Huckabee Denounces Romney Attack Ads
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/huckabee_iowa/2007/12/29/60493.html
OSCEOLA, Iowa -- Republican Mike Huckabee on Saturday denounced political attack ads, saying people aren't looking for a president whose campaign is based on what's wrong with someone else.
Huckabee, who has surged to the top of the polls in Iowa with less than a week before the Jan. 3 caucuses, said people want a president who will tell them what he would do if elected. He criticized attack ads aimed at him, saying, "If I believed half of that stuff, I wouldn't vote for myself."
He said ads by rival Mitt Romney show the problem with the former Massachusetts governor's campaign.
"Mitt doesn't have anything to stand on except to stand against," Huckabee told a crowd of less than 100 people at Boyt Harness Company, a hunting accessory business in Osceola.
Huckabee said Americans want a president who will be truthful and consistent in his stands.
"You're not going to hear me say something different about the sanctity of life than I did 10 years ago," Huckabee said, referring to Romney's change in position on abortion rights. Although Huckabee has long been opposed to abortion, Romney had earlier supported abortion rights.
Huckabee also denounced criticism by rivals and interest groups about tax increases he supported as governor of Arkansas, noting that he also had reduced taxes.
"I cut 98 taxes," he said.
Huckabee refuted criticism of his record on clemency requests. He didn't reject all such requests, but considered each one and ultimately approved only a relatively small percentage, he said.
"I had 8,700 requests. I denied 90 percent of them," he said. "Some may not have turned out the way I hoped, but most did."
On Friday, Romney launched a hard-hitting ad in Iowa criticizing Huckabee on foreign policy and spending.
"Who is ready to make tough decisions? Mike Huckabee? Soft on government spending," the Romney ad says. It also portrays Huckabee as weak on immigration and crime and quotes President Bush's secretary of state: "His foreign policy? 'Ludicrous,' says Condoleezza Rice."
Huckabee said his success in Iowa shows that the political tides may be turning in a state where he said he has been outspent 20 to 1 by Romney.
"If we win, it would be of seismic proportions on the political scale," he said. "It won't be about money. It will be about what you believe."
Indian Christians appeal to Vice President over continuing attacks on believers
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/indian.christians.appeal.to.vice.president.over.continuing.attacks.on.believers/15865.htm
A delegation representing millions of Christians in India met the Vice President of India on Saturday to appeal for action by the Indian Government to halt ongoing attacks on Christians in Orissa.
Reports coming from rural Orissa indicate that radical Hindutva groups continue to destroy churches and attack Christians. Large rallies across India on Thursday and meetings with central and state authorities have produced little if any actions to protect Christians in the eastern state, the All India Christian Council said.
The All India Christian Council is a coalition of thousands of Indian denominations, organisations and lay leaders that was birthed in 1998 to protect and serve the Christian community, minorities, and the oppressed castes.
Its delegation met Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari and submitted a memorandum of confirmed attacks and proposed government actions to re-establish the rule of law and justice in Orissa.
Ansari became Vice President of India in August 2007 and was previously the Chairman of India’s National Commission for Minorities.
The delegation included representatives from India’s largest Christian Organisations including the All India Christian Council (aicc), Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) and Christian Legal Association (CLA).
“We told his Excellency that, in spite of assurances from the Orissa state government and the Union Home Minister, the situation remains very tense, especially for Christians in rural Orissa,” said Rev Abraham Sahu, aicc Delhi Chapter President.
“Many are tribals or Dalits and are not only poor, but unaware of their freedom of religion and legal rights under our constitution.”
The delegation also included relatives of the victims. Their parents and other family members have been missing in the affected areas of Orissa for several days.
“Reports from Orissa indicate that sick people aren’t getting medical attention," reported Madhu Chandra, aicc Regional Secretary. "Many rural Christians have run away from villages into the forests and don’t have enough food. Radical Hindutva activists continue to freely roam the countryside and are forcing people to embrace Hinduism if they want food and shelter. Many Christians are being forced to shave their heads and then bow down in Hindu temples.”
A Christian delegation is to meet the National Human Rights Commission of India Justice Shri Rajendra Babu and, in cooperation with other groups, is arranging a candle-light vigil on Sunday at the Catholic cathedral, Gol Dakhana, in New Delhi.
On Thursday, a delegation of Christians met the National Commission for Minorities and Union Home Minister. Also, on the same day, an Orissa Christian delegation met with the Orissa Chief Minister. Officials continue to promise protection of Christians and compensation for victims.
According to media reports, NGO press statements, and calls from aicc leaders on the ground in Orissa, dozens of churches, Christian schools, and convents have been damaged or destroyed since Christmas Eve.
Four Christians were reported killed and many roads are blocked by radical Hindutva activists to prevent police and fact finding teams from reaching victims.
