Russia: Bombers Flight Routine Patrol
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/us_navy_russian_bombers/2008/02/12/72074.html
MOSCOW -- The Russian military said Tuesday that its bombers' flyover of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific was part of a routine patrol conducted in accordance with international rules.
Russian air force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said in a statement carried by Russian news wires that the Tu-95 bombers didn't violate any rules of engagement when they flew over the Pacific on Saturday.
U.S. military officials said that one Tu-95 buzzed the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet, while another bomber circled about 50 nautical miles out. U.S. fighters were scrambled from Nimitz to intercept the bombers.
Drobyshevsky said the Russian bombers conducted their flight "in strict compliance with the international rules of using airspace rules, over neutral waters and without any violation of other countries' borders." He said the bombers were fulfilling their "assigned task" when they were escorted by the U.S. carrierborne fighters.
The Saturday incident came amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over U.S. plans for a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The U.S. has defended the plan as necessary to protect its European allies from possible attacks by Iran. But the Kremlin has condemned the proposal, saying it would threaten Russia's security.
Such Russian encounters with U.S. ships were common during the Cold War, but have been rare since then. Russia's President Vladimir Putin Russia revived the Soviet-era practice of long-range patrols by strategic bombers over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans last August.
'Looking Good for Jesus' Cosmetics Line Pulled From Singapore Shelves Following Complaints
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330439,00.html
A cosmetics line that extolled the virtues of "Looking Good for Jesus" has been pulled from stores in Singapore after a number of complaints from shoppers, according to media reports Tuesday.
Promising to "Redeem your reputation and more," the product line included a "virtuous vanilla"-flavored lip balm and a "Get Tight with Christ" hand and body cream, The Straits Times said.
Wing Tai Retail, which manages the British retailer Topshop, removed the line late last month after receiving complaints.
"These products trivialize Jesus Christ and Christianity," it quoted Nick Chui, 27, one of the complainants, as saying. "There are also sexual innuendoes in the messages and the way Jesus is portrayed in these products."
One product has packaging with the image of Jesus wearing a bright white robe as he looks toward the heavens, while a heavily made-up blonde woman with an arm draped across his shoulder gazes dreamily at his face.
"Why would anyone use religious figures to promote vanity products? It's very disrespectful and distasteful," the report quoted 24-year-old accountant Grace Ong, as saying.
An unnamed Wing Tai Retail spokesman apologized to anyone who was offended.
Pro-Lifers to McCain: Convince Us
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Pro-Lifers_to_McCain:_Con/2008/02/12/72006.html
Pro-life leaders in Congress are taking a "show me" attitude towards Republican frontrunner Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said McCain is going to have to prove himself to the pro-life community.
"If he really wants to ignite the pro-life community, he can help them understand that his commitment to this is real and not just a voting record that reflects it, but something where we really know this is in his heart," Franks told Cybercast News Service. "If he does, I think we would walk through glass to help him get elected."
Franks, a three-term Republican congressman from Arizona, said he is concerned about some of the positions his Senate colleague has taken. A former pro-life activist, Franks campaigned against efforts to expand taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research, while McCain supported it.
McCain also supports abortion in cases of rape or incest and to prevent the death of the mother. Further, in the 2000 primary debate in South Carolina broadcast on CNN, he attacked then-Texas Gov. George Bush for supporting the pro-life plank in the Republican platform because it does not include exceptions for rape and incest.
"Sen. McCain is my state's senior senator, and I've known him for over 20 years," Franks said. "I truly believe him to be a man that wants to better humanity, but I'm saddened that somehow the pro-life community and Sen. McCain have not been able to communicate as effectively as they should have in the past."
Franks thinks McCain simply fails to understand the magnitude of the abortion issue.
"His record indicates that on straight-up issues, many times he votes pro-life," Franks said. "But he has not been someone who has actively fought for legislation protecting the unborn. We need to know somewhere in our hearts that he is going to give us Supreme Court justices that will not allow the genocide that kills 4,000 children every day."
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) echoed the call for specific assurances from the Republican frontrunner that his judicial nominees would be originalists when it comes to the Constitution.
"I think the pro-life movement has to get some type of admission from him publicly about the type of justices he's going to appoint," Westmoreland told Cybercast News Service. "I think his record in the Senate has been pretty much pro-life, but we need that commitment on the judges. That's where the rubber meets the road."
Another major commitment they are seeking is for McCain to state that he will support the pro-life plank in the Republican National Platform, which calls for a human life amendment and extending 14th Amendment rights to the unborn.
"I don't know of anything that would be more detrimental to his cause in the general election than if he tried to remove the pro-life plank," Franks said. "I don't think Sen. McCain would remove the pro-life plank for a number of reasons. I certainly hope he doesn't."
