilton in Federalist 78 in his dissenting opinion for the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case in 1992 : " 'The judiciary...has...no direction either of the strength or the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatsoever. It may be truly said to have neither Force nor Will but merely judgment.' The Court had no authority to 'invent a new right for pregnant women' or enact enforceable guidelines for abortion allowance among all the states. Yet ask anyone you know who supports Roe v. Wade what constitutional basis he's founded his opinions upon, and you'll be met by either a blank stare or defiant platitudes about women's rights. His will be a matter of opinion, or the morality around the issue of abortion, and anything but the extremely loose constitutional foundation for the ruling, which even the most progressive legal scholars would determine to be loose. Arguments in abortion cases subsequent to Roe have ruled solely upon the principle of stare decisis and maintaining the institutional integrity of the Court, not the constitutional merits of Roe itself.' " • Lamb & Lion Ministries wrote a long piece about Roe v. Wade on March 20. The author Colonel Tim Moore says : "January 22, 2019 marked the 46th anniversary of a US Supreme Court decision that continues to tear at our national conscience. That was the date when the Roe v. Wade case legalized abortion throughout the United States. Coming on the heels of the Vietnam War and the social unrest that marked the 1960s, the activist court had already begun undoing legal precedents that had guided our nation for generations. In 1963, the Warren Court ruled that official prayer in schools could no longer be tolerated. By 1973, the liberal justices were willing to push the boundaries even further. In the Roe decision, Justice Harry Blackman resorted to citing 'penumbras of the Ninth Amendment' -- a reference to the mysterious outer region of a shadow cast by an opaque object. If that sounds like legal Gnosticism, it is -- because only self-styled higher thinkers can reduce the Amendments to the US Constitution to opaque objects casting faint shadows that only they can discern. Over the past 46 years, the Pro-Life Movement has taken on a life of its own. It has become a political force to be reckoned with, especially within the Republican Party. And, while pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood still outpace the pro-life cause in fundraising and power within the Democratic Party, the culture has trended toward a pro-life position for several years. Lost in the politically explosive issue of life is a historical and prophetic understanding of this stain on America's soul. The 'Wade' in the original case refers to Henry Wade, the District Attorney of Dallas County, Texas. He was tasked with defending the Texas statute prohibiting abortion against a legal steamroller determined to create a landmark case to impact the nation. That legal team actively sought a pregnant young woman to be the subject of their legal battle. They found her in Norma McCorvey -- aka 'Jane Roe.' McCorvey was not what legal scholars would describe as a sympathetic litigant. The product of a troubled and sometimes violent childhood (she was repeatedly raped by a cousin over one three-week period), she was an abrasive, alcoholic drug user who was disowned by her own family. She already had two children by different men, and she had signed over both children for adoption. Pregnant for a third time and divorced at age 22, she sought an illegal abortion but found that all abortion clinics had been shut down by the authorities. Eventually, McCorvey connected with a team of pro-abortion lawyers (headed by the daughter of a mainline minister) who realized that she could become the 'victim' they had been looking for. They coached her to falsely claim she had been gang-raped, hoping to make her circumstance more sympathetic. When her request for a legal abortion was denied due to lack of credibility, they ran her case for the next three years all the way to the US Supreme Court....In the years that followed, Norma McCorvey became a high priestess of the same false religion that had used her and spit her out. She helped lure in young women to the Dallas abortion clinic where she worked for minimum wage and even comforted them with words she knew to be lies. For a season, Norma basked in the notoriety. Caught up in the leftist feminist agenda, she declared herself to be an avowed lesbian. Anyone observing Norma McCorvey's pro-abortion attitude and ungodly lifestyle would have declared her to be reprobate. But that is not the end of her story. During her tenure as a committed lesbian and abortionist, pro-life activists from Operation Rescue began targeting her facility. Instead of screaming at Norma and the women who bought into the lies she helped spread, those intervening Christians primarily prayed and offered positive encouragement. They shined the light of truth and love where darkness seemed to prevail. When I had the opportunity to meet Norma personally, she told me that what broke through her hardened heart was an 8-year-old girl named Emily Mackey who repeatedly told her, 'Miss Norma, God loves you and so do I.