The violence allegedly began when Christians in a village 150 kms from the district headquarters of Phulbani began to celebrate Christmas Eve. Local Hindu fundamentalists opposed the event and a fight ensued. Also, a Hindutva leader, Swami Saraswati, was attacked by unknown assailants - allegedly Christians - near Daringbadi while he was travelling. The next day the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) called for a strike and its members began attacking Christians across the state.
Egyptian Government compensates Christians after Muslim attacks
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/egyptian.government.compensates.christians.after.muslim.attacks/15843.htm
The Egyptian Government has given 1,265,000 Egyptian pounds (US$230,000) in compensation to 17 Coptic Christians whose property was damaged by a mob of angry Muslims.
Last week, in the southern Egyptian town of Isna, a group of Muslims damaged cars and shops belonging to the Christians.
According to the governor of Qena province, Magdy Ayoub, the attacks began after reports that a Coptic Christian pulled down the veil of a Muslim woman in a car park.
According to AP, police arrested 15 people in connection with the attacks, most of whom were later released.
In a similar event earlier in the month, dozens of Muslims rioted after rumours that Coptic Christians had tried to abduct and sexually assault a teenage Muslim girl.
The Muslims threw stones and broke windows at a pharmacy where they believed the Christians had forced the girl to have sex with them.
According to AP, the two Coptic Christians suspected of the abduction were arrested by police and detained for 15 days on charges related to sectarian tensions.
Governor Ayoub has said that prominent local Muslim and Christian figures plan to meet in a bid to ease the sectarian tension.
Southern Egypt is no stranger to tension and conflict between Muslims and Coptic Christians. In 2000, 21 Christians and a Muslim were killed in the village of Kosheh after a dispute turned into a fight between armed villagers.
Egypt is a country of 76.5 million people. Around 10 per cent of them are Coptic Christians.
American believers lament passing of Christian greats
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/american.believers.lament.passing.of.christian.greats/15867.htm
Christianity in America took a hard-hit in 2007 as the death of several influential and well-respected leaders shocked the nation and the religious community.
The leaders included the masterminds behind employing mass media to spread the gospel, mobilising Christian voters to be a political force, and supporting the ministry of the world’s most recognisable evangelist.
The following is a list of some of the great American Christian leaders who died in 2007:
The Rev Jerry Falwell
1933-2007
Jerry Falwell will probably best be remembered for founding the Moral Majority in 1979 – a political organization with an evangelical Christian agenda that helped elect Ronald Regan to the White House.
He organised conservative Christian voters around the issues of abortion, gay rights, pornography and school prayers. Falwell is also credited with founding Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, one of the nation’s first megachurches, and founding Liberty University, one of the largest evangelical Christian colleges in the world.
Yet Falwell will also be remembered as a controversial figure who blamed the September 11 attacks on America’s moral decline, pointing to gays, lesbians, abortion providers and feminists. He also denounced the “Teletubbies” children’s TV programme for promoting homosexuality and warned parents that the show was morally damaging to children.
Nonetheless, Falwell’s influence on American Christianity and politics remain undeniable.
Ruth Bell Graham
1920-2007
Ruth Bell Graham is best known as the wife of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham. But many close to her will remember her as the “anchor of faith” and ministry partner to her husband, who many consider the greatest evangelist in history.
Graham grew up in China and what is now North Korea as the daughter of Presbyterian medical missionaries. She gave up her own dreams of serving as a missionary to marry the Rev Billy Graham and raise their five children.
Family and friends describe her as independent, humorous, kind and faithful.
Her husband Billy has always described his wife to reporters that as the greatest Christian he has ever known.
The Rev Rex Humbard
1919-2007
The Rev Rex Humbard was a televangelist who created and hosted the popular “Cathedral of Tomorrow” show. He is considered the pioneer of televangelism and hit the television airwaves in 1949 when the medium was largely untapped by evangelists.
His weekly Sunday messages began broadcasting in 1952. By 1970, his syndicated programme appeared on more TV stations in America than any other with a weekly average of 8 million viewers at the show’s peak.
Humbard’s message also reached a global audience with the show broadcasting in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Far East, Australia, and Latin America.
At his funeral, many attendees expressed gratitude to Humbard for bringing their parents or themselves into a relationship with Christ.
The Rev D James Kennedy
1930-2007
The Rev D James Kennedy built a Christian media empire with his radio and television ministry that reaches more than 3 million people. He also wrote more than 65 books, created Evangelism Explosion, and was a founding board member of the Moral Majority.
Coral Ridge Ministries operates closely with the megachurch he founded, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Kennedy is described by those who knew him as a great visionary, a humble pastor and courageous leader that defended the Christian faith.