The congressmen were part of a panel discussion on the future of the pro-life movement at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held in Washington, D.C.
Putin: Russia Could Aim Nukes at Ukraine
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/russia_ukraine/2008/02/12/72069.html
MOSCOW -- Russia could aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine if the former Soviet republic joins NATO and accepts the deployment of anti-missile defenses on its territory, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
Speaking at a news conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Putin said that Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO would restrict its sovereignty.
"That of course is Ukraine's internal process ... and we don't have the right, and we won't, interfere in this process," Putin said. But "that raises the question for Russia of the need for retaliatory actions."
"It's frightening not just to talk about this, but even to think about, that in response to such deployment, the possibility of such deployments _ and one can't theoretically exclude these deployments _ that Russia will have to point its warheads at Ukrainian territory," he said.
Yushchenko responded by saying that Ukraine has the right to form its own foreign and defense policies, and noted that the Ukrainian constitution does not allow for the deployment of foreign bases on its territory.
"You understand well that everything that Ukraine does in this direction is not in any way directed at any third country, including Russia," he said.
Abortion Figuring Into Italy Campaign
http://www.newsmax.com/international/italy_abortion/2008/02/12/72200.html
ROME -- Abortion, not usually a major election topic in Italy, is playing an important role in early campaigning for April's parliamentary elections.
Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister and the front-runner to retake the job, recently said he favors the U.N. passing a moratorium on abortion. But he also stressed Tuesday that individuals _ and his political allies _ are free to make up their own minds.
Meanwhile, a prominent conservative newspaper editor who reopened the debate announced his candidacy for parliament Tuesday and said he plans to run on an anti-abortion platform.
Abortion through the end of the third month of pregnancy has been legal in Italy's state hospitals since 1978. Abortion after three months is allowed only when the pregnancy is deemed a "grave danger" to the woman's life.
Italians upheld the law in a 1981 referendum proposed by Roman Catholic groups that had hoped to overturn the legislation. Since then, the issue has occasionally reappeared in the political debate, but there has been little public mobilization to modify the law.
Berlusconi recently told the weekly magazine Tempi that he believes the United Nations should recognize there is a human right to life from "conception until natural death" _ using the same terminology the Vatican uses to express its opposition to abortion.
But he said on an Italian television show Tuesday that the issue should be left to the individual conscience of citizens.
Prominent conservative journalist Giuliano Ferrara, who is close to Berlusconi and was a minister in his conservative government at one time, announced Tuesday that he would run for parliament.
Ferrara reopened the Italian debate on abortion in December by proposing a universal moratorium in his newspaper, Il Foglio, after the U.N. General Assembly called for a moratorium on the death penalty. His proposal was immediately backed by top Catholic Church officials, including Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the pope's vicar for Rome.
Ferrara reasoned that if the U.N. could approve a moratorium on executions, it should approve one on abortions, arguing that millions of "innocents" are killed each year in what he called the "supreme scandal of our time."
Asked by Tempi if he supported Ferrara's proposal, Berlusconi replied, "I think that recognizing the right to life from conception to natural death is a principle that the U.N. could make its own, just as it did with the moratorium on the death penalty."
Center-left leaders resoundingly oppose Ferrara's call and reject any change to Italy's existing law.
Polls indicate Berlusconi's forces are likely to win the April 13-14 parliamentary ballot, meaning the issue could remain on the table in the next legislature if Ferrara's proposal gains momentum. But Ferrara won't be part of Berlusconi's coalition, the journalist said.
"I will run alone; Berlusconi doesn't believe in this fight enough," Ferrara was quoted as saying by the ANSA and Apcom agencies.
Livia Turco, the health minister in the outgoing center-left government, has said public debate about abortion is fine, but that changing the law is not. The law, she said, has proven effective, both in reducing the number of abortions and in saving mothers' lives, because it has effectively ended clandestine abortions.
In 2004, the last year for which statistics are available, 136,715 women had abortions in Italy, compared with 234,801 in 1982. There are about 58 million people in Italy.
Bibles Confiscated at Airport in Malaysia
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06862.shtml
On January 28, a customs officer confiscated two boxes containing 32 Bibles from a Christian woman in the Kuala Lumpur airport as she was returning from the Philippines. When the officer asked Juliana Nichols to open the boxes she was carrying and declare their contents, she produced a letter from her parish priest stating that the English Bibles were meant for use in her church.
The officer told her that the texts needed to be cleared with the Internal Security Ministry's Control Division of Publications and Al-Quran Texts and seized them. The general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, Reverend Hermen Shastri, issued a press statement on February 4 that called for the immediate release of the Bibles and asked for an official apology from the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.
