Making the Case for Christ
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/274182.aspx
There's a new DVD out that could make a great Christmas gift this holiday season. It tells about one man's amazing journey from atheism to faith in Jesus Christ.
Investigative journalist Lee Strobel conducted a two-year investigation of the Bible and the life of Jesus Christ. His goal was to disprove the claims of Christ.
"I was a journalist, so there was really no problem with me picking up the phone and calling a scholar and saying, 'Hey, I'm Lee Strobel. I'm with The Chicago Tribune. I'd like some background information about the New Testament.' And so I would do that. And I thought it was going to be so easy to expose the fallacious thinking behind Christianity," Strobel said.
The journey he thought would be easy turned out to be life-changing, as Strobel became a Christian, professing faith in Jesus Christ as his lord and savior.
"It really was a desire on my part to tell my story of going from atheism to Christianity and summarizing the key evidence that convinced me that Jesus is the unique Son of God who proved it by returning from the dead," he said.
"I did it through interviewing scholars and experts, archaeologists, historians and so forth, hitting the road as I did as a journalist at The Chicago Tribune, to really get the facts and present them in an orderly way to help folks see that there is a good case that can be made for the Christian claims," said Strobel.
The former legal editor documents his search for the truth in the DVD. It features interviews with ten leading biblical scholars from North America and England.
"What we've been able to do is to bring this material alive through the DVD format in a way that a book could never do. You really get to meet these scholars and experts. They come alive. You get to know them as more than just words on a page or initials behind a name," he said.
Strobel said he believed that the new DVD "is an optimal format to present persuasive and powerful evidence for Jesus being who He claimed to be."
Whether it's through the DVD or the book, Strobel hopes everyone who searches for the truth will find it as he did - and see that there is a case for Christ.
Mars Asteroid Impact Probability Triples
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/295184.aspx
LOS ANGELES - The chance of a football field-sized asteroid plowing into Mars next month has been increased to 4 percent, scientists said Friday after analyzing archival data.
Though still a long shot, some researchers are hoping for a cosmic smash.
"I think it'll be cool," said Don Yeomans, who heads the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Usually when an asteroid is headed toward Earth, I'm not rooting for an impact."
The space rock, known as the nondescript 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. Based on the latest information available, scientists said last week there was a 1-in-75 chance the asteroid could hit Mars on Jan. 30.
The odds were increased to 1-in-25 this week after a Ph.D. student pored through the archives and plotted the asteroid's motions before its official discovery. The new information allowed scientists to improve their calculations of the asteroid's orbit and flight path.
Scientists will continue to monitor the asteroid to better predict the possibility of a Martian impact. Yeomans said he expects the odds to decrease with new observations gathered early next year.
The likelihood of an asteroid hit usually "peaks before plummeting to zero with additional data," he said.
The asteroid poses no threat to Earth and is closing in on the Red Planet at 27,900 mph.
Should a collision occur, it would likely blast a half-mile-wide crater north of where the rover Opportunity has been exploring since 2004.
The impact could release energy similar to the 1908 Tunguska object that exploded over remote central Siberia and wiped out 60 million trees.
Parents Told to Abort Baby Call Disabled Son Gift
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318727,00.html
A U.K. couple told to abort the severely disabled baby growing in its mother's womb are delighted with their newborn son, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Julie Crampin, 36, and Antony Lara, 40, of Gloucester, ignored the advice of doctors who wanted the couple to terminate the pregnancy after a scan of the womb at 20 weeks revealed the baby would be severely disabled and unlikely to survive.
The boy, Marco Lara, was born with a range of serious conditions, including water on the brain, a hole in the heart and a narrowing of the outlet of the stomach.
The parents say the toddler is developing well after three operations, two to relieve pressure on his brain.
Lara is hopeful his son will live a full life without any serious disabilities — but said it's too early for doctors to give an accurate prediction of the boy's future.
Top 10 Climate Myth-Busters for 2007
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318686,00.html
“I’ve made up my mind. Don’t confuse me with the facts.” That saying most appropriately sums up the year in climate science for the fanatic global warming crowd.