Yolanda King
1955-2007
Yolanda King was the eldest daughter of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, who carried on her father’s work through art, motivational speaking, and activism. She urged Americans to be forces of peace and love in the footsteps of her father’s dream for an America where people of all colors are considered equal.
She is remembered by her siblings for her warmth and independence.
Casting Crowns dominate Christian music in 2007
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/casting.crowns.dominates.christian.music.in.2007/15864.htm
Christian music powerhouse Casting Crowns wraps the year up with an unparalleled impact on Christian music, securing the No1 top-selling album of 2007, a seventh No1 radio hit and the highest-grossing tour in Christian music with $4.4 million in ticket sales.
The Altar and the Door stands as the No1 album of the year according to SoundScan's Christian/Gospel year-end chart (week ending 12/9) with more than 450,000 units sold since debuting at No 2 on Billboard's Top 200 chart with historic first-week sales of 130,000 (Sept 2).
The RIAA Gold album spent 11 weeks in the No1 slot on the Top Christian Albums chart and held 13 weeks at No1 on iTunes.
Incredibly, all three of the band's albums rank in the top 25 for 2007, with Lifesong at No11 and Casting Crowns at No 22 on the year-end sales chart.
Casting Crowns is the only artist with multiple projects in the year's top rankings.
Civil Unions Put on Hold in Oregon
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/295231.aspx
Pro-family advocates scored a preliminary victory Friday in Oregon after a federal judge put a hold on a state law, which allows civil unions and gives same-sex couples many of the privileges granted in marriage.
Who Decides?
Petition signatures were gathered and submitted by several Oregon residents in order to establish a referendum that would give voters - not the courts - the ability to keep or overturn the law.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a legal organization defending biblical rights, is representing the Oregonians in a lawsuit.
"Our country is founded on the basic principle of government of the people, by the people and for the people,"said Austin R. Nimocks, ADF's Senior Legal Counsel. "It is un-American that Oregon citizens are being denied the right to have their vote count on this matter."
Signatures gathered to set the referendum in motion were invalidated by the secretary of state and clerks' offices in 12 Oregon counties, but many residents showed up in person to revalidate their signatures.
Even though the secretary of state's office ruled in October that opponents of the "civil unions" law didn't collect enough valid signatures to withhold the law, ADF says that there was no legitimate reason why signatures were not accepted as valid.
ADF's Nimocks argued in court that the review process implemented by the state was flawed and disenfranchised citizens who signed the petitions.
According to a fall report by state elections officials, opponents of the "civil unions" law still needed 116 valid signatures to reach 55,179 - the number required to block the law.
Earlier this year, the domestic partnership law was approved, and after the referendum was denied, ADF filed the lawsuit Lemons v. Bradbury in the U.S. District Court on Dec. 3.
Let the People Be Heard
If the referendum and lawsuit are successful, they will keep the law from going into effect until it is decided on Oregon's ballot in November 2008.
Included in the measure are rights and benefits concerning custody and child-rearing, joint health, inheritance, joint state tax filings, hospital visitation, auto and homeowners insurance policies.
Only Massachusetts allows gay marriage, and eight states grant some spousal rights to same-sex couples.
Nazareth, Re-Creating Jesus' Birth
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/292480.aspx
From childhood most of us learned a traditional version of the birth of Jesus: that on December 24, Joseph led Mary on a donkey to the town of Bethelem where she began to go into labor. They frantically searched for a place to stay and ended up in a stable because there was no room in the local inn
But scholars say that wasn't exactly the way it happened.
This is a different kind of Christmas story; it will give you a new perspective on the birth of Jesus.
"Nazareth Village" has been recreated in Israel as an authentic 'first century' village-a place of 'living history'. It looks similar to the way Bethlehem and Nazareth looked during Biblical times, and Interpreters re-enact what Mary and Joseph did.
They would have left Nazareth in the morning and arrived in Bethlehem, Mary on a donkey and Joseph leading. They traveled with other people for safety, greeted people along the way, and checked directions to Bethlehem.
God's Word the Bible says, "For unto us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is given. His name shall be called, Yeshua - Jesus - and He was-and is-the Savior of us all."
Luke, one of the Bible writers, recorded the circumstances of Jesus' birth. Joseph, a descendant of King David, had to go to Bethlehem for a census. He traveled there with his betrothed, Mary, who was pregnant, that is with-child.
Claire Pfann joined me at Nazareth Village; she is Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of the Holy Land. As we walked a path toward the Village, she explained what happened during that first Christmas when Jesus was born.
Bethlehem, 2,000 years ago, Claire said, was a town with Jewish roots, and Jesus was born into a Jewish family and Jewish tradition.
Claire added, "Paul, the Apostle, gives us this information, in Galatians 4:4. He says, 'When the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, and born under The Law of God.' Jesus was born fully a man and fully within Judaism under God's Law."