"The Council of Churches is flabbergasted that such acts are happening in our country with such frequency and impunity," said Shastri. "We want to state categorically that the Bible is Holy Scripture for Christians.... No authority on earth should deny Christians the right to possess, read and travel with their Bibles." The Bibles have since been returned to Nichols, according to reports received this week.
This is only the most recent in a number of troubling incidents in Malaysia that would seem to signal a declining level of religious liberty for religious minorities. Pray that freedom of religion will be upheld for all people in Malaysia. Pray that Christians in Malaysia will rest in the promises of God's provision and strength as they serve Him amid rising opposition (Hebrews 10:32-39).
For more information on the difficulties facing Christians in Malaysia, go to www.persecution.net/country/malaysia.htm.
World Congress of Families Commends Bishops for Challenging EU on Family Policy
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06860.shtml
The World Congress of Families commends the European bishops for challenging the European Union's anti-family policies.
World Congress of Families International Secretary Allan C. Carlson called the recently released report of The Commission of the European Bishops' Conference, "a courageous statement and an important contribution to the family debate in Europe."
The Report ("Proposal for a Strategy of the European Union for the Support of Couples and Marriage') notes that "loving and stable couples are a social capital for all Europeans" as well as "founts of mutual trust in society" and "the preferable instance for bringing up children."
The bishops take issue with the assumption of the EU bureaucracy that the two-income family is "a new social norm" in Europe. They call for recognition of the fact that home care for children is "an important and welcome contribution to the well-being of all citizens of the European Union."
Of attempts to force EU member states to recognize "de facto unions and registered partnerships" contracted elsewhere, the bishops charged that this far exceeds the Union's mandate.
In supporting the report, David Fieldsend of the Brussels-based CARE Europe, observed that at the EU, "For too long, talk of the family has been taboo while all sorts of fringe agendas were embraced with enthusiasm."
Carlson commented: "Across the continent, family forces are rallying. On December 30, more than one million activists crowded Madrid's Colon Plaza in what was billed as a 'Christian Family Day' opposing the ruling party's policies on abortion, divorce and same- sex marriage. The bishops' report is part of this counter-revolution in defense of the natural family."
World Congress of Families IV, attended by more than 3,400 delegates, was held in Warsaw, May 11-13 2007. In The Warsaw Declaration, World Congress of Families IV proclaimed: "The natural family, a creation of God, is the fundamental human community, based on the lifelong marriage between a man and a woman, in which new individuals are conceived, born and raised."
To read the entire Warsaw Declaration, go to this web page: www.worldcongress.org/WCF4/wcf4.dec.htm. To learn more about World Congress of Families, visit www.worldcongress.org.
The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60 countries that seeks to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society. The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois (www.profam.org). To date, there have been four World Congresses of Families -- Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw, Poland (2007).
Small Claims Case against Tiller Reveals Suspicion of Evidence Tampering
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06859.shtml
WICHITA, Kansas -- During a hearing today in Small Claims Court, Judge Stephen K. Woodring heard concerns raised by plaintiff Mark Gietzen that security video footage taken of a hit-and-run incident outside the Women's Health Care Services abortion clinic had been tampered with.
Gietzen is suing abortionist George Tiller for injuring him when Tiller rammed his armored Jeep Grand Cherokee into Gietzen during an incident in 2006. In an effort to settle the case, Geitzen had asked to preview the security tape recorded by WHCS security cameras, which the judge ordered to be played at the time of trial, if a settlement could not be reached.
Geitzen and Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger viewed the evidence that was produced by Tiller security guard John Rayburn. Instead of a video, which Rayburn earlier indicated did exist, Geitzen and Sullenger were shown a series of bitmap photographs.
Attorney Scott Sanders, who was hired by Tiller's insurance carrier to negotiate a settlement, told Gietzen and Sullenger that the security camera did not record video, but instead snapped photos in 3 second intervals. However, the photographs shown were not in 3-second intervals, but in varying intervals from 1 second to 13 seconds between pictures.
Three different photographs were marked with identical time stamps down to the second. According to what Sanders told Geitzen and Sullenger, it would be impossible for the camera to take 3 images all within the one-second time frame. Attorneys offered no explanation for the discrepancy.
"I have no doubt in my mind that the time stamps on those images had been altered and that images in the sequence were missing," said Sullenger. "This raises serious questions about the integrity of any evidence produced by Tiller."
During the hearing, Tiller did not appear, but was represented instead by Sanders, Dan Monnet, and Laura Shanneyfelt. However, in small claims court, each party is required to appear on their own behalf and not have the representation of an attorney.