As Al Gore, the United Nations, grandstanding politicians and celebrities, taxpayer-dependent climate researchers, socialist-minded Greens, climate profiteers and other members of the alarmist railroad relentlessly continued their drive for greenhouse gas regulation in 2007, the year’s scientific developments actually pointed in the opposite direction. Here’s the round-up:
1. Cracked crystal balls. Observed temperature changes measured over the last 30 years don’t match well with temperatures predicted by the mathematical climate models relied on by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers reported.
The models predict significantly warmer atmospheric temperatures than actually occurred, despite the availability of more and better quality data and improved modeling efforts since the late-1970s.
“We suggest, therefore, that projections of future climate based on these models be viewed with much caution,” the researchers concluded.
2. The big yellow ball in the sky. The Sun may have contributed 50 percent or more of the global warming thought to have occurred since 1900, according to a new historical temperature reconstruction showing more variation in pre-industrial temperatures than previously thought.
The researchers found that “the climate is very sensitive to solar changes and a significant fraction of the global warming that occurred during the last century should be solar induced.
3. Pre-SUV warming. Another new temperature reconstruction for the past 2,000 years indicates that globally averaged temperature 1,000 years ago was about 0.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the current temperature. Since that climatic "heat wave" obviously wasn’t caused by coal-fired power plants and SUVs, the current temperature is quite within natural variability, deflating alarmists’ rash conclusions about the warming of the past 50 years.
4. A disciplined climate. Runaway global warming -- the alarmist fantasy in which a warmer global temperature causes climatic events that, in turn, cause more warming and so-on in a never-ending positive feedback loop -- was cornered by new data from researchers at the University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH). The new research sheds light on the mechanism by which the atmosphere self-regulates.
5. A gnarly wipeout. Climate alarmists gleefully surfed a 2005 study that claimed greenhouse gas emissions would slow Atlantic Ocean circulation and cause a mini ice age in Europe. But an international team of researchers reported that the intensity of the Atlantic circulation may vary by as much as a factor of eight in a single year. The decrease in Atlantic circulation claimed in the 2005study falls well within this variation and so is likely part of a natural yearly trend, according to the new study.
6. A pollution solution. A new study reported that the solid particles suspended in the atmosphere (called “aerosols”) that make up “brown clouds” may actually contribute to warmer temperatures -- precisely the opposite effect heretofore claimed by global warming alarmists.
“These findings might seem to contradict the general notion of aerosol particles as cooling agents in the global climate system …,” concluded the researchers.
7. Lazy temperature? Researchers reported that the rate of manmade carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions was three times greater during 2000 to 2004 than during the 1990s. Since increasing atmospheric C02 levels allegedly cause global warming, the new study must mean that global temperatures are soaring even faster now than they did during the 1990s, right?
Wrong. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Climatic Data Center, ever-changing global temperatures are in no way keeping pace with ever-increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
8. Don’t plant that tree! Researchers reported that while tropical forests exert a cooling influence on global climate, forests in northern regions exert a significant warming influence on climate. Based on the researchers’ computer modeling, forests above 20 degrees latitude in the Northern Hemisphere -- that is, north of the line of latitude running through Southern Mexico, Saharan Africa, central India and the southernmost Chinese Island of Hainan -- will warm surface temperatures in those regions by an estimated 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100.
9. The Tropical Arctic. Dutch researchers reported that during a period of intense global warming 55 million years ago -- when the Arctic Ocean was as warm as 73 degrees Fahrenheit -- there was a tremendous release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But which came first, the warming or the greenhouse gases?
It was the warming, according to the researchers.
10. Much ado about nothing. In a report to Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed greenhouse gas regulation to be quite the fool’s errand. In estimating the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases 90 years from now under both a scenario where no action is taken to reduce manmade emissions and a scenario where maximum regulation is implemented, the estimated difference in average global temperature between the two scenarios is 0.17 degrees Centigrade.
