'Mere Christianity' makes sense, scientist tells CS Lewis Foundation
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/mere.christianity.makes.sense.scientist.tells.cs.lewis.foundation/21135.htm
An award-winning American scientist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and leadership of the Human Genome Project to map the entire human DNA, has described his journey from atheism to Christian belief to an international audience in England.
"There really is no conflict between faith and reason," Professor Francis Collins told the CS Lewis Foundation's international summer institute, Oxbridge 2008, on at St Aldate's Church, Cambridge, on Wednesday.
"As a committed materialist in college, I assumed the physical was all there was," said Collins, who in 1977 at the age of 27 completed a career change from chemistry to medicine and became a doctor. This, he said, forced him to confront pain and death face-to-face. "That was a dramatic turn for me. The concepts were not hypothetical anymore."
Through encounters with patients, pastors and, finally, by reading "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis, Collins realised, "I had never really looked at the evidence. Atheism had only been a convenient pathway. I had to decide what was really the truth but I thought that faith and reason were on opposite poles."
"Mere Christianity" began life as a series of lectures given by Lewis in 1943, and the best-selling book that followed had a profound effect on Collins. "Even in the first few pages, all my arguments about faith just fell apart. It was breathtaking ... Lewis remains my best teacher," he said. Within a year, Collins had become a Christian.
Before a packed audience in Cambridge, Collins cited evidence for his beliefs based on the moral law and mathematical and universal laws. Defending his position as a "theistic evolutionist", Collins said that his beliefs as a Christian and his research as a scientist had led him to the view that faith and reason are compatible.
Collins, who has been involved in identifying the genes that cause cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease, formally retired on Friday, stepping down as director of the Maryland-based National Genome Research Institute.
Taking as his theme "The Language of God: A Scientist-Believer Looks at the Human Genome", Collins told his audience about his DNA work in mapping the 13 trillion gene pairs of the human organism. The DNA, Collins explained, is the "instruction book of the cell" and is made up of a double strand of chemical information coded as single letters. He added that having mapped the 3.1 billion letters, the genome project had made the information accessible to the worldwide scientific community as unpatented knowledge available for benevolent uses, most especially preventative medicine and gene therapy.
On 3 November 2007, Collins received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, his nation's highest civil award, for his revolutionary contributions to genetic research.
Francis Collins' lecture in Cambridge was one of a number of plenary presentations that make up Oxbridge 2008, which concluded on Friday. The summer institute moves to Cambridge until next Thursday under the theme of "Imago Dei? The Self and the Search for Meaning".
Mike Baker: The 'Race Card'
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,398281,00.html
Apparently, you can fool some of the people some of the time, as long as those people aren’t 14 years old. I shall explain.
This past week dutifully coughed up yet another political brouhaha as the McCain camp accused the Obama camp of playing the "race card." I’m not sure why I use quotes around the term "race card" but I get the impression it’s "the thing to do."
Not only did John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, say that they were playing the "race card," but he said they played it from the bottom of the deck.
I dunno, Rick… I think it would have been more effective to just stick with the basics. Adding the "bottom of the deck" line just confused the issue and made you sound a bit hysterical. Then again, I’ve never run a campaign before, although I did help my pal Billy get elected as class president back in the fourth grade.
According to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, I may have implied to Billy’s opponent, one Buzz Tompkins, that "bad things" could happen if he stayed in the race. Buzz dropped out later that day, saying he wanted to focus on his Hot Wheels racing career. The CIA took notice and I was recruited shortly thereafter.
What prompted the "race card" exchange was a line from Barack Obama during a speech earlier in the week, a line he had used on previous occasions, as well.
During a stop in Missouri (State motto: "Somewhere roughly in the middle of the country, possibly next to Ohio, but not really sure") Obama said that since McCain "doesn’t have solutions for the problems the country is facing … what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills. You know, he’s risky."
Frankly, I wouldn’t vote for him simply because he says "you know" way too often in a paragraph. Throw in a few "likes" and maybe an "OMG" and he’d sound like my teenage daughter.
After Obama made those comments the McCain camp cried foul, essentially saying that Obama was implying that McCain is racist and would use Obama’s race to scare voters.
It based its complaint on Obama’s statement that the McCain camp would try to scare voters and say that "he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."
The Obama camp, never to be out-drama-queened, issued an indignant response, declaring that Obama meant no such thing and certainly didn’t play the "race card." According to the Obama spin machine, when Obama says that "he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills," he’s not referring to his race, he’s referring to his level of experience and resume.
What a load of crap. In fact, the PWB’s patented CrapMeter, maintained in a climate-controlled bunker and monitored 'round the clock by volunteers from the Center for Research and Politics, registered its highest readings ever following the Obama camp’s response to the McCain camp’s "race card" accusation.
The readings were relayed to the PWB headquarters, where Bobo the Talking Intern leapt into action, rushing across the street to the bar where the rest of us were playing cards and possibly imbibing.
Here’s the thing… it’s logical if Obama wants to inoculate himself from the potential impact of the "race thing" by drawing attention to it. That seems to be a fine strategy. In a perfect world race would not be an issue for anybody. Unfortunately, I suspect we’re not in a perfect world.
Given that, it makes sense for the Obama camp to get out ahead of the situation by bringing it up as he has, talking about it and basically moving us further down the road. One day it won’t matter and that will be a very good thing.
But don’t bring it up by implying that McCain is using race to scare voters, when he has done no such thing. And by all means, don’t try to break our CrapMeter by suggesting that you weren’t referring to race when you made those comments. That is simply playing the American voter for an idiot.
To test this theory we created a simple survey. We decided to ask a random group of individuals what Obama means when he says: "You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills." A very simple test… read the sentence and then ask, "What does Obama mean?"
Unfortunately, by the time we finished our card game it was the end of the work day and there was no way to convince the PWB staff to work extra hours conducting a survey on the street. The pursuit of empirical research once again was being thwarted by my slacker staff.
Luckily, when I arrived home my 14-year-old daughter and some of her friends were hanging out at the house playing "Guitar Hero" and eating their way through the kitchen pantry. A ready-made random sampling of voters, although admittedly all too young to vote. Close enough.
The test question was handed out, along with No. 2 pencils, and the kids were given five minutes to stare gormlessly at the piece of paper. I stayed in the room and ensured that there was no talking and no cheating. I then collected the answers, tossed more bags of chips and Twizzlers into the room and returned to the PWB headquarters.
Out of eight respondents to the question "What does Obama mean when he says, 'You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills,'" eight wrote "… that he’s African-American." Not a single 14-year-old thought Obama might be referring to his experience or resume.
Now, using that data and following the statistical process first outlined in Clarence Dunwiddy’s seminal piece "Surveys, Statistics, the Universe and You" we can see that if a group of 14-year-old teenage girls with the combined political savvy of a cantaloupe reads Obama’s statement for what it is, then a majority (plus or minus 4 percentage points) of eligible American voters should also see through the spin.
Unfortunately, Dunwiddy was proven to be an idiot with a limited understanding of cardinal numbers and no academic training in statistics. Thus we have to throw out the results and assume that the general public once again will be duped by the ability of a politician to talk out of both sides of his mouth.
So, what have we learned from this week’s drama? Well, apparently, the Obama camp wants to get out in front of the race issue by painting the McCain camp as racist. And when called on it, they think the American voter is perhaps stupid enough, gullible enough, not interested enough or enamored just enough with their candidate to buy whatever spin they’re selling. And you know what? They may be right.
Too bad we can’t lower the voting age to 14. I’ve got a house full of kids that aren’t buying it.
Till next week, stay safe.
Maryland Teen Allegedly Had Weapons, Map of Camp David
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,398403,00.html
WASHINGTON — A map of President Bush's motorcade to Camp David was found last week in the possession of a teenager accused of stockpiling weapons and bomb-making materials, according to prosecutors.
With the possibility that the motorcade was a target, federal authorities have joined police in investigating Collin Matthew McKenzie-Gude, 18, who allegedly was storing the weapons and materials just outside Washington, D.C., at the Bethesda, Md., home where he lives with his parents.