The judge indicated that Sanders, Monnet, and Shanneyfelt were not "representing" Tiller but were there only for "informational purposes."
"You can twist the language all day long, but the fact is that three attorneys represented Tiller's interests against a single private citizen during that hearing," said Sullenger. "It seemed grossly unfair. Tiller is continuously afforded special privileges that others do not receive, even down to special security measures that were instituted for this hearing."
The small claims trial has been continued until March 20.
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Institute Denounces Draft Iranian Penal Code Death Sentence Legislated for 'Apostasy'
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06858.shtml
WASHINGTON -- The Iranian Parliament is reviewing a draft penal code that for the first time in Iranian history legislates the death penalty for apostasy. The draft clearly violates Iran's commitments under the International Covenants on Human Rights, to which the State is party.
"The draft penal code is gross violation of fundamental and human rights by a regime that has repeatedly abused religious and other minorities," stated Institute on Religion and Public Policy President Joseph K. Grieboski. "This is simply another legislative attempt on the part of the Iranian regime to persecute religious minorities in the country and around the globe, especially Bahá'çs."
Article 112 examines the extraterritorial application of the norms of the code, by extending its jurisdiction over actions that take place outside the country. Article 112-3-1 refers to actions "against the government, the independence and the internal and external security of the country." Security as a term is not defined in the law, thereby making any action qualified as such. Consequently, groups considered dangerous to the regime all over the world can be liable for actions taken outside Iran that are considered as contrary to the security of the country.
Article 225-7 of the code states, "Punishment for an Innate Apostate is death," while Article 225-8 says, "Punishment for a Parental Apostate is death, but after the final sentencing for three days he/she would be guided to the right path and encouraged to recant his/her belief and if he/she refused, the death penalty would be carried out."
"A careful review of the draft clearly shows that it is nothing more than a legislative tool to consolidate power around the regime and extend its religious tyranny globally," Mr. Grieboski commented. "Such legislation will not be accepted by the international community and that message must resoundingly be sent to Tehran."
A review of the draft can be found at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy website at www.religionandpolicy.org, or on Mr. Grieboski's blog at grieboskireport.blogspot.com.
Christian editor's murder trial seen as test for Turkey
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.editors.murder.trial.seen.as.test.for.turkey/16806.htm
Supporters of slain Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink demanded justice on Monday at a third hearing in the trial of his suspected killers, in a case seen as a test for democracy and human rights in Turkey.
The murder of Dink, who hails from Turkey's 60,000-strong Christian Armenian community, has also shone a spotlight on religious intolerance in this mainly Muslim but secular country.
Last April, three Protestants -- two Turks and a German -- had their throats slit at a Bible publishing house. Several Christian clergymen have been attacked, most recently an Italian priest in his church in the Aegean port of Izmir.
Dink was killed outside his Istanbul office in January 2007 by an ultra-nationalist teenage gunman. He had received death threats from far-right groups over his calls for Turkey to accept its role in the mass killings of Armenians in 1915.
The trial of the gunman and 18 others has taken on greater urgency since the recent arrests of another 29 people, including ex-army officers, as part of a probe into a far-right gang said to be behind a series of killings, including that of Dink.
The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, is also closely following the Dink case.
"This stain must be wiped away for the sake of a Turkey in which people are not tried or punished for their thoughts," said a statement of Dink's supporters, including writers, journalists and parliamentarians.
Demonstrators waved banners reading "Justice for Hrant".
"We consider it the minimum requisite to bring about a ruling that reaches all the people and organisations that are behind this case," the statement said.
Many Turks suspect the involvement of a "deep state" in Dink's murder. "Deep state" is code for ultra-nationalists allegedly operating in the security forces and state bureaucracy who are willing to break the law for political aims.
Turkish media have chronicled a series of police lapses in the handling of the Dink case which newspapers say suggest official attempts to protect those who plotted the crime.
SUSPECT'S CLAIM
Kemal Aytac, a lawyer representing Dink's widow Rakel, said one suspect, who is believed to have provided the murder weapon, told the court on Monday he had been taking orders from security personnel in Istanbul and the Turkish capital Ankara.
"We don't expect a verdict today and we have not testified yet," Aytac added.
Last month, in a separate case, police arrested ultra-nationalists whom they suspect of plotting bombings and assassinations to sow chaos in Turkey and help provoke a military takeover in 2009.
Prosecutors have declined to comment on the charges against the 29 suspects, but Turkish newspapers have said the gang, known as "Ergenekon", was also probably behind Dink's murder.
Dink was hated by Turkish nationalists for his stance on the sensitive issue of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One. He had urged reconciliation between Turks and Armenians based on an acceptance of past wrongs.