For reference purposes, the estimated total increase in average global temperature for the 20th century was about 0.50 degrees Celsius.
That’s what researchers have reported this year. And let’s not forget the spanking a British high judge gave Al Gore’s movie for all its scientific inaccuracies and the thrashing non-alarmist climate scientists gave to alarmist climate scientists in a debate sponsored by the New York debating society Intelligence Squared.
Al Gore and the alarmist mob claim the debate about the science of global warming is “over.” Given the developments of 2007, it’s easy to see why they would want it that way.
New Poll: Obama, Huckabee Lead in Iowa
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_huckabee/2007/12/28/60302.html
According to a new poll from Strategic Vision, LLC, when Republicans were asked whom they would support in 2008 for the presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee led with 29 percent. When Democrats were polled, Barack Obama led with 30 percent.
The poll has a ±4.5 percentage points margin of error and was taken in Iowa of 600 likely Republican caucus goers and 600 likely Democratic caucus goers.
On the Republican side, Huckabee was followed by Mitt Romney with 27 percent; Fred Thompson with 15 percent; John McCain 14 percent; Rudy Giuliani 4 percent; Ron Paul 4 percent; and Duncan Hunter 1 percent. Six percent were undecided.
“Huckabee lost support over the past week while Romney increased his showing particularly among white males,” said David E. Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, LLC. Huckabee appears to be locked into a 28 percent to 30 percent support base but does not appear to be able to expand beyond that core support. His base of support continues to be Christian evangelicals. Romney’s support is strongest among white males between 25 to 45 and among white females 55 and older. There still appears to be a strong reluctance among the Christian evangelicals to embrace Romney because of his religion.
“The real battle is for third place,” continued Johnson. McCain is surging and gained 6 percent since last week and is basically tied with Thompson for third place while Thompson’s support is declining. It is possible to see McCain finishing third in the caucus. He is polling very well among older voters.”
On the Democratic side, Obama was followed by Hillary Clinton at 29 percent; John Edwards at 28 percent; Joseph Biden received 5 percent; Bill Richardson 2 percent; Chris Dodd received 1 percent; and Dennis Kucinich 1 percent. Four percent were undecided.
“The Democratic race has tightened over the past week and although Obama retains the lead this race is very much up for grabs,” said Johnson. “Events overseas could shift support for Clinton with her claims of experience. While the Democratic race remains tight, both Edwards and Obama appear in better shape than Clinton, as those two are the second choice of most of the supporters of the other candidates while Clinton is basically locked in place with her support. Turnout and the unfolding events overseas could determine this race.”
When Democratic voters were asked what they most looked for in a presidential candidate, charisma, experience, or ideology, 32 percent selected ideology; 30 percent selected charisma; 21 percent selected experience; and 17 percent were undecided.
“The problem for Clinton in this question is that the number of Democrats favoring experience continues to decline,” said Johnson. “Although recent events in Pakistan could change this.”
The poll also asked respondents' views on Iraq. When Democrats were asked if they favored a withdrawal from Iraq in the next six months, 85 percent said yes; 6 percent said no; and 9 percent were undecided.
“This question poses a problem for Democratic candidates,” said Johnson. “While they must appeal to the dominant anti-war crowd, at the same time they cannot take too extreme of a position that will alienate moderate voters in the General Election. Additionally, if the surge appears to be working, they cannot appear to be advocating defeat when victory may be nearing.”
Huckabee on Illegal Pakistanis
http://www.newsmax.com/politics/huckabee_fact_check/2007/12/28/60403.html
PELLA, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Friday there are more Pakistanis in the U.S. illegally than any other nationality except those from Latin America.
He told his audience at a campaign event here that 660 Pakistanis have come into the country illegally because of insecure borders.
Pressed by reporters where he got that figure, Huckabee said: "Those are numbers that I got today from a briefing and I believe they are CIA and or immigration numbers." Later, in a conference call with reporters, he identified the figure coming from the Homeland Security Department.
"I am making the observation that we have more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities except those immediately south of the border," he said, repeating the assertion he made to his audience earlier. "And in light of what is happening in Pakistan it ought to give us pause as to why are so many illegals coming across these borders."