MyFOXDC.com reports that Assistant State's Attorney Peter Feeney disclosed the discovery of the map of Camp David during a court hearing on Tuesday in Rockville, Md. The map was marked with a motorcade route to the secluded presidential compound in western Maryland, about an hour's drive from Washington.
Police also reportedly discovered range-finding binoculars, a CIA identification and a Geneva Convention ID, like ones given to contractors in Iraq.
The CIA and Defense Department have started their own investigations of McKenzie-Gude and an unnamed 17-year-old male, who also has been charged in the case. The FBI and ATF are reviewing the case but haven't launched its own investigation, sources tell FOX News.
The unnamed juvenile, while working as a police intern, allegedly took official stationery to help McKenzie-Gude obtain chemicals and police equipment, including bullet-resistant vests.
Police found four assault rifles, two shotguns, one handgun and ammunition for the weapons, along with "chemicals and components commonly used to manufacture homemade explosives" at McKenzie-Gude's home, according to a Montgomery County police news release.
Police said they also have uncovered a list of home addresses of faculty at the teenagers' school, St. John's College High School — McKenzie-Gude is a graduate — though no connection between the list and the weapons has been identified.
"We have found no further evidence regarding St. John's high school, so this is a very critical factor in this investigation to try to determine what the purpose was by these two young men by acquiring very dangerous weapons and chemicals," Montgomery County police spokeswoman Lucille Bauer said earlier this week.
McKenzie-Gude's father, Joseph Lane Gude Jr., also is charged in the case. Police say he illegally bought firearms for his son.
McKenzie-Gude, who is being held on $750,000 bail, faces additional charges for allegedly setting off an explosive in a field and trying to steal a car from a 78-year-old man.
GOP Stands Firm on Offshore Drilling
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/421997.aspx
CBNNews.com - Gas prices may be inching back, but the battle over offshore drilling is getting hotter than ever.
Congress is closed for business on summer recess, but Republican lawmakers are back in Washington continuing their protest to shore up support for offshore oil drilling.
The issue is taking center stage in presidential politics.
With Congress officially out on summer recess, these are supposed to be the "dog days of summer" in Washington.
But the longtime debate over offshore oil drilling has things heating up on Capitol Hill.
Last week, the Democratically-controlled House shut out the lights on Congress and the debate over energy.
But Republicans say they're returning to build pressure for an emergency session and vote, which would include lifting the ban on drilling.
Republicans are hoping to capitalize on voters' frustrations.
They argue if the ban were lifted, it would lower gas prices and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. It's a stand Senator John McCain has supported since June. And one that Senator Barack Obama used to oppose but now says he may be open to.
"I remain skeptical of some of the drilling provisions but what I don't want to do is for the best to be the enemy of the good here," Obama said.
For his part, McCain had been against drilling but says he's a true convert and questions Obama's change of heart.
"I'm not surprised that he's hedging on this issue, but the fact is he still opposes offshore drilling. We need to drill now," McCain said.
Experts are affirming offshore drilling as an issue that Americans care about based on Obama's new position.
"The best way to determine whether another candidates' issue is selling is whether the opposing candidate suddenly adopts it at least in part. And that's exactly what Obama has done here," said Larry Sabato with the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
For now, Democratic leadership isn't budging on the issue of drilling, saying the Republican's plan won't work because it will take years for oil to reach the pumps and save Americans a few pennies at best.
"If they want to present something as part of an energy package, we're talking about something," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
"But to single shoot on something that won't work and mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump, I'm just not going to be a party of it."
Miscanthus can meet U.S. biofuels goal using less land than corn or switchgrass
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/08/0730miscanthus.html
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In the largest field trial of its kind in the United States, researchers have determined that the giant perennial grass Miscanthus x giganteus outperforms current biofuels sources – by a lot. Using Miscanthus as a feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. could significantly reduce the acreage dedicated to biofuels while meeting government biofuels production goals, the researchers report.
The new findings, from researchers at the University of Illinois, appear this month in the journal Global Change Biology.
Using corn or switchgrass to produce enough ethanol to offset 20 percent of gasoline use – a current White House goal – would take 25 percent of current U.S. cropland out of food production, the researchers report. Getting the same amount of ethanol from Miscanthus would require only 9.3 percent of current agricultural acreage.
“What we’ve found with Miscanthus is that the amount of biomass generated each year would allow us to produce about 2 1/2 times the amount of ethanol we can produce per acre of corn,” said crop sciences professor Stephen P. Long, who led the study. Long is the deputy director of the BP-sponsored Energy Biosciences Institute, a multi-year, multi-institutional initiative aimed at finding low-carbon or carbon-neutral alternatives to petroleum-based fuels. Long is an affiliate of the U. of I.’s Institute for Genomic Biology. He also is the editor of Global Change Biology.
In trials across Illinois, switchgrass, a perennial grass which, like Miscanthus, requires fewer chemical and mechanical inputs than corn, produced only about as much ethanol feedstock per acre as corn, Long said.
“It wasn’t that we didn’t know how to grow switchgrass because the yields we obtained were actually equal to the best yields that had been obtained elsewhere with switchgrass,” he said. Corn yields in Illinois are also among the best in the nation.
“One reason why Miscanthus yields more biomass than corn is that it produces green leaves about six weeks earlier in the growing season,” Long said. Miscanthus also stays green until late October in Illinois, while corn leaves wither at the end of August, he said.
The growing season for switchgrass is comparable to that of Miscanthus, but it is not nearly as efficient at converting sunlight to biomass as Miscanthus, Frank Dohleman, a graduate student and co-author on the study, found.
“One of the criticisms of using any biomass as a biofuel source is it has been claimed that plants are not very efficient – about 0.1 percent efficiency of conversion of sunlight into biomass,” Long said. “What we show here is on average Miscanthus is in fact about 1 percent efficient, so about 1 percent of sunlight ends up as biomass.”
“Keep in mind that when we consider our energy use, a few hours of solar energy falling on the earth are equal to all the energy that people use over a whole year, so you don’t really need that high an efficiency to be able to capture that in plant material and make use of it as a biofuel source,” he said.
Field trials also showed that Miscanthus is tolerant of poor soil quality, Long said.
“Our highest productivity is actually occurring in the south, on the poorest soils in the state,” he said. “So that also shows us that this type of crop may be very good for marginal land or land that is not even being used for crop production.”
Because Miscanthus is a perennial grass, it also accumulates much more carbon in the soil than an annual crop such as corn or soybeans, Long said.
“In the context of global change, that’s important because it means that by producing a biofuel on that land you’re taking carbon out of the atmosphere and putting it into the soil.”
Researchers at Illinois are exploring all aspects of biofuels production, from the development of feedstocks such as Miscanthus, to planting, harvest, storage, transport, conversion to biofuels and carbon sequestration.
Using Miscanthus in an agricultural setting has not been without its challenges, Long said. Because it is a sterile hybrid, it must be propagated by planting underground stems, called rhizomes. This was initially a laborious process, Long said, but mechanization allows the team to plant about 15 acres a day. In Europe, where Miscanthus has been grown for more than a decade, patented farm equipment can plant about 50 acres of Miscanthus rhizomes a day, he said.
Once established, Miscanthus returns annually without need for replanting. If harvested in December or January, after nutrients have returned to the soil, it requires little fertilizer.
This sterile form of Miscanthus has not been found to be invasive in Europe or the U.S., Long said.
There are at least a dozen companies building or operating plants in the U.S. to produce ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks, the non-edible parts of plants, and companies are propagating Miscanthus rhizomes for commercial sale, Long said.
Although research has led to improvements in productivity and growers are poised to begin using it as a biofuels crop on a large scale, Miscanthus is in its infancy as an agricultural product, Long said.
“Keep in mind that this Miscanthus is completely unimproved, so if we were to do the sorts of things that we’ve managed to do with corn, where we’ve increased its yield threefold over the last 50 years, then it’s not unreal to think that we could use even less than 10 percent of the available agricultural land,” Long said. “And if you can actually grow it on non-cropland that would be even better.”