Dink had received a suspended jail sentence before his death under article 301 of Turkey's penal code, for insulting "Turkishness" in his writings on the mass killings. The EU is demanding that Turkey scrap or amend the article.
Up to 50 lawyers tried to attend Monday's hearing, though only 17 were allowed into the courthouse. Security was tight, with police in riot gear stationed at the courthouse entrance.
Baptists minister to refugees along Thai-Burma border
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/baptists.minister.to.refugees.along.thaiburma.border/16804.htm
An US Baptist delegation began ministering to Burmese refugees living along the Thai-Burma border Monday during a visit to better understand the refugee-to-resettlement process and to reaffirm historic ties between the denomination and the Burmese people.
Members of the American Baptist Churches (ABC) USA delegation will travel to refugee camps in Thailand, meet organisations working with Burmese refugees, and visit a Thai government office that handles refugee resettlement during their February 11-21 visit.
“Many of us are members of the ABC Taskforce on Burmese Refugees which is helping us respond to the refugees who are being released from the Thai camps for resettlement in the United States,” wrote Roy Medley, ABCUSA general secretary, in the blog chronicling the group’s visit to the refugee camps.
ABCUSA has assisted thousands of Burmese refugees to resettle in the United States through Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Program.
“We are pastors and denominational staff who go [to Thailand] to learn in order to better serve as the hands and feet of Christ,” ABC’s Medley wrote.
Historically, American and Burmese Baptists have a long relationship which dates back to the early 19th century. In 1813, US Baptists for the first time came together to form what is today known as International Ministries, after the arrival of Baptist missionaries Adoniram and Ann Judson to Burma, also known as Myanmar.
After the Judsons’ arrival, Baptist work continued to grow in Burma, especially among ethnic minorities, who continually faced persecution the entire time Baptists worked in the country, according to ABC.
A political change in the Burmese Government in the 1960s forced foreign missionaries to leave, including American Baptist missionaries. But, International Ministries still maintained strong ties with the Myanmar Baptist Convention, which is over 100 years old.
Under the military government, there was increased persecution of ethnic minorities in Burma, forcing tens of thousands of Burmese to flee their homes and take shelter in refugee camps in neighbouring Thailand.
Armed military often raze villages of the Karen, Karenni, and Chin people – who are mostly Christians – and systematically rape the woman and arbitrarily kill the men, leading to hundreds of thousands of displaced Burmese.
Norwegian Church Aid believes that as many as half a million people are currently displaced, with the worst affected area being Karen State, where at least 38 people were murdered in the Thanduang province in 2007 alone.
Last autumn, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Burma's largest city Rangoon, and other cities to protest against the junta’s atrocious human rights violations and call for democracy.
Military forces used bullets, tear gas and clubs to break up the street protests. Human rights group and Burmese dissidents reported that the government arrested nearly 6,000 people and killed more than 200 in the crackdown against the demonstration. The junta only admits to the death of about 10 people and arresting some 1,000 people.
But on Saturday, the military government made a historic announcement that it plans to hold a referendum on the proposed constitution in May 2008 and a general election in 2010. This is the first timetable that it has ever outlined for a constitution and election.
Most human rights group, however, called the declaration a sham, and called the government to instead hold reconciliation talks with the opposition party of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and representatives of ethnic minority groups if it is serious about democracy, according to The Associated Press.
The US State Department has designated Myanmar as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) – the worst religious freedom violation label.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of Burmese refugees will resettle in the United States over the next two to three years. In the past two years alone, nearly 14,000 Burmese refugees have fled their homeland and permanently resettled in the United States.
Indian state to pay for Christians to visit Israel
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/indian.state.to.pay.for.christians.to.visit.israel/16808.htm
A south Indian state will subsidise pilgrimage trips for Christians who want to travel to Israel, officials said.
There are about 1.2 million Christians in Andhra Pradesh, representing nearly 2 percent of the state's population. Among them is Y.S. Rajsekhara Reddy, the state's chief minister.
The subsidy is being modelled on that already offered by the central government to Muslims wanting to join the annual haj pilgrimage to Mecca, according to ND Tiwari, the state governor, in announcing the subsidy.
New Delhi even has a special haj air terminal for Muslims, who account for about 13 per cent of India's 1.1 billion population.
Political opponents, including the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, say Reddy's government is pandering to minority communities ahead of state elections next year.
Details of the subsidy are still to be decided, Mohammad Ali Shabbir, the minister for minorities welfare, said on Tuesday.
Bible great to read but hard to apply - survey
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/bible.great.to.read.but.hard.to.apply.survey/16810.htm
Nearly three quarters of Christians say the Bible challenges them to live in a way that runs counter to today’s culture, a survey commissioned by Bible Society has revealed – but they still struggle to apply that challenge to their daily lives, the organisation warns.