At Nazareth Village, you can hear sheep bleating, and the voices of people going up the hillside as the crowds come into the village, with Joseph and Mary following close behind. Joseph leads the donkey as they near their family's home in Bethlehem, where Joseph begins looking to find his relatives.
The Gospel of Luke says Joseph and Mary returned to the place where they had relatives. Family members had already arrived in Bethlehem, just in time for the census.
Unlike the traditional view that Joseph and Mary couldn't find room at an inn, in actuality they would have been welcomed by their Jewish relatives who lived here. They would have entered the home, welcomed by the "patriarch", the eldest of their male relatives.
Claire explained, "In Jewish society, you would go first and foremost to your family, and ask for hospitality. Small Jewish villages didn't have hotels, and they didn't have motels, and they hardly had inns."
Then Mary and Joseph would have shared a meal with their family. In this 'living history town' we see where patriarchal families lived together-sons, grandsons, cousins, and relatives would all arrive by mealtime and share a meal. Family would eventually fill up every room in the house, because they were all required to be there for the census.
Joseph and Mary would have gone upstairs to rest; so did all the family. But, as her birth pangs began, Joseph and Mary would have looked around the family home for a place where Mary could give birth in privacy.
Claire says the key to understanding Luke's account of Christmas is his use of the Greek word for 'Inn'. "In the text of the book of Luke," she explained, "when we translate the word, "Inn", we're reading the Greek word, 'Kataluma'. And 'Kataluma', can mean a guest room."
Naturally, Joseph and Mary would peer into the Kataluma, or guest room, and see that it was already crowded.
They would go back down the stairs, wondering "What could they do in this circumstance, to give Mary some privacy, so she could deliver her baby comfortably and securely?"
Claire gives us new insight on that, "Well, we then get our next clue from Luke's text when he says, 'and she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room in the 'Kataluma', or guest room."
During the day, before Jesus' birth, normal life would be happening: children would be playing between buildings; a woman would be carrying a water jug on her shoulder from the courtyard well into the house; women would be cleaning; cooking, and making preparations. A mother & her daughters would be weaving fabric. In those days, households had to do everything by hand, and were busy places.
This is the kind of life Joseph and Mary saw when they came to Bethlehem.
The customary way of building in those days included building around a courtyard, with rooms attached for family members. The women of the house would sweep the courtyard in anticipation of visitors arriving. There was a cistern used for drinking water, and a cooking area for meal preparation. Daughters would take weaving lessons from their mother. In those days, they wore plain linen tunics and cloth was woven into simple patterns.
Downstairs, the courtyard led to a room in the basement, which was really a 'cave' dug out of soft limestone. That room was used for storage. Nearby outside the housewife would be sieving grain. The families kept large jars of olive oil and wine in the cave. There were stacks of wheat and grain, too.
The housewife would grind two pounds of wheat every day to make bread for her family, and then haul it upstairs to the meal area.
Sheep and donkeys were outdoors; boys often acted as shepherds, and the sheepfold would often be in or near that basement cave area.
The family would bring their prized animals inside for protection and lead them into the basement cave where they would eat from the feeding trough-a manger.
Jesus could have been born in a room like the basement 'cave', then wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in the manger, as is written in the gospel of Luke. The animals would have been moved out, and clean hay laid down. Some of the women, midwives who were experienced in delivering babies would have come down here to help Mary.
Claire told us, "Perhaps, her aunts or cousins or mother or mother-in-law actually assisted in the child birth. And, of course, one word about delivering the baby is: if there are actually women there to deliver Jesus, then Joseph didn't have to catch the baby."
So, as the Christmas story unfolds, we have a truer picture of life in the first century, placing Jesus in His historical context.
But, what about December 25? Was that the actual day that Jesus was born? Or, was December too cold for the shepherds to be outside tending their flocks?
Claire said, "Many people have suggested that perhaps Jesus was born at the Feast of Succot, or Tabernacles. Because, we think about the prologue, John Chapter 1, in which John said, 'the Word became flesh, and tabernacled, or dwelt, among us'. It would be a very appropriate time for the birth of Jesus."
On that Christmas morning, as the cock crowed, after the Savior's birth, a group would have gathered together near the manger, excited to see Mary and wanting to look at the baby in her arms. Nearby would be Joseph, and the midwife women.
Jesus was cradled in a manger, a feeding trough for the animals. Yet, as this story reveals, He was not born an outcast. Instead, He was born as the Jewish Messiah, and the Savior of us all. He was born in a town like this 'living history' town. He was born into a loving, nurturing Jewish family environment. His birth fulfilled God's Covenant Promises to His people, Israel.
God has done a wonderful work of salvation for us, bringing Himself into the world; and making salvation available to all humanity.
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