To reach Stephen P. Long, call 217-333-2487; e-mail: slong@illinois.edu.
Government Can Examine Your Laptop
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/government_laptops/2008/08/04/118861.html
Federal agents at the border may seize a traveler’s laptop computer and other electronic devices and hold them for an unspecified period of time even if they have no reason to suspect any wrongdoing.
Under newly disclosed policies, dated July 16 and issued by two agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, officials may also share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, The Washington Post reports.
The rules apply to anyone entering the U.S. — including American citizens — and cover hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes.
The policies state that agents may “detain” laptops “for a reasonable period of time,” and the action may take place “absent individualized suspicion.”
An increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops and other devices have been seized, for months in at least one case, according to The Post.
Computers contain a vast amount of private information about family, finances and health, which could easily be copied and stored in government databases, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has complained.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in a recent opinion piece that laptops and other electronic devices contain “the most dangerous contraband,” and said searches have discovered “violent jihadist materials” and child pornography.
DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told AFP, "Since the founding of the republic, we have had broad authority to conduct searches at the border to prevent the entrance into this country of dangerous persons and goods."
But Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said: "Any smart terrorist won't bother putting dangerous images or documents on their computer or cellphone or Blackberry or digital camera. Rather they'll put them on a remote server and access them when they have entered the U.S."
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who is probing the government’s border search practices, said “the policies that have been disclosed are truly alarming.”
Tyson Drops Labor Day for Muslim Holiday
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/422883.aspx
CBNNews.com - A Tyson Foods' processing plant in Shelbyville, Tenn., is dropping the Labor Day holiday in favor of an Islamic holy day.
The change, which does not affect the company's 118 other plants, exchanges Labor Day for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. The new contract also gives Muslim workers a prayer room.
The new contract at the Shelbyville facility "implements a new holiday to accommodate the ... Muslim workers at the plant," officials with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) said in a press release.
"The five-year contract creates an additional paid holiday ... that occurs toward the end of Ramadan," RWDSU officials said in the release.
Tyson's Director of Media Relations Gary Mickelson told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette that their employees are not actually receiving an additional holiday, but that they've exchanged one holiday for the other.
"Eid al-Fitr is one of eight paid holidays for all team members covered by the contract, while Labor Day is not a paid holiday," Mickelson said. "Since all team members will still have eight paid holidays, the change will not affect production."
The other paid holidays include team members' birthdays, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
Tyson officials said that approximately 250 of the plant's 1,200 employees are Muslim Somalis and that the contract was agreed to by 80 percent of the union's 1,000 members at the plant.
Eid al-Fitr falls on Oct. 1 this year.
MasterCard Starts Islamic Credit Card
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/islamic_credit_card/2008/08/05/119288.html
MasterCard Worldwide and Malaysia’s EonCap Islamic Bank have jointly launched what they are calling the world's first Islamic debit MasterCard.
The EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard is basically a debit card with ATM functions, as well, Business Week reports. It also works on PayPass systems and is compliant with Islamic religious law, which prohibits earning or paying interest.
“The card ensures that purchases are automatically deducted from the cardholder's account and approved only if enough funds exist within the account,” said Fozia Amanulla, chief executive officer of EonCap Islamic Bank.
“It helps track spending, comes with worldwide acceptance at more than 26 million locations, and can be used at an ATM for e-banking."
Shuan Ghaidan, head of product sales and delivery, Asia-Pacific at MasterCard Worldwide, said: "The EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard card is designed for individuals who prefer to spend what they have in their accounts, yet seek the same functionality and assurances of a credit card."
Colorado's Personhood Effort Garners Endorsements of Over 70 Physicians
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07459.shtml
DENVER, (christiansunite.com) -- Colorado for Equal Rights has announced the support of over 70 physicians and pharmacists, including neonatologists, family physicians, ob/gyns, pediatricians, and other physicians nationwide. These physicians have stated that they concur with the statement, "A 'person' includes any human from the time of fertilization." A list of these physicians is available at www.personhood2008.com.
"We are honored to have received these endorsements from such respected physicians," stated Kristi Burton, amendment sponsor. "Science clearly proves that life begins at the time of fertilization. We are secure in the fact that we have science and reason on our side, and we are pleased to have the medical community supporting our efforts."
Sponsored by Burton, a 20 year old law student, the Personhood Amendment states: "Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Colorado: SECTION 1. Article II of the constitution of the state of Colorado is amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read: Section 31. Person defined. As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the terms 'person' or 'persons' shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization."
"As support for Amendment 48 accumulates, we are very encouraged as we get closer to November's election," continued Burton. "Every human life should be protected, and the endorsements we continue to receive prove that our easy to understand amendment is one that all Coloradans can support."
Colorado for Equal Rights is a statewide grassroots organization of committed pro-life citizens. Colorado for Equal Rights is sponsoring the Personhood Amendment to the Colorado Constitution, stating "(t)he term "Person" or "Persons" shall include any human from the time of fertilization." This Human Life Amendment is to appear on the November 2008 ballot as Amendment 48.
Concerned Roman Catholics Call on Knights of Columbus to Expel Pro-Abortion Politicians
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07462.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc. (CRCOA) condemn the Knights of Columbus for their continuing failure to expel pro- abortion and pro-homosexual politicians. The K of C meet in the Hilton Quebec Hotel and in the Quebec City Convention Centre from August 5-7 for their annual Supreme Convention.
Ken Fisher, President of CRCOA, said: "With 50 million abortions since Roe v Wade in 1973, the Knights of Columbus has failed the unborn children miserably. The K of C, founded by Fr. McGivney, ought to be a major force in the pro-life, pro-family movement. Instead, in protecting pro-abortion politician members it has joined the lowest common denominator - "the Culture of Death" - as the late Pope John Paul II named it.
"CRCOA has observed the great decline in Catholic values among the 1.7 million member K of C, which has long claimed to be "the strong right arm of the Catholic Church". Perversely, the K of C has welcomed to its ranks a great number of pro-abortion and pro-homosexual politicians in exchange for a charitable tax-free status on its life insurance business. The charitable work is done, and most of the money is raised, by volunteer K of C members at local and state level - while Supreme Knight Carl Anderson received $1,120,045 in K of C compensation last year", added Fisher.
Boston CRCOA member John O'Gorman said: "Supreme Knight Carl Anderson ignored the situation of 15/Jul/08 when K of C members in the Massachusetts State Senate voted to repeal a 1913 marriage law. State Reps repealed it on 29/Jul/08. The repeal, signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick on 31/Jul/08, allows same-sex couples from all the 50 states to marry in Massachusetts."
"On 14/June/07, at least 16 members of the K of C in the legislature defeated the efforts of 170,000 signatories to put traditional marriage on the 2008 ballot. 170,000 signatures far exceeded the required number to place the question on the ballot! Seven of these K of C politicians have the highest ratings from the USA's biggest abortionists, Planned Parenthood, who performed 289,000 abortions in 2006. On 4/May/08, Supreme Advocate (lawyer) Paul Devin, who gave money to Pro-Abortion politicians Ted and Joe Kennedy (OpenSecrets.org), ruled that a State Convention resolution by Grand Knight Joe Craven to suspend pro-abortion and pro-gay politicians was 'unconstitutional'", said O'Gorman.
Fisher added: "As Supreme Knight for the past 7 years, Carl Anderson has refused to expel the pro- abortion and pro-sodomite politicians and members. They, Anderson and Devin must go! Supreme Chaplain Bishop William Lori and the other bishops must excommunicate the pro-abortion and pro- homosexual politicians and members." Fisher concluded, "Devin is an Attorney and as such he should know Parliamentary Procedure, but he apparently chose to ignore that when he made that ruling. How can a Resolution that merely calls for the Knights to honor their own constitution's article 162.7 be ruled unconstitutional!"