The report, ‘Taking the Pulse; Is the Bible alive and well in the Church today?’, was undertaken by research company ComRes on behalf of Bible Society and other Christian organisations to give a snapshot of the way the Bible is used by the Church.
More than 3,660 churchgoers and church leaders in England and Wales were quizzed as part of the study. Five focus groups were also interviewed in depth, in one of the most extensive research projects of its kind which will be extended to Scotland later this year.
Figures show that almost all churchgoers and leaders believe the Bible is relevant and the majority of churchgoers feel it should shape their lives “a great deal”.
The Bible challenged 91 per cent of church leaders and three-quarters of churchgoers to live differently, and most people felt “encouraged” when they read it.
A third of churchgoers said they read the Bible daily, and a quarter read it several times a week. Half said they were “fairly confident” in their knowledge of the Bible.
However, when it came to living out its message, the focus group studies found that churchgoers “want to learn how to apply the Bible to their daily lives”.
Just over one in three churchgoers (39 per cent) said what they read in the Bible affected a decision they had made in the last week, and many think the church needs to provide more help in connecting biblical teaching to day-to-day life.
The study also revealed a level of dissatisfaction among church leaders, who regard the Bible as very relevant to their own lives, but are not able to communicate that to others.
“This overwhelmingly positive attitude to the Bible among churchgoers and church leaders shows that people accept its significance to their lives in principle,” said Ann Holt, Bible Society’s Executive Director of Programme.
“But the study reveals – alarmingly but perhaps not unexpectedly – that the Bible is having a limited impact on people’s lives and decisions.”
The extensive questionnaire showed that both churchgoers and church leaders have growing concerns about the waning influence of the Bible – and the church – in public life.
Two thirds of Christians thought the church should work towards a society that takes the Bible more seriously, and should promote it more widely.
Focus studies with church leaders indicated that they would like to be more visible in public debate. However, leaders said the church had not so far succeeded in making its views known on issues that people care about.
“At Bible Society, our aim is to show that the Bible connects with the fabric of everyday life – and we do this actively by working with those in politics, education, the media and the arts. We want to take people from just knowing of the Bible, to making the most of its message in their daily lives,” said Ms Holt.
“This survey is a thorough and in-depth health check on the state of Bible use in the Church. The picture it paints is both encouraging, and a wake-up call to church leaders that will hopefully spur them on to help people live out the Bible’s message.”
The survey, carried out by ComRes, was commissioned by Bible Society in partnership with the Evangelical Alliance, Scripture Union, United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) and the Scottish Bible Society.
A summary version of the survey and links to Bible resources can be found on Bible Society’s website, www.biblesociety.org.uk
Factbox
• Nearly half of churchgoers and two thirds of leaders claim their church has grown over the past five years.
• Three quarters of churchgoers believe the Bible is divinely inspired and a third say it’s free from error.
• Old Testament ‘blood and killing’ shakes people’s confidence in the Bible.
• More than half of churchgoers said the views of secularists like Richard Dawkins made no difference to their confidence in the Bible.
• Church leaders who are most sceptical of the Bible’s authority also tend to be unhappy with the level of Bible knowledge among their congregations.
• Favourite Bible versions among church leaders are the NIV (37 per cent) and New RSV (17 per cent).
• 87 per cent of leaders say the Bible is taught regularly in their church, compared to 66 per cent of non-leaders.
• The Bible is seen to ‘provide the basic framework for our relationship with God,’ and ‘shows us who God is, what he has done and what he is like’ according to three quarters of church-going respondents.
• Only one in seven churchgoers is very confident in their Bible knowledge.
Churches destroyed in wave of religious violence in Nigeria
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/churches.destroyed.in.wave.of.religious.violence.in.nigeria/16769.htm
Around 1000 people were displaced, several critically wounded, and every church reportedly destroyed in Shira Yana, Bauchi State, Nigeria on 2 February 2008. This is the latest in a series of recent incidents of religious violence in northern and central Shari’ah states, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The violence erupted after a young woman was accused of blaspheming against the prophet Mohammed. According to local sources, the young woman had spurned the advances of a young Muslim man on the previous day. In a last effort the man appealed to her to speak to him “in the name of the Messenger” to which she responded that she knew no messenger.
On the following morning the youth attacked her house accompanied by a crowd, claiming that she had blasphemed against the prophet Mohammed. When the girl fled to a police station for protection, a pursuing mob proceeded to set fire to the building. Policemen responded by firing live ammunition, killing a young man in his 20s and triggering a rampage in which police and Christians were attacked and their homes and churches destroyed.