THE SPIN:
Huckabee has vaulted to the front tier of the Republican field with his tough-on-immigration stance. The issue resonates with voters in practically every state, including first-to-vote Iowa. He has proposed sealing the Mexican border, hiring more agents to patrol it and to make illegal immigrants go home and apply for legal status. He's backed by the founder of the tough anti-immigrant group Minuteman Project.
THE FACTS:
Homeland Security officials say there are more people in the U.S. illegally from the Caribbean, China and Canada than from Pakistan. Officials deported 435 Pakistanis in the 2007 fiscal year, which ran from Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, 2007, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics. During this time, 766 people from China were deported, as were 521 from the Philippines.
In a phone call Friday with reporters, Huckabee said he was referring to the number of people who are caught entering the country illegally, and he pointed to Homeland Security statistics and a 2006 Denver Post article. He also said more Pakistanis were caught illegally trying to enter the U.S. than people from Canada and China.
Homeland Security does not publicize the number of people from each country who are caught trying to enter illegally or are turned away at legal border crossings, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Bill Anthony. But without providing specific details _ because they are considered sensitive for law enforcement _ Anthony said Pakistanis do not top the list after Latin American countries.
In fiscal 2007, about 600 Pakistanis were turned away at the border or arrested in between entry points.
Israeli ambassador - Pakistan looking like Lebanon
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2281
Thursday's assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto left the impression that Pakistan was becoming like Lebanon, where politicians opposed to the system were simply blown up and killed.
So said Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, in an interview on Fox News Friday afternoon.
Gillerman warned that the killing and the turmoil it was threatening to tip Pakistan into posed an extremely grave danger for the Middle East and the world.
With 160 million people sitting on a very dangerous nuclear arsenal which could "very easily fall into the hands of extremists," Gillerman said, Pakistan could quickly become "one of the most dangerous nations in the world."
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decried Bhutto's assassination, saying she could have "served as a bridgehead to relations with that part of the Muslim world with whom our ties are naturally limited."
Olmert, Gillerman and Israeli President Shimon Peres all said Bhutto had, in conversations with each of them, expressed an interest in working towards the normalization of relations with Israel if and when she was returned to the post of Pakistan's prime minister.
"I had the chance to meet her on several occasions, in which she expressed interest in Israel and said that she hoped to visit upon returning to power," Peres said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
"Benazir was a charismatic leader and a fighter for peace in her country and across the world."
Pakistan Nuclear Weapons at Play
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Pakistan_Nuclear_Weapons_/2007/12/27/60024.html
The assassination of Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is creating great concern around the world over the country’s sizeable nuclear arsenal.
Pakistan is the only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons, and the fear is that with the country falling into political disarray following Bhutto’s death, Islamic extremists will seek to take advantage of the situation and get their hands on some of the weapons.
Pakistan reportedly has as many as 30 nuclear weapons.
Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally, aides said. Even before her death, tensions were high in Pakistan, with many calling for the ouster of President Pervez Musharraf, who imposed emergency rule on the nation.
In November, Bhutto had said discontent was rising and the country resembled a “pressure cooker.”
Pakistan has already been implicated in the spread of nuclear technology. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, described as an “Islamic extremist” and “the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program,” in 2004 admitted that he had sold nuclear technology to a number of foreign countries, including North Korea and Libya.
Former FBI consultant Paul L. Williams wrote that year that evidence found in Afghanistan in 2001 indicated a link between Khan and al-Qaida as well.
The U.S. recently admitted that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, it has been helping Pakistan secure its nuclear weapons and the materials used to make them. Pakistan has welcomed this assistance.
The New York Times reported in November that over the past six years, the Bush administration has spent almost $100 million on a highly classified program to help Musharraf secure his nation’s weapons.
But there is a growing armed insurgency in the areas bordering Afghanistan that has been spreading into Pakistan’s major cities. And with Bhutto’s death, turmoil in Pakistan is bound to increase.