Study: Network TV Likes Sex, But Not in Marriage
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,398461,00.html
LOS ANGELES — Marriage gets little respect on network TV shows that instead revel in the pleasures of extramarital and even kinky sex, according to a study released Tuesday.
The study by the Parents Television Council includes a strongly worded condemnation of prime-time TV, contending it "seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light."
Even more troubling, according to the watchdog group, is what it characterized as TV's recent obsession with what it termed "outre" or bizarre behavior, including partner swapping and pedophilia.
As for references to pornography, sex toys and "kinky" behavior, those are now common on TV, the report said. Visual references to practices such as voyeurism and sadomasochistic sex outnumbered married-sex references by a ratio approaching 3 to 1.
The effect on young viewers is dire, the Parents Television Council contends.
Behavior that once was seen as "fringe, immoral or socially destructive have been given the imprimatur of acceptability by the television industry" and children are absorbing or even imitating it, the report contends.
Parents don't necessarily have the tools to identify programs they may want to block via the V-chip, according to the study: It says designations such as "S," signaling sexual content, were applied inconsistently and inaccurately.
ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and NBC, the networks in the study, all declined comment.
James Steyer, CEO of nonprofit Common Sense Media, which helps parents sift through media offerings to decide what's right for their children, said he couldn't vouch for the Parents Television Council's research but lauded the effort.
While the council takes a very traditional view of society and pop culture, "I respect it," Steyer said Tuesday. "There are millions of Americans that feel this way," he said.
It's legitimate to scrutinize TV's take on marriage and sexuality given its influence on children, Steyer said.
But TV Watch, a nonpartisan group that says individuals and not government should decide what's seen, fired a volley at the council.
"The Parents Television Council won't be satisfied with television content until they convince the government to enforce their personal, selective judgments," Jim Dyke, executive director of TV Watch, said in a statement.
The study analyzed four weeks of scripted shows on the major networks at the start of the 2007-08 season, noting content including depictions of sex; implied sex; discussions on the subject, and visual references to strippers, pornography and other aspects of sexuality.
Among the networks overall, references to adultery outnumbered references to marital sex by 2 to 1. The "family hour" — the first hour of prime-time TV, which draws the most young viewers — contained the highest ratio of references to non-married vs. married sex, the study found.
Shows held up as containing bad examples of TV behavior included "Grey's Anatomy," with the report citing a scene with singles Meredith and Derek in bed, and "Boston Legal," for an exchange about prostitution.
"Desperate Housewives" was singled out for a bedroom scene involving Gabrielle and Carlos, who divorced and then, while in other relationships, had sex.
Some shows have better attitudes toward marriage although they're not necessarily appropriate for families with young children, said Tim Winter, council president.
The drama "Friday Night Lights" is "better than most in showing positive portrayals of marital relations and intimacy," he said in a telephone conference, while the sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris" depicts a strong married relationship.
Hurricane Damaged Church Gathered for Work and Worship
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07461.shtml
RAYMONDVILLE, Texas, (christiansunite.com) -- How does a congregation with a destroyed sanctuary worship? If this past Sunday is any indication, they worship heartily, to celebrate the many things for which they are thankful. Yes, thankful, even after a hurricane. Hurricane Dolly may have desecrated the sanctuary of First Baptist Church/Raymondville, but it didn't stop the people from worshipping.
On Wednesday, July 20, 2008 the 1949 church structure received some hard hits from Hurricane Dolly's blows. First the copper roof peeled back, exposing the plywood decking. From inside the sanctuary, glimmers of daylight shone through where once was rooftop. These gave the torrential rains access to the historic sanctuary. Soaked ceiling tiles fell the 40-foot distance to ruin all in its path.
Members gathered to initiate the clean up on Saturday. By this time, mold was already growing and the stench overwhelmed the senses. The veneer bubbled and popped loose from many of the pews as well as the arched beams overhead. Eighteen members donned masks and braved the miserable conditions to remove the damaged carpet, clean out the spoiled food from refrigerators, pick up crumbled ceiling tiles, and sort through ruined hymnals. More clean up will be necessary after the insurance inspection on Tuesday.
In Sunday's sermon, Pastor Willis quoted Viktor Frankl, concentration camp survivor. "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way." The pastor altered the quote to fit the church circumstances by replacing just one word, "Everything can be taken from a church but one thing: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way."
Pastor Willis has a vision to rebuild, using the historic mission and gothic stylings as a blueprint. Deeply crushed, he shared with another area pastor, "I know the church is the people, not the building, but this building is our sanctuary; the sacred place of our worship. It represents all we hold dear. But I am not disheartened or discouraged because I know God will make something beautiful come from this great destruction."
For photos and more details, go to imlivingoutloud.blogspot.com
Could Aliens Become Spiritual Mentors?
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07458.shtml
Note from Watchman Rayburn: This whole "Can aliens be spiritual mentors" idea is an attempt to get believers to compromise their beliefs to the New Age Movement. Alien behavior is more akin to demonic behavior--far from being Christ-like. The one reason why I allowed the below news story to be posted here was to illustrate the infiltration of the New Age Movement into Christianity. We don't need aliens/demons as our "spiritual mentors" when we have the Son of God, namely Jesus, as our mentor.
LANCASTER, Texas, (christiansunite.com) -- Is our society about to acknowledge the existence of aliens?
A second credible member of the public has spoken out on the topic. Just last week former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell, speaking on BBC Radio, said aliens exist and have been observing earth for "quite some time."
The 77-year-old Mitchell, one of only 12 human beings to have walked on the moon, also said that events like the reported 1947 alien spaceship crash at Roswell, New Mexico, occurred and were hushed up by the U.S. and other governments for various reasons.
In a May interview with Italian newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's chief astronomer, the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, said there is no conflict between believing in extraterrestrial intelligent life and believing in God.
"How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere?" Rev Funes asked, even implying that some aliens might not have been subject to the separation from God described in Genesis. "There could be (other beings) who remained in full friendship with their creator."
Any extended discussion, apart from the existence question, about intelligent non-human life heretofore has been limited primarily to speculative fiction. Most works in these genres eschew any direct talk of spirituality, religion, or faith, alien or human.
There are some exceptions, however, and if our society is now more open to aliens, then a look at how we have portrayed alien faith and spirituality is worthwhile.
Enemy Mine, a 1985 science fiction film derived from an award-winning novella, depicts an intergalactic war between human beings and an alien race called the Drac. Marooned on an isolated, inhospitable planet, a Drac and a man start off as enemies. Out of survival necessity, however, they make a wary peace and eventually become dear friends.
The Drac shows a sense of his own spirituality and the divine, reading frequently from a small book of religious/philosophical text, and pondering the larger questions of life.
Ultimately, the alien's faith and friendship motivate the human being to consider something other than his prestige as a top-scoring fighter pilot. The alien reminds the human that life is so much more than just a scramble for conquest and material success. The human being is much better off for having encountered an alien of great faith and courage.
An example of fantasy that directly addresses alien spirituality is the Green Stone of Healing epic series. It features an intelligent non-human being, a Mist-Weaver, who exhibits capabilities that human beings more readily ascribe to the supernatural. The Mist-Weaver is able to appear and dissolve at will, transitioning from material to non-material realities in much the same manner as the divine heralds of earthly religious traditions.
As would an angel, the Mist-Weaver assumes physical form to converse easier with the human characters. The Mist-Weaver clearly has a profound sense of the divine and his connection to it and to all life, and tries to encourage that spiritual connection in his human counterparts.
The Mist-Weaver's presence spurs his human students to examine the limitations of their faith and their spiritual understanding, just as the burning bush, signaling God's presence, presented Moses with challenges of faith and self-growth.
His spiritual teachings often leave the human beings baffled, however, because they are so different from human understanding. The Mist-Weaver never tries to dictate human behavior or beliefs, solve human problems, or protect his students from the consequences of their actions.
In taking a hands-off approach, he might seem indifferent to some, but the Mist-Weaver simply refuses to intervene out of his abiding respect for free will. Perhaps that's what makes this alien truly strange. The Mist-Weaver doesn't suffer from that all- too-human inclination to run other people's lives or to proclaim God as a similar micro-manager.