Tension is also mounting in Kano State, where around 200 Shari’ah police or Hisbah were reported to have patrolled the streets of the Christian area of Sabon Gari in Kano City during the evening of 1 February. They were armed with an array of crude weaponry, including bows, arrows, sticks and machetes.
Around 70 women are said to have been detained during this operation, allegedly for involvement in prostitution. However, a local journalist saw at least one woman held in chains and being punished. He reported this was a result of her refusal to divulge unspecified information. The operation took place despite a 2007 Supreme Court ruling against the use of Hisbah and a warning by Kano State Police Command that Hisbah activities were unconstitutional.
The move by Kano State authorities to enforce a decision taken in November 2007 to demolish four church buildings in Kano City without discussion or compensation has also added to tension in the area. The demolition was supposedly to make way for the construction of roads and a hospital.
Elsewhere, a Baptist church and a Deeper Life church were set ablaze in the Angwan Pama area of Shendam in predominantly Christian Plateau State on 31 January. A car owned by a local Christian that was parked close to the churches was also destroyed in the blaze. Then on 1 February reports began to filter through indicating that six Christian-owned houses had been razed to the ground in Mavo, in the Wase Local Government Area of southern Plateau State.
Engineer Samuel Salifu, General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Christian Solidarity Worldwide that his organisation commended the speed with which the governor of Bauchi had moved to ensure that the injured would receive treatment, churches would be rebuilt and the victims were compensated. He added that he hoped other governors would adopt a similar response in the event of outbreaks of religious violence.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Advocacy Director, Tina Lambert, said: “This recent wave of violence in central and northern Nigeria is disturbing, and we can only hope it does not indicate an upsurge in religious violence during 2008. While it is particularly encouraging to hear that the Bauchi State authorities have moved swiftly to assist victims of the recent violence, this has not always been the case elsewhere.
“Thus while commending the Bauchi State authorities, we continue to urge all state governments and the federal authorities to consistently deal with each situation in a timely and sensitive manner and to deliver justice and adequate compensation for all concerned. We particularly call on Kano’s state government to end the use of the Hisbah and disband them, in line with the Supreme Court ruling.”
U.S. deficit running at twice last year's
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23131149
WASHINGTON - The federal budget deficit is running at a pace that is more than double last year’s imbalance through the first four months of the budget year.
In its monthly review of the government’s finances, the Treasury Department said Tuesday that the budget was in surplus in January, but the deficit totals $87.7 billion so far this budget year, double the $42.2 billion imbalance recorded during the same period in 2007. The new budget year started last Oct. 1.
The Bush administration sent its final budget request to Congress last week, projecting that the deficit for all of 2008 will total $410 billion, very close to the all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion in 2004.
So far this year, federal spending is 8.3 percent ahead of last year’s pace, at $949.1 billion. That is far ahead of the 3.2 percent increase in revenues, which have totaled $861.4 billion in the current budget year.
For 2007, the budget deficit totaled $162 billion, a five-year low. However, the slowing economy is expected to stunt the growth of tax revenues while the $168 billion economic stimulus plan passed by Congress last week will swell the deficit.
It is hoped the stimulus plan will keep the economy out of a recession or at least make the downturn milder and shorter than it otherwise would have been. The rebate checks are expected to start being mailed out in May with most Americans getting checks of $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples filing their tax returns jointly. In addition, families with children will get an extra $300 per child.
For January, the surplus totaled $17.8 billion. That was down from a January 2007 surplus of $38.2 billion. The government’s books are often in surplus in January because it is a month when many individual taxpayers make a quarterly estimated payment.
While the administration is projecting that the deficit for the current 2008 budget year will total $410 billion and decline only slightly to $407 billion in 2009, it projects a significant improvement after those years.
Bush’s budget said that the president’s goal of getting the budget back into balance in 2012, three years after he leaves office, is still achievable, forecasting a balance that year of $48 billion.
However, private forecaster have termed the administration’s deficit projections unrealistic.
Goldman Sachs economists said last week that they had boosted their deficit forecast for this year to $425 billion and to $440 billion in 2009, reflecting the stimulus package.
Evolution Supporters Fight for "Darwin Day"
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/321151.aspx
Evolution proponents have launched a movement in America's schools - celebrating Charles Darwin.
But not only do they want to elevate Darwin, they plan to demote President Abraham Lincoln in the process.
The goal is to convince schools to shift their focus from Lincoln's birthday to Darwin's birthday - both of which fall on Feb. 12.
Iran Educates Children to 'Seek Martyrdom'
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/289970.aspx
During Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s, Ayatollah Khomeini sent thousands of Iranian children directly into minefields.