( That simple statement made her realize that she had never experienced such grace and love -- totally unexpected and undeserved. It melted her heart....In 1995, Norma McCorvey gave her life to Jesus Christ and renounced her former lifestyle and occupation. McCorvey became an outspoken advocate for life, which is how I met her. In 2008, she spoke at the annual 'Kentucky Doctors for Life' dinner. As the leader of the Pro-Life Caucus in the Kentucky Legislature, I was asked to speak as well. I sat next to Norma and spent most of the evening thrilling at her testimony of how God changed her life and gave it eternally-relevant purpose and meaning." • Norma McCorvey died of congestive heart failure in 2017. BUT, America is saddled with the activist Supreme Court's infamous Roe v. Wade decision. • • • THE AMERICAN PROGRESSIVE LEFT AND CHRISTIANITY. American Thinker's Rick Hayes wrote on April 12 : "As the long conga line of Democrats prepare for their chance at the Presidency, not since the American Civil War has the country been so divided on critical issues as it is right now. Moreover, although Democrat Socialists, aka leftists, say the country is in a mess, they don't seem too concerned with the traditional topics of taxes, military spending, and balanced budgets. They are, however, very focused on trying to demonstrate what a bad person they think Trump is and how righteously superior they think they are. Listening to Democratic candidates lecture Americans on morality regarding a border wall or the sanctity of sanctuary cities their campaign rhetoric sounds more like a religious movement than a political position. It is rather apparent that the left is entirely void of any economic plans or international policies. Instead, it has resorted to becoming pseudo-preachers of a quasi-socialist religion, sounding more sanctimonious by the day. So the only questions Americans can ask themselves at this point is whether or not they want to remain a nation based on the belief in God and laws or a country based on faith in government and social justice? One of the biggest scams and tactical deceptions that leftists use to gain support from outsiders is the attempt to equate Christian teachings to their socialist policies. As if Christianity is more closely matched with the left's good socialist intentions rather than the God-centered Constitution. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, according to a February 2016 article on the Action Institute power blog, since the mid-1800s every Catholic pontiff from Pius IX to Benedict XVI has forthrightly condemned socialism. The American conservative sees God as the architect of everything and originator of man's freedom, and the view of government is limited to protecting those God-given gifts. Whereas the leftist sees government as a godlike idol and their role as the arbiters that control the allowances parted out to the masses -- two opposite ways of life with socialism utterly incompatible with Christianity on every level....The leftist doesn't believe he knows better -- he knows he is better. So because he knows this, he also know that anyone who disagrees with him must be inferior, evil, and dangerous. The paradox is that the leftist is afraid, not of the opinions of others but of the shadow they cast upon other individuals. In other words, the leftist perceives and fears in others that which is within himself. Show me a leftist accusing a political opponent, and I'll show you the next leftist scandal. In the final analysis, the left has no connection with Christian values and nothing to offer the American people except division and disharmony. Attacking Trump, along with extreme unworkable socialist designs is their only agenda for 2020. Let's hope Americans never board the rudderless Democrat socialist ship adrift in a sea of dishonesty and facing the political abyss." • • • DEAR READERS, There is no room under the Constitution and its Republic for the politicalization of religion. The grave error of the activists who brought about the great social changes starting in the 1960s was that they saw traditional American Christians as their political enemy. From that perspective, they took the great Progressive leap into the marxist belief that the way to win power in America was to undercut Christianity with socialist dogma about the underprivileged and under-represented being tramped on by those Christians -- white, male, privileged racists as they have finally been labeled. That appealed to the interest groups that have become the modern Democrat Party's base -- women, blacks, union workers, and now, illegal aliens. For decades, Christians refused to play the ProgDem game. And, then they decided -- at least those in the Republican Party in Washington's Swamp -- that appeasing the ProgDems and voting for their social issues was the way to political survival. It simply led to more and more vilification of Christian principles -- principles that are the foundation of the US Constitution. It took the 2010 Tea Party capture of the House to awaken Americans to the battle they were facing. Fortunately, Donald Trump threw his financial weight and modern marketing skills into the fight. We haven't won. Not by a long shot. But, we Christians are finally in the battle. And, some in those interest groups -- blacks, millennials, gays, Hispanics -- are joining us. Perhaps they are not Christian in the traditional sense, but they believe in personal freedom, a government that cares about them, and a President who talks to them in a way that shows he is on their side. Where that will lead America, we can't yet say. But, it is a brighter day than it was in 2008 when Barack Obama, candidate, said in Pennsylvania : "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." • Frankly, I prefer Kanye West's take : "All these walls that keep us from loving each other as one family or one race - racism, religion, where we grew up, whatever, class, socioeconomic - what makes us be so selfish and prideful, what keeps us from wanting to help the next man, what makes us be so focused on a personal legacy as opposed to the entire legacy of a race." • What Barack Obama said compared to what Kanye West said has parallels in the Gospel reading for the Wednesday of Holy Week -- Matthew 26:14-25 : "Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, 'What will you give me if I deliver him to you?' And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the passover?' He said, 'Go into the city to a certain one, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.' And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the passover. When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples; and as they were eating, he said, 'Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.' And they were very sorrowful, and began to say to him one after another, 'Is it I, Lord?' He answered, 'He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.' Judas, who betrayed him, said, 'Is it I, Master?' He said to him, 'You have said so.' "