A third example of speculative fiction portraying intelligent non-human beings with a highly developed spirituality is Alien Nation. Most of these on- screen "Newcomers" are just regular folks, although there are villains in their midst, too. But the average alien Joes and Jills have jobs, houses, children, and try to live peacefully among their human counterparts. They also have extensive religious rituals and traditions that are depicted throughout the TV series.
Like Enemy Mine and the Green Stone of Healing series, Alien Nation asserts that non- human beings can teach the human variety a thing or two about life and spirituality. The Newcomer police officer is paired with a human detective who is initially very unhappy about the arrangement. But the former earns the latter's respect and affection through his courage, smarts, initiative, and loyalty. The Newcomer demonstrates that these enduring and spiritual character qualities are not the sole province of human beings. Again, the human being is better off for having known the alien.
Tragically, on earth today the concepts of spirituality and faith seem far more alien to many than does the assertion of intelligent non-human beings.
Aliens may give God far more credit than we do. If/when the day comes that we openly encounter intelligent non-human beings, we may find that the experience brings us much closer to reclaiming and living our own spirituality than we ever believed possible.
We can always choose to embrace the unknown--the alien--instead of fearing it.
Evangelical Alliance enlists new technology to communicate Good News
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/evangelical.alliance.enlists.new.technology.to.communicate.good.news/21134.htm
“If we are to present Christ as good news, we need to take advantage of every tool at our disposal,” says Joel Edwards, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance UK.
The Evangelical Alliance recently enlisted the help of Bluetooth technology, the “Gabriel Communicator”, to send the Good News directly to the mobile phones of those taking part in Mr Edwards’ “Agenda for Change” book tour.
Using the “Gabriel Communicator”, a service by mobile innovators txttouch, people at the book launch were able to download a ‘good news’ message onto their mobile phones at no cost and without having to connect to the internet, which could then be passed on to other mobile phones.
Now Mr Edwards is encouraging other churches to use new technology to communicate the Gospel as effectively as possibly.
“The early church used the ‘superhighways’ of their day to communicate over land and sea. We need to maximise the use of communication tools available to us today to our advantage,” he said. “It’s not enough to have a relevant message; we need to be using a relevant medium too.”
Miles Giljam, Head of Communications at the Evangelical Alliance said: “Using this technology has helped us to further understand the market and stay ahead of the latest trends, which in turn will help churches to be relevant and credible with the good news of the Gospel.”
Txttouch is a market leader in SMS texting and a major supplier of Bluetooth to churches in the UK.
Nicholas Maguire is Director of txttouch and has more than ten years of church leadership experience. He said churches needed to get to grips with modern technology in order to reach those outside the church.
“Six billion text messages are sent every week, and 75 percent of people prefer to communicate by text message rather than face to face or by a telephone call. The church needs to apply modern technology to communicate with those within and outside of the church walls,” he said.
“We’ve been helping churches to adapt Bluetooth and SMS texting technology for evangelism, parish notices, social events and outreach. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Austrians march to remember abortion victims
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/austrians.march.to.remember.abortion.victims/21140.htm
Last week pro-lifers in Austria took part in the first annual “1000 Crosses Funeral March” commemorating unborn children killed by abortion.
Hundreds of marchers gathered at Cathedral Square in Salzburg and where each given a large white cross to carry as they marched peacefully through the city.
When they reached the State Bridge, the marchers threw dozens of roses into the river in remembrance of the lives ended by abortion in Austria.
Marchers then took part in a special “Mass of Atonement” for abortion supporters.
Earlier this year, news stories emerged of hired “escorts” being used by abortion mills to intimidate pro-lifers who try to influence people seeking abortions. According to LifeSiteNews.com, incidents of verbal, sexual and psychological abuse by these “escorts” outside abortion mills against pro-lifers has been caught on camera on numerous occasions.
The Austrian Parliament is considering legislation banning pro-life activists from the public property outside abortion clinics, even if their activity is silent prayer, reports LifeSiteNews.com.
Merkel’s green light for $157m gas deal with Iran torpedoes sanctions
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5483
German chancellor Angela Merkel blunted - in advance - the big-power drive for sanctions to punish Iran for its nuclear defiance. When Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faced the US, European Union, the UK, France, Russia, Geneva and China in Geneva on July 19, he knew that their two-week ultimatum for Tehran’s answer to their incentives offer could be sidestepped with impunity.
DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Gulf sources report that a key sanction on the table was a ban on technology that would reduce Iran’s dependence on refined fuel products. However, as far back as February, Merkel approved a $157 million deal for the SPG (Steiner-Prematechnik Gastec) to build three plants that convert gas to liquid fuels in the Islamic Republic.
The deal was approved a month before the German chancellor’s March stood up in the Knesset, promised to push for further sanctions against Iran and declared that Israel’s security was “nonnegotiable.”
The chancellor saw no reason for Germany to hold back on trade with Iran when in June US embarked on a secret dialogue with Tehran, in July Israel decided not to complain to Berlin for fear for jeopardizing its prisoner swap with Hizballah through a German mediator, and the European Union was busy doing business with Tehran and Damascus.
Her party colleague, Harmut Schaerte was therefore instructed to push the government Export Control Office to expedite the sale. SPG directors admitted in German press interviews that were it not for Schaerte’s pressure, they would have abandoned the deal.
Only after the transactions became public, did Jerusalem belatedly asked Berlin for “clarifications.”
Since then, British prime minister Gordon Brown has been pushing European leaders to extend sanctions to include liquefied gas technology. And after Iran test-fired long-range ballistic Shehab-3 missiles, the French company Total withdrew from a liquefied gas project when Paris asked French companies not to respond to Iranian tenders.
The German chancellor has therefore decided to break away from the international front working for escalated sanctions against Iran - even though this means throwing Israel’s “nonnegotiable” security to the winds.
The Church Fathers on the Antichrist, Part 4
http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/commentary/the-church-fathers-on-the-antichrist-part-4-wh/
The popular pretribulation rapture teaching claims that Christians will be snatched off the earth before the Antichrist’s reign. But this four-part series looks at writings from some of the earliest and most respected church fathers, showing their belief that Christians will have to go through the persecution of the Antichrist.
Hippolytus
Hippolytus, a leader of the church at Rome, wrote about the Antichrist in the early third century in a document titled Treatise on Christ and Antichrist (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/hippolytus-christ.html). In section 60 of the treatise, he interprets Revelation 12 as a description of the Church being persecuted by the Antichrist for a period of three and a half years:
Now, concerning the tribulation of the persecution which is to fall upon the Church from the adversary, John also speaks thus: “And I saw a great and wondrous sign in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she, being with child, cries, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child, who is to rule all the nations: and the child was caught up unto God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath the place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And then when the dragon saw it, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast (out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast) out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the saints of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus.”
And in section 61, he also speaks of the Antichrist’s persecution of the Church and how the Church flees from city to city and to the wilderness:
By the woman then clothed with the sun, he meant most manifestly the Church, endued with the Father’s word, whose brightness is above the sun. … “And the dragon,” he says, “saw and persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.” That refers to the one thousand two hundred and threescore days (the half of the week) during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute the Church, which flees from city to city, and seeks conceal-meat in the wilderness among the mountains, possessed of no other defence than the two wings of the great eagle, that is to say, the faith of Jesus Christ, who, in stretching forth His holy hands on the holy tree, unfolded two wings, the right and the left, and called to Him all who believed upon Him, and covered them as a hen her chickens.
Archaeology brings biblical history to life
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/archaeology.brings.biblical.history.to.life/21144.htm
Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a seal bearing the name of one of the enemies of the prophet Jeremiah. Gedaliah the son of Pashur is mentioned in the book of Jeremiah as one of those responsible for throwing the prophet into a muddy cistern.
A seal bearing the name Gedaliah the son of Pashur was discovered earlier this year by archeologist Dr Eilat Mazar while wet-sifting from debris found under a tower at the north end of the City of David, the original site of ancient Jerusalem.