He promised that they'd see heaven as their reward.
Today's Iranian leadership is quite unpopular with its growing younger generation -- the Mullahs are attempting to reclaim this group one textbook at at a time.
This is becoming a common scene in Iran. Pro-democracy Protests against the ruling regime. Just last weekend Tehran University students waved signs that said "live free or die."
In some ways, this is the new face of Iran-- 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30. Many of these Iranians are hungry for the kind of freedoms Americans enjoy. But the Iranian government has other ideas.
"Imagine 225,000, 250,000 even 100,000 kids who have been taught to hate America, hate the West, get ready for martyrdom," Shayan Arya said.
Shayan Arya's family left Iran when he was a teenager. He says the government's educational curriculum teaches children as young as first grade to prepare for war and seek martyrdom.
"You are responsible for learning it--you get tested on it, you have to study it, you have to write papers on it, you have to answer to your teachers, he said.
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance recently gave CBN News an exclusive look at some Iranian textbooks. All non-Muslims are portrayed as evil -- especially the U.S. and Israel.
A seventh-grade textbook encourages students to "not cease.until the redeeming message of 'there is no god but Allah' is realized throughout the whole world."
These books also teach war between Iran and the west is inevitable. Iranians must either bring about a global Islamic victory or else.
"Victory is not guaranteed, according to the books. It's either victory or collective martyrdom," said Dr. Arnon Groiss.
Eighth grade texts hammer that message home. One section reads "either we shake one another's hand in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom."
"Gradually they build on it so that by 10th or 11th grade, children should be ready to be martyred," Arya said.
Dr. Arnon Groiss has studied Iran's educational system extensively. He views the Iranian curriculum as extreme even for the Middle East.
"If you're dealing with such people, such a regime, that tries to instill in young children or schoolchildrens' minds the idea of global war to the end, this is frightening," Groiss said. "And you will not find this in Syrian textbooks or Saudi Arabian textbooks or Egyptian textbooks."
The radical message of the Islamic Revolution has fallen on deaf ears for many young Iranians. But president Mahmoud Ahamdenijad isn't giving up without a fight.
He says Iran's educational curriculum has become too secular and must be cleansed.
U.N. Weighs a Ban on Weapons in Space, but U.S. Still Objects
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/world/europe/13arms.html
GENEVA — The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Tuesday presented a Russian-Chinese draft treaty banning weapons in space to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, an idea that was quickly rejected by the United States.
Russia and China have pushed for years for a treaty to prevent an arms race in space, a threat underlined by China last year after it shot down one of its own aging satellites.
Responding to previous American assertions that there is no arms race in space and therefore no need for a treaty, Mr. Lavrov instead submitted a draft on “prevention of the placement of weapons in outer space, the threat or use of force against outer space objects.”
“Weapons deployment in space by one state will inevitably result in a chain reaction,” Mr. Lavrov warned. “And this in turn is fraught with a new spiral in the arms race, both in space and on the earth.”
The draft treaty aims to fill gaps in existing law, create conditions for further exploration and use of space, and strengthen general security and arms control, Mr. Lavrov said. It is time “to start serious practical work in this field,” he said.
The White House responded to the proposal on Tuesday afternoon, saying it opposed any treaty that sought “to prohibit or limit access to or use of space.”
Dana M. Perino, the White House press secretary, said such a treaty would also be impossible to enforce. “Any object orbiting or transiting through space can be a weapon if that object is intentionally placed onto a collision course with another space object,” she said in an e-mail message. “This makes treaty verification impossible.”
Instead, she said, the White House favored “discussions aimed at promoting transparency and confidence-building measures.”
The Russian-Chinese proposal was first circulated last year, but the presentation on Tuesday provided the 65-member conference with a basis to discuss a future treaty.
Mr. Lavrov was the latest in a series of dignitaries seeking to inject momentum into an organization that is the only forum for multilateral disarmament negotiations but which last delivered an arms-control measure — on chemical weapons — in 1997.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, opened the current session last month by reminding the conference that its successes were “distant memories” and that “we need progress.”
Last week, Britain’s defense secretary, Des Browne, called for a meeting of the five signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to discuss verifying nuclear disarmament. Thomas P. D’Agostino, administrator of the United States National Nuclear Security Administration, also attended last week, reviewing American progress in dismantling nuclear weapons.
“The fact that these governments are sending very high-level people to the conference means they want to get things going,” said Patrick McCarthy, coordinator of the Geneva Forum, a tripartite body that includes the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.
“We’re at a rather decisive point where we either move onto substantive negotiations or back to more years of fruitless discussion,” Mr. McCarthy said.
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