Israel Preparing for WMD War
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Israel_Preparing_for_WMD_/2007/12/28/60269.html
The Israeli army has announced a new campaign to prepare the nation’s citizens for an attack with chemical or biological weapons.
The campaign will offer civilians detailed information on how to protect their homes against weapons of mass destruction — how to choose a protected room and how to seal doors and windows against a WMD attack.
Information will be provided in a guidebook to be distributed to every household, as well as through television broadcasts, a Web site, and a telephone information center.
The Israeli army in recent months has collected hundreds of thousands of gas masks it had distributed to civilians following the outbreak of the 1991 Gulf War, according to the Web site spacewar.com.
Israelis had feared that the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein would fire missiles at Israel loaded with WMDs.
Terrorists kill two Jewish hikers near Hebron
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2280
Two young Jewish men were shot and killed by Palestinian Arabs while hiking near the Judean town of Hebron Friday afternoon.
A woman hiking with David Reuben and Ahikam Amichai was lightly wounded and hid from the terrorists who reportedly fired from a jeep they were travelling in.
According to Ha'aretz, Reuben and Amichai were armed and returned fire, killing one of the Arabs and wounding another before succumbing to their wounds.
Hiding from the killers, the woman called for help, but security forces took nearly an hour to reach her because she had difficulty in communicating her location.
Helicopters were called to hunt the Hebron hills for the attackers, but the IDF has yet to track them down.
Arabs claiming to speak on behalf of the Palestine Islamic Jihad said that their organization had carried out the murders.
One day before the shootings, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had sat down with PLO/PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to discuss ways to push forward with the surrender of Jewish land to the "Palestinians."
Abbas' demands include Israel's removal of roadblocks that inhibit terrorist movement in Samaria and Judea, and the release of "Palestinian" terrorists from Israeli jails.
The PLO/PA Authority is supposed to be in control of security in the "Palestinian" areas of what the world calls "the West Bank."
On Friday morning, just hours before the attack, The Jerusalem Post reported that 2007 has seen "the fewest number of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks in decades."
Leftist Israeli to Rice: Israel is 'a failed state' - rape her
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2282
Only a settlement imposed by the United States can save Israel, which is politically a "failed state," according to the chief editor of Ha'aretz, one of Israel's most influential left wing newspapers.
Israel National News and The Jerusalem Post Friday reported that David Landau admitted to conveying this message to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a confidential briefing she gave while visiting Israel last September.
Landau allegedly used obscene imagery in his conversation with Rice, telling her the Israeli government wanted to be "raped" by the United States, and saying he would be sexually gratified if this actually happened.
The British-born yeshiva-educated journalists confirmed the statements in a telephone conversation with the Jewish Week.
"I did say that in general, Israel wants to be raped — I did use that word — by the US, and I myself have long felt Israel needed more vigorous US intervention in the affairs of the Middle East," he said.
Makor Rishon quoted him as also telling Rice "that it had always been my wet dream to see this [US 'rape' of Israel] happen."
Rice’s response had been "fantastic [in that she was] completely unfazed" by his crass remarks, Landau claimed. He said that, after the dinner a number of the attending professors had congratulated him for "articulat[ing] what many Israelis feel.
Many of Israel's leftists are self-hating Jews, often described by others as "the worst antisemites."
While not the largest circulation Hebrew-language daily, Ha'aretz is regarded as the paper that most influences the country's "elites." Its reporters frequently attack their own country and defend "Palestinian" terrorists, adding impetus to the deeply-entrenched bias of the international press, and pushing Israel's leaders along the road to surrendering Jewish land to the Arabs.
US evangelicals support Jews leaving Iran
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.evangelicals.support.jews.leaving.iran/15829.htm
On Christmas Day this year, 40 Jews arrived secretly in Israel having defected from Iran, a long time enemy of the world's only Jewish state.
Each of the arriving Jews received a gift of $10,000 from American evangelical Christians.
According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, this year the number of Iranian Jews moving to Israel tripled to reach 200. The agency is a quasi governmental organisation promoting immigration to Israel.