Dr Mazar began a dig in Jerusalem last summer in order to repair a collapsing tower. However underneath the tower she discovered a mass of ancient pottery and other artifacts. Dr Mazar concluded after dating the objects that the tower must have been built by Nehemiah, who according to the Bible returned from exile in Babylon with the Jews to rebuild the temple and walls of Jerusalem.
Among the debris recovered on the dig was the seal bearing Gedaliah’s name which dated back to the reign of king Zedekiah, a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah and the last king of Judah before the city was destroyed by the Babylonians.
Three years ago, Dr Mazar discovered a similar seal with the name Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, another of Jeremiah’s enemies.
Dr Mazar told the Trumpet.com that she believed the two seals were connected somehow, “We found the bulla of Jehucal inside the palace [of King David] structure. This time, we found the bulla of Gedaliah outside the wall, just at the foot of the same spot we found Jehucal.”
Dr Mazar added, “It’s not often that such discoveries happen in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible.”
Israel sends back 30 of 180 pro-Fatah loyalists allowed to flee Gaza battles
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5484
The group of 180 was allowed to cross Israel to Ramallah through the Nahal Oz crossing Sunday, Aug. 3, at the request of the Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. They included a large group of men admitted to Israeli hospitals with injuries sustained in intense daylong mortar, rocket and machine gun battles between Hamas and the pro-Fatah Hilles clansmen in the Gaza Strip’s Shijaiyeh district. At least nine people were killed and more than 100 injured in the fighting, the biggest Palestinian factional clash since Hamas seized control of Gaza a year ago. Among them was the Hilles leader Ahmed Hilles.
The decision to send back some 30 to the embattled territory was reportedly taken by Abbas who feared they would start trouble on the West Bank. Although Egypt guaranteed their safety, Hamas arrested the returnees when they reached their homes.
Israel forces are on high alert on the Gazan border.
In Nablus, Fatah gunmen seized senior Hamas operative Muhammad Ghazal and threatened to execute him unless Hamas stopped its week-long crackdown on their followers in Gaza and released scores of Fatah loyalists, who were detained after six Hamas operatives and a five-year old girl were killed in a bombing attributed to the Fatah’s Abu Rish Brigades militia.
Three mortar bombs landed on the Israeli side of the border causing no harm.
This is the biggest factional clash since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
Hamas is bent on purging Fatah and its allies in the first known systematic attempt in Palestinian areas to crush a complete militia.
No attempt to stem the violence has been made - either by an outside Arab element or the Israeli military, even though security sources expect Hamas to turn next on its rivals on the West Bank after completing the purge of Gaza.
Another kind of eruption is presaged by the first open demonstrations by thousands of extremist Islamic Hizb–ar Tahrir in Gaza and the West Bank town of Jenin Thursday, July 31.
This Jerusalem-based Palestinian movement, which seeks to restore the caliphate worldwide and is considered more radical than al Qaeda, has recently begun taking a hand in Palestinian terrorist activity in Israel’s capital.
In Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, five Palestinians died and 18 were wounded trapped in a smuggling tunnel that runs under the Gaza-Egyptian border.
Top Hamas leader’s son converts to Christianity
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/top.hamas.leaders.son.converts.to.christianity/21157.htm
The son of a top Hamas leader has converted to Christianity and prays some day his family will also accept Jesus Christ as their saviour, according to an Israeli newspaper.
Masab Yousef, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, revealed for the first time in an exclusive interview with Haaretz newspaper that he has left Islam and is now a Christian. Prior to the interview’s publication last Thursday, Yousef’s family did not know of his faith conversion even though he is in regular contact with them.
“[T]his interview will open many people's eyes, it will shake Islam from the roots, and I'm not exaggerating,” said Yousef, who now resides in the United States. “What other case do you know where a son of a Hamas leader, who was raised on the tenets of extremist Islam, comes out against it?”
Yousef, who is now 30-years-old, was first exposed to Christianity eight years ago while in Jerusalem, where out of curiosity he accepted an invitation to hear about Christianity. Afterwards, he became “enthusiastic” about what he heard and would secretly read the Bible every day.
“A verse like ‘Love thine enemy’ had a great influence on me,” Yousef recalled. “At this stage I was still a Muslim and I thought that I would remain one. But every day I saw the terrible things done in the name of religion by those who considered themselves ‘great believers’.
“I studied Islam more thoroughly and found no answers there. I re-examined the Koran and the principals of the faith and found how it is mistaken and misleading.”
But with Christianity, Yousef said he could understand God as revealed through Jesus Christ. He said he could talk about God and Jesus for days, but Muslims are not able to say anything about God.
“I consider Islam a big lie,” said Yousef. “The people who supposedly represent the religion admired Mohammed more than God, killed innocent people in the name of Islam, beat their wives and don’t have any idea what God is.
“I have no doubt that they’ll go to hell. I have a message for them: There is only one way to paradise – the way of Jesus who sacrificed himself on the cross for all of us.”
Four years ago, Yousef decided to convert to Christianity but did not let his family know. He still helped his father with his political activities, and his father only knew his son had Christian friends.
“I felt responsible. It was better for me to be there rather than a gang of fools who would poison his mind,” Yousef explained. “I tried to understand those people, their thoughts, in order to change them from inside by means of a strong person like my father, who admitted to me in the past that he does not support suicide attacks.”
Yousef described his father as a moderate Hamas leader.
But even before his encounter with Christianity, Yousef had already become disenchanted with Hamas and Islam after being imprisoned at the age of 18 years old for heading a youth Islamic movement at his high school.
He described the Hamas leaders he met in prison as people with “no morals” and “no integrity”, although they hide their corruption better than Fatah party members.
“Nobody knows them and how they operate as well as I do,” Yousef said, recalling how the family of Hamas members killed by Israel were forced to beg for financial assistance while the leadership “abandoned” them and “wasted” tens of thousands of dollars a month only on security for themselves.
“Then (in prison) I understood that not everyone in Hamas is like my father. He's a nice, friendly man. But I discovered how evil his colleagues are,” Yousef said. “After my release I lost the faith I had in those who ostensibly represented Islam."
Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the United States, Israel, and many Western countries. The group has publicly vowed to destroy Israel.
Now Yousef, the eldest son of Sheikh Yousef, says he “admires” Israel.
"You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas,” Yousef stated. “Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death."
He denounced the “entire” Palestinian society as one that “sanctifies death and the suicide terrorist.
“In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheiks tell their students about the ‘heroism of the shaheeds (martyr)'.”
Yousef highlighted that Hamas was the first to use suicide bombers as weapons against civilians.
"They (Hamas) are blind and ignorant. It's true, there are good and bad people everywhere, but Hamas supporters don't understand that they are led by a wicked and cruel group that brainwashes the children and gets them to believe that if they carry out a suicide attack they'll get to paradise,” he said.
The Muslim-turned-Christian says he does not think Islam will survive for more than 25 years because the truth about Islam will be exposed given the mass communication available in the modern age.
For his part, Yousef says he hopes to “open the eyes” of Muslims and “reveal the truth” to them about Islam and Christianity with the goal to “take them out of the darkness and the prison of Islam”.
“In that way they'll have an opportunity to correct their mistakes, to become better people and to bring a chance for peace in the Middle East,” he said.
Yousef, who has taken the biblical name of Joseph, said he dreams of one day becoming a writer to tell his personal story and about the Middle East conflicts.
“But at the moment, at least, my ambitions are only to find work, a place to live,” admits Yousef, who left behind properties in Ramallah to find true freedom. “I have no money, I have no apartment.
“I was about to become one of those homeless people [in the United States],” he confessed, “but people from the church are helping me. I'm dependent on them."
He also dreams that some day he can return to his homeland and his family will accept Jesus Christ.
"I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity,” Yousef said. “Maybe one day I'll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God.”
Pressure Intensifies for Gaza Christians
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/420931.aspx
JERUSALEM - In Gaza, pressure against the small Christian community is intensifying.
