Haman's ears and the Croissant

In some cultures it has been customary to cut off the ears of criminals before they hung on the gallows.  Apparently for those that don't listen they must feel.  The Jews have a custom of eating a pastry during the feast of Purim that is called Hamantaschen, literally Haman's ears.  This stems from the story in the book of Esther where Haman had prepared a gallows to hang the Jews on because of his hatred of the Jews.  The Jews prayed and God turned things around and Haman ended up hanging on the very gallows he had prepared.  In celebration the Jews eat Haman's ears.

In similar fashion the croissant that has become popular in the west has a somewhat parallel story.

Legend has it that due to conflict with the Ottoman crescent, during the siege of Vienna in 1683 during which the Muslims were defeated, bakers began to bake these crescent shaped breads in celebration.  Some claim the history goes back even further to the Battle of Tours in 732.  Share the joy and eat more croissants.

Catholics praying for the Dead

They will argue that it was a Jewish tradition confirmed in the Bible.  What they don't tell you is that it is not in the Jewish Bible nor in our modern New Testament.  This is something introduced by the Council of Trent (1563) as a counter-reformation ploy, and they referred to 2 Maccabees 12:42 as justification for the doctrine.  The Maccabees is an Apocrypha text which tells the story of the Jewish revolt in which numerous soldiers were killed.  When the bodies of the slain were found to be wearing amulets of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids, it was believed to be the sin responsible for their death (12:40).  Therefore Judas prayed that God would forgive the dead of this sin.

This has resulted in many traditions which have no founding in biblical tradition.  This is linked to the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory in which souls are held in a state of limbo and the living can pay to have a priest pray for them that any sins that are preventing the souls from making it to heaven may be forgiven.  Playing on the emotions of naive and desperate people this has been a good method of fund raising for Rome.

Praying for the dead can often lead to praying to the dead or doing works for the dead which smacks of spiritism and the occult.  Such practice can open the doors for demonic deception as in the Mormon practice of doing baptisms for the dead.  It is not uncommon for demons to appear as deceased persons which can lead to ancestor worship or even spirit worship as in voodoo.

She is dead!  There is only one mediator between man and God, that is Jesus Christ only lamb of God who shed blood for our sins.  Jews never prayed to Moses or any of the Old Testament prophets so why did Catholics decide to pray to biblical saints?