A spokesman for the agency said the increase was the result of a stipend programme financed by donations to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), a Christian Zionist organisation.
Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the agency, said, "The money is a major consideration [for people coming to Israel]. These people come with the clothes on their back and their suitcase. Iranian money has no value,” reports Washington Times.
According to AP, the Jewish immigrants were given a warm welcome by family members, who threw candy at them at the reception hall of Ben Gurion International Airport.
Details of the immigrants journey from Iran were not released by the Jewish Agency and their identities were kept secret out of fear that releasing such information could endanger Jews still living in Iran.
The IFCJ has donated a total of $1.4 million for Jewish immigration from Iran and is seen as the most recent example of evangelicals becoming involved in pro-Israel philanthropy, according to the Washington Times. Such charitable actions were previously only undertaken by the Jewish Diaspora.
Iran has the largest Jewish population for a Muslim country, with a total of 28,000 Jews. Generally Jews in Iran have good relations with the rest of the population and have a good standard of living. However, visits to Israel are strictly prohibited and those that do go can have their possessions confiscated.
One immigrant arriving on Christmas Day, Michael, 15, said that when he told his friends where he was going, they wanted to come too. According to AP, he said, "I was scared in Iran as a Jew."
Yechiel Eckstein, an Orthodox rabbi and President of the IFCJ, said that the Jewish Agency approached him earlier in the year about the stipend programme. The idea behind the subsidies is to dispel economic fears among Iranian Jews considering emigrating to Israel.
Eckstein said, "The thing that is blocking them from coming is the fear that they won't have enough money to even rent an apartment.”
He added that the situation for Jews in Iran was similar to that of Jews who remained in Germany in the 1930s despite the rise of Nazism.
“My feeling is that they're sitting on a time bomb. All it takes is an Israeli or American strike on Iran, and I am reasonably sure that if that happens in the next few years, the repercussions would come down on the Jewish community,” reports the Washington Times.
Last week, the Jewish Agency said that Mr Eckstein could join its leadership in return for $45 million in donations from evangelicals over three years.
Evangelicals who back Israel claim they are following a biblical prophecy in which the creation of a Jewish state would be a step towards a Messianic age. Evangelicals have denied claims by Israeli critics that their true goal is to convert Jews to Christianity.
Meir Javedanfar, an Israel-based Iran analyst warned that publicity of the arrival of the Jews to Israel could end up hurting the Iranian Jewish community by placing them in the middle of a “tug of war” between Israel and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reports Washington Times.
Javedanfar claimed that President Ahmadinejad could point to the existence of the Jewish community in Iran as proof that Iran is not anti-Semitic, but that emigration to Israel could imply that the Jewish community in Iran faced hardship
Javedanfar said, "The more high-profile it is, the more it endangers the Jewish community. It's a positive development for Israel, but let's not throw it in Iran's face. It could have a negative impact on the relationship between the Iranian government and the Jewish community," reports Washington Times.
Indian church attacks caused by 'inadequate' government protection, say Christians
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/indian.church.attacks.caused.by.inadequate.government.protection.say.christians/15811.htm
The state government of Orissa is responsible for the attacks on churches and Christian organisations in Kandhamal district in India, according to the Orissa unit of the All-India Christian Council.
The Orissa unit described action by the state government to prevent such attacks as “inadequate”, reports The Hindu.
The state unit president of the All-India Christian Council, Rev Pran Ranjan Parichha said, "The government does not appear to have taken the matter seriously and the slackness on the part of the administration is evident."
Parichha said that the violence had been fomented by Hindu fundamentalist groups. He demanded more provision of security in trouble-spots, saying that people lived in a climate of anxiety and fear.
He said, "This is the first time in Orissa's history that church services could not be held on Christmas Day despite police presence," reports The Hindu newspaper.
On Christmas Day, one person was killed and numerous churches were set ablaze in communal violence triggered by an attack on a local Hindu leader who heads an anti-conversion movement. Following the violence a curfew was imposed on parts of eastern India.