Islamic extremists are continuing efforts to eradicate Christians and their institutions. The latest effort against Gaza's small Christian minority centers around this Palestinian Bible Society bookstore.
Evangelicals have worked out of this shop for early a decade, bringing help and hope to Gaza's 1.5 million residents.
Now the landlord, under pressure from militant muslims, is suing to evict the Christians.
Hanna massad is pastor of the Gaza Baptist Church. He said in recent years, persecution has become a way of life for Gaza Christians - a community that has dwindled to less than 2,000 people.
The Bible Society bookstore has been bombed twice since early 2006. This year two attacks have occurred against a Gaza Christian school.
"To be a follower of Christ in Gaza and to be a disciple for the Lord in Gaza, this could cost you your life," Hanna said. "And the question is, how far are you willing to go to follow the steps of the Lord? Are you going to follow him from far away or are you willing to go all the way?"
Tweny-nine-year-old Rami Ayyad was willing to go all the way. He was inspired by the faith of the Malatya martyrs - three Christians murdered in Turkey last year.
Rami told fellow Christians he wished he could die such a noble death. His wish was realized last October when militant Muslims kidnapped Rami and shot him to death.
After his murder, Rami's wife Pauline gave birth to their third child Sama. His name means "heaven."
Pastor Hanna says Pauline has chosen to remain in Gaza to continue her husband's ministry.
"She believed that Satan, when he killed Ramim he tried to kill Christ which was in Rami," Hanna said. "He tried to kill the testimony of the Christian faith and this is why she continues to go forward and continue to serve the Lord and continues the ministry and the work which is close to Rami's heart."
As for the Gaza Christians who live under fire everyday, Pastor Hanna says they are encouraged by believers around the world.
"One of the main things that inspired us is what God called us to do," he said. "But also that we belong to a wonderful body, the body of Christ, that we are part of this wonderful family, family of God and to have brothers and sisters who really care and who are really praying for us.That means a lot to us."
Ashkenazi’s disclosure on kidnapped soldier raises ire
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5486
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the general’s incautious remark during a visit to new recruits at the armored corps basic training camp aroused widespread disapproval. These sources said that the obvious result would be for the Palestinian kidnappers who snatched the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza more than a year to move him to a new hiding place.
Furthermore, they would take the opportunity to mock the IDF’s inability to rescue him.
DEBKAfile’s sources point out that in the past 24 hours, Israel’s defense chiefs have demonstrated rashness, an inability to stick to a decision and muddled thinking - not once but twice.
Sunday morning, they agreed to a large group of Fatah loyalists in flight from a Hamas crackdown in Gaza, which has left 11 dead, transiting Israel on their way to Ramallah “on humanitarian grounds.”
A few hours later, they reversed their decision and began sending the first group back to the Gaza Strip, where they were rounded up by Hamas. Some were subjected to torture.
The way the deadly Hamas-Fatah conflict in the Gaza Strip was handled had three untoward consequences:
1. Israel was dragged back into internal Palestinian affairs in the Gaza Strip in a gross departure from the entire object of its disengagement from the territory in 2005.
2. By extending a helping hand to Hamas’ foes, Israel may have worsened Shalit’s situation; it certainly did not improve his chances of freedom.
3. Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, showed far less humanity than Israel for his Fatah fellows. He forced Israel’s change of mind by trying to deny “terrorists” from Gaza sanctuary on the West Bank.
Israel’s security heads then changed their minds again and announced that the fugitives from Gaza would be transferred to Ramallah, the seat of the Abbas’ government, after all.
Ashkenazi’s remark, far from assuring the new recruits that they are in safe, steady hands, will have the opposite effect.
Syrian sources confirm death of Assad confidential aide and his nuclear link
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5485
Damascus Sunday broke its silence about the mysterious assassination of Gen. Muhammad Suleiman in Tartus early Saturday, Aug. 2 and confirmed DEBKAfile’s disclosure that the general played an important role in administering the al Kibar plutonium reactor. Officials in Damascus leaked to Middle East media that Suleiman was a member of the Syrian Research Commission, the government body in charge of missile, chemical and biological weapons and nuclear development.
They said he had met the team of nuclear watchdog monitors, headed by Olli Heinonen, which visited Syria in late June to check out US and Israeli charges that Syria had been building a plutonium reactor at al Kibar.
Those sources also stressed his murder was unrelated to the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut, or any internal rivalries in the ruling regime in Damascus.
DEBKAfile reported earlier:
Gen. Muhammad Suleiman was a shadowy figure who acted for Bashar Assad in the regime’s four most sensitive and confidential spheres:
1. He was the president’s liaison man with the North Korean government. On his frequent trips to Pyongyang, Gen. Suleiman organized the consignment of components for the plutonium reactor in northern Syria, which Israeli demolished last September, and the security of the North Korean scientists and technicians who accompanied them.
2. Muhammad Suleiman was also the president’s private channel of communication with Iranian military and intelligence chiefs; in this capacity, he most probably facilitated the Syrian-Iranian-North Korean connection. The Syrian reactor was designed to produce nuclear fuel for the Iranian program and radioactive weapons for Syria.
3. The late general also acted as the president’s contact man with Hizballah’s leaders. He worked directly with Imad Mughniyeh, head of Hizballah’s security apparatus, who was killed in Damascus last February.
4. His key function was the management of Assad’s personal interaction with the Syrian chief of staff, generals and heads of military intelligence. There was no state secret from the powerful general. He was to have accompanied the Syrian president on his state visit to Tehran Saturday; instead he was laid to rest in his home village of Driekesh in the north.
Damascus has done its utmost to keep the general’s death under wraps, but word has spread and theories abound: Speculation ranges from an outside hand, or a jealous rival to an internal element who felt the concentration of so much power in one hand was a threat to the regime.
Ankara played key role in validating Damascus-Tehran pact and marketing a nuclear Iran
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5488
The intense exchanges afoot between Ankara, Damascus and Tehran in recent months burst into the open Tuesday, Aug.5 at the south Turkish Aegean resort town of Bodrum, when Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan entertained Syrian president Bashar Assad and a large party of notables. This is revealed by DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources.
Assad came fresh from his triumphant talks in Tehran three days earlier. The two leaders’ Aegean lunch was followed on cue by Tehran’s announcement that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would visit Ankara for talks with president Abdullah Gul on August 14.
Screened by his role as broker of indirect Syrian-Israeli peace talks, Erdogan had been busy raising the Syrian president’s credentials from international pariah to respected regional player and partner in the secret dialogue between the United States and Iran.
This was not a solo venture into backdoor diplomacy. The Turkish prime minister was quietly cheered on by US president George W. Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert were also in on the ploy.
Sarkozy put the plan to them both in mid-June when they visited Paris. He asked Assad to mediate between Iran and the West on the nuclear impasse, a role which Assad was happy to accept. He made a point of snubbing the Israeli prime minister to show how far he had gone up in the world. Olmert went along with his part of the plan, indirect peace talks with Damascus, heedless of warnings from his intelligence advisers that he was being set up to serve Iranian and Syrian interests at Israel’s expense.
Assad may be sitting pretty internationally but his regime at home is far from steady, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report. The large party he brought to Turkey was led by foreign minister Walid Mualem, the leading proponent of a pro-Washington foreign policy, and its fiercest opponent Buthaina Shaaban, who is especially resentful of any sort of dialogue with Israel.
That sharp division in Assad’s immediate circle has not been bridged.
Assad’s affectionate talks in Tehran Saturday were clouded by the assassination earlier in the day of a most trusted aide, Brig. Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, his key liaison agent with Tehran, Pyongyang and Hizballah. There are signs in Damascus pointing to Suleiman having fallen victim to internal rivalries in the Assad regime, which would show his murder up as another symptom of a storm brewing up in Damascus.
The three lead players in this emerging scenario are now poised on a threshold with a number of options:
1. The Erdogan-Assad talks may end without agreement on the next moves.
2. Assad may have brought with him Tehran’s reply to the six-power incentives offer for suspending uranium enrichment, delivered three days late. Thus, instead of addressing its reply to the European Union foreign affairs executive Javier Solana, spokesman for the US, EU, UK, France, Russian, China and Germany, Iran would be relaying it through Assad to strengthen his position.
3. The next round of the trilateral discussions begun by Assad at Bordum will take place during Ahmadinejad’s visit to Ankara.
4. Assad will brief Erdogan on the next steps planned on the Syrian-Israeli track following the go-ahead he received in Tehran from Iranian leaders.
5. Assad’s large entourage in Turkey may signal a surprise development.
U.S.: Iran's Response to Incentives Package Unacceptable
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,398102,00.html
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Iran's response to an incentives package aimed at defusing a dispute over its nuclear program is unacceptable, making the prospect of new sanctions more likely, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
The officials told The Associated Press that a one-page document that Iran presented to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is not a definitive reply to the offer from major world powers but rather a restatement of Tehran's earlier insistence on the right to conduct peaceful nuclear activities.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Solana's office has not yet characterized the document. They said the lack of a clear response means that discussion of new sanctions against Iran could begin as early as Wednesday, when senior diplomats from the six countries that made the offer will speak in a conference call to discuss the way ahead.
The United States and others accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program. Iran denies the charge.
The State Department said it had received a copy of the Iranian response by e-mail from Solana's office.
"We're going to take a look at it," spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters. He said the U.S. and its partners would move to impose new sanctions unless Iran's response was an unambiguous acceptance of the offer.
"We are looking for a clear, positive response from Iran and in the absence of that we're going to have no choice but to pursue further measures against them," he said.
Gallegos declined to characterize the contents of the Iranian document.
The EU diplomat said Solana had talked on the telephone with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and more talks could be expected in the coming days.
On July 19, the six nations — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — set an informal two-week deadline for Iran to either accept or reject the economic incentives in return for curbing its uranium enrichment.
On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said diplomacy was the only way out of the standoff and insisted he was serious about negotiations. Those comments came a day after he asserted his country would not give up its "nuclear rights," signaling that it would refuse demands to stop enriching uranium or at least not to expand its enrichment work.
Also Saturday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would have no choice "but to begin again to prepare sanctions resolutions for the (U.N.) Security Council" if Iran did not halt the development of its enrichment program.
Iran Threatens to Close Strait of Hormuz
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/iran_straight_of_hormuz/2008/08/05/119185.html
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has warned that the nation’s military could easily close the Strait of Hormuz and seal off the world’s key oil shipping route.
Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Monday that Iran was capable of imposing “unlimited controls” at the Strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf where on any given day roughly 25 percent of the world's ocean-borne oil traffic passes.
“Closing the Strait of Hormuz for an unlimited period of time would be very easy,” he said.
“The Guards have recently tested a naval weapon [and] I can say with certainty that the enemy’s ships would not be safe within the range of 300 kilometers. Without any doubt we will send them to the depths of the sea.”
Jafari did not describe the weapon but said it was “unique in the world” and could reach enemy warships in the Persian Gulf, an apparent reference to U.S. warships that have been conducting naval maneuvers there, The New York Times reported.
A Newsmax report back in March 2006, quoting a former Iranian intelligence officer who defected to the West, disclosed that the Revolutionary Guard were already making preparations for a massive assault on U.S. naval forces and international shipping in the Persian Gulf.
The new warning came after the weekend expiration of an informal deadline for Iran to respond to an offer of incentives from the U.S. and five other world powers to stop enriching uranium.
The U.S. has said new sanctions should be imposed on Iran for failing to respond to the deadline, according to The Times.
In dismissing the deadline, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that Iran would not move “one iota” to curtail its nuclear program.
Closing Hormuz Strait Not in Iran's Interest: U.S.
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/hormuz_strait/2008/08/05/119292.html
WASHINGTON - Any attempt by Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz would not be in Iran's interest but prove self-defeating to the country's oil-dependent economy, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
"Shutting down the straits and closing off the Persian Gulf would be a sort of a self-defeating exercise," spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters at a briefing. "I don't think it's in Iran's interest."
Morrell was speaking a day after the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Iran could easily close the key Gulf shipping route if it were attacked over its nuclear program.
Fox News Cameraman Hailed as Hero
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/423157.aspx
CBNNews.com - A Fox News cameraman is being hailed a hero after saving the life of an injured Marine in Afghanistan, after being injured himself in a roadside bomb attack, Monday.
FOX News' Ollie North reported that his cameraman Chris Jackson and two Marines were injured when an improvised explosive devise went off near their convoy in the Helmand Province.
CBN News' reporter Chuck Holton was on base about two miles away at the time of the blast and heard about it seconds later over the radio.
"At that point, we didn't know who had been wounded, and I prayed as we hurried to the blast site that Oliver North and Chris were okay," Holton wrote in his CBN News blog "Boots on the Ground."
Holton arrived on the scene shortly after the blast.
"When we arrived, my heart sank as I saw the wreckage - completely engulfed by fire - there looked to be no way anyone could have survived the blast," he said.
"The first vehicle in the convoy was completely destroyed, and by some miracle of God all five occupants got out alive," Holton said.
Jackson injured his leg in the attack, but, "walked back into the flames and rescued one of the wounded Marines," North told Fox News.
"He's a hero," he said. "It was a remarkable scene, one that I've seen altogether far too many times," he added.
The two Marines were critically injured, including one who lost a leg. Jackson was right behind that Marine in the back of the Humvee, Holton reports. The blast threw him partially out of the vehicle.
"Though dazed and disoriented, and with ammunition already beginning to cook off in the vehicle, Chris helped pull the wounded Marine to safety," Holton said.
Holton reports that he had earlier lent Jackson his lighter body armor because the FOX News supplied armor was heavier and Jackson was concerned about suffering from heat exhaustion wearing it into the field.
"I'm doubly glad he escaped with only scrapes and bruises because if he'd been injured because he was wearing my lighter armor, I'd have felt pretty bad about it," Holton said.
"Please pray for the families of the two marines who were wounded yesterday,"
Hollywood, Military Join Forces on War Films
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/422200.aspx
CBNNews.com - Brothers at War is being called a raw and gritty account of the Iraq war seen through a soldier's eyes. First-time filmmaker Jake Rademacher spent three months embedded in frontline combat units with his soldier brothers in Iraq.
Combating Inaccurate Portrayals of War
Rademacher says he tried to give an accurate portrayal of the troops' experience.
"Who am I to tell you how to think about something as important as the war in Iraq?" Rademacher says. "But if I can shed some light on it, having gone and embedded and done 25-30 missions, and give people some insight on what American families face by providing a window in to their lives, that's what I can do."
The director's brother, Capt. Isaac Rademacher, now on his fourth deployment to Iraq, says the documentary doesn't take sides.
"With the films that are made by Hollywood, it seems there are a lot of agendas people are trying to push," Capt. Rademacher says. "One of the big truths out there is that a lot of people don't know that what we are doing is working. I mean we actually are winning and we do have the support of the populace out there.
"I know what makes it on the news usually is the bombs and the explosions and the body count and how many American soldiers have lost their lives. There are a lot of great news stories over there, and Jake's movie does show some of that," he added.
The small indy film has been screened from Los Angeles to Baghdad, with its world premiere at Washington, D.C.'s G.I. Film Festival (GIFF), a venue where Hollywood veterans called for the film industry to honor America's Armed Forces.
Hollywood Veterans Supporting the Military
Rademacher's efforts have won the backing of Hollywood heavyweights like Gary Sinise, Jon Voight, and Robert Duvall. But his first audience is the troops.
"For them, they're living the film. And the thing most of them said afterwards was that 'I can't wait for my wife to see this, to capture what we go through on a day to day,'" Jake Rademacher says.
Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall who attended the GIFF premier says, "If we didn't have a good military, believe me, darkness would descend. So you have to have a good military. Whether you believe in the war we're fighting or not, the military is very important."
Duvall, who served in the U.S. Army and is the son of