Another Christian Leader, Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Bhubaneswar, told local TV, "I feel the government has allowed them to continue this sort of thing somehow, because I am afraid they are repeating what happened in Gujarat in the last two-three years," reports Reuters.
Protecting Families with New Media Tools
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/285989.aspx
Television, the Internet, MP3 players, MySpace, Face Book, You Tube. The list goes on of all the media devices and social networking sites available to families today.
But the latest research shows that many parents feel lost in this sea of electronics and cyber sites that seem impossible to understand.
With that in mind, Focus on the Family has launched the Family Safety Initiative to help parents protect their families by equipping them with information on media and cultural influences.
"Number one was the need for parents to have what they need to help protect their children from what they're being bombarded with from the world," said Rich Bennett of Focus on the Family. Bennett spoke with CBN News about research his organization did with Barna Research Group to determine the needs of today's family.
Bennett calls the new Family Safety Initiative an extension of the things Focus has been doing over the years for families. They are teaming tried and true ministry services with the latest technology to help parents keep an eye on their children as they navigate the emerging media.
"When Dr. Dobson opened the doors of Focus on the Family over 30 years ago now, the goal was to help families. What it was in the 70's and today is somewhat the same but also different," Bennett said. "We want to help families thrive in our culture. This program naturally fits with the parenting initiatives we have at Focus."
Plugged-In, which has been around since the early 1990s, is now being joined by some new software called Safe Eyes and hardware via TiVo's Kids Zone.
Bennett says these tools, along with other resources are being offered in one place, with details on each so parents can filter, monitor, and limit what their children see and hear.
The tools can all be found at Focus on the Family's special Family Safety website.
It offers the latest information for parents to learn more about blogs, social networks, and other media. It focuses on three areas: online safety, media discernment, and cultural influences.
More than 200,000 people per month contact Focus looking for help with these issues. Now there's a permanent location where parents can find the latest information and technology available to make them and their children more media savvy.
Bennett says Plugged-In gives parents family-friendly reviews of everything, including movies, what children can access on mobile phones, see at the movie theater, and more.
"We want to equip parents to make wise decisions about their childrens' entertainment decisions," Bennett said. He cited Plugged-In's website and monthly magazine as other popular resources available to children and their parents.
Internet Predators on the Prowl
Another study getting attention recently shows a link between aggressive and violent behavior in youth and the violence they see at the movies, on television, and online.
"A lot of websites are pornography-based, violence-based. One in three kids between 10 and 17 have unwanted exposure to sexually explicit materials online, and many don't tell their parents." Bennett told CBN News, referencing a recent study done by the University of New Hampshire.
Like other media technologies, Bennett said he believes social networks aren't necessarily bad. But there's good reason to know which ones your child frequents and who they're communicating with online. He says the research speaks for itself.
"One in five children are approached by an online predator. Everyone likes to think that can't be my kid, but that's something that can happen," he said.
It's not just chat-rooms parents have to consider. Half of America's youth now have an online profile with popular sites like Facebook and MySpace. Through these popular social networking sites, children can see many things that may surprise them; and, link to things parents may not want them exposed to.
Bennett said he heard some advice on monitoring where your child surfs on the Internet that is good to follow.
"The single greatest piece of advice that I've heard is putting your family's computer in a central location, not having it tucked away, but having it right there where the family is going to be," he said.
Be Careful Little Eyes
Bennett suggests in addition to keeping computers in high-traffic areas, a tool like Safe Eyes, a software program that literally monitors and documents online activity, can be invaluable for a child's Internet safety.
It also allows parents to pick and choose what their child has access to when they are online. It can monitor chat rooms, blogs and more. It can also send parents an e-mail alert if something suspicious happens whenever a child is on the Net.
"It literally keeps a record of sites. You can set it to keep a record of the chats your child is involved in," he said.
Don't Forget a Golden Oldie
But it's not just new technology that can be frightening for parents. The television has been influencing several generations now.
As it ages, it doesn't do so gracefully. Television content continues to become more violent and sexually explicit.
"Two-thirds of parents are very concerned about TV content in particular for their children," Bennett pointed out from the latest research findings of Barna and Focus.
That's where technology can come to the rescue, again. TiVo is joining Focus in its Family Safety Initiative. TiVo's Kid Zone is being touted by Focus as a great tool for parents wanting to protect their children from language, violence, sex, and other material not suited for certain age groups.
It allows parents to set the TiVo digital recording devise to allow children to view only certain channels. When children use the remote to turn on the television, they are only offered the pre-approved channels selected by their parents. Moms and dads then have to enter a password to access other channels they blocked from their kids.
Bennett said the intention of bringing all these tools together under the Focus umbrella is not to generate a brief spurt of attention to the growing dilemma facing parents. It is a commitment to help parents be a lighthouse in the sea of confusion over media, technology and it's influence over children.
"We have over 200,000 families contact Focus each month through Internet, mail, phone," he said. "These are families at all different stages. Many are in crisis and are looking for ways to make their way out of the crisis. Then there are those who've had struggled but are okay right now."
"Many are looking for ways to protect their family and engage with other families and the culture as a Christian example." he said. "The family safety effort isn't about putting your family in a bubble but to be protected and be a light to other families as well."
Court Sides with Terror-Supporting Charities
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/295200.aspx
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A federal appeals court overturned a $156 million award Friday against U.S.-based Muslim activists for their involvement in the terrorist death of an American teenager in the West Bank more than a decade ago.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the judge in the case had failed to require the parents of 17-year-old David Boim to properly show a link between the boy's death and the fundraising activities of the charities.
Because of that error, it sent the case back for a possible new trial.
Nathan Lewin, an attorney for the parents, Stanley and Joyce Boim, said an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is possible.
"This court of appeals decision is wrong, very wrong," Lewin said. "It amounts to encouragement of financial contributions to terrorist organizations."
The Boims had sued the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development; the American Muslim Society, also known as the Islamic Association for Palestine; the Quranic Literacy Institute of suburban Oak Lawn; and an alleged Hamas fundraiser, Muhammed Salah.
Their son, a yeshiva student, was gunned down in 1996 while waiting with other students at a bus stop in Beit El, on the West Bank.
All the defendants denied financing terrorism.
In the 2004 trial, a federal court jury had set damages at $52 million. A U.S. magistrate tripled the amount in accord with U.S. anti-terrorism law. It was the first in which jurors awarded damages from U.S.-based charities accused of bankrolling Hamas, Boim attorney Nathan Lewin said at the time.
The couple, who had moved to Jerusalem in 1985, filed the suit under a federal law permitting American victims of terrorism overseas to seek damages against organizations that raise funds for terrorists in the U.S.
The alleged Hamas fundraiser cited in the suit, Salah, was convicted of obstruction of justice for lying under oath on a questionnaire stemming from the Boims' lawsuit. The jury, however, acquitted Salah of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at bankrolling Hamas. He was sentenced in July to 21 months in federal prison.
The 2004 ruling in the Boims' lawsuit came in addition to a crackdown against a group of U.S.-based Islamic charities.
The case against the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in the country when it was shut down in 2001, was the government's biggest terror-financing case since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Authorities closed it down after accusing it of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. Several people connected to the group were charged.
But, in a blow to the government, the case ended in a mistrial in October after none of the group's leaders was convicted, and many acquittals were tossed out after some jurors took the rare step of disputing the verdict.
"All these cases now demonstrate that this is a Middle Eastern political dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis that doesn't belong in an American courtroom," said John Beal, lawyer for the Quranic Literacy Institute. Attorneys for Holy Land did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
When combined with recent government setbacks in criminal terrorism cases, Friday's ruling represents a swing back from zealous anti-Muslim sentiment in the years following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Salah's attorney said.
"This case was a paradigmatic example of the laws being thrown out the window because of the pain and fear and anger that all of us felt after Sept. 11," said attorney Matthew Piers. "If we break out laws in moments like this, the bad guys win."
No comments:
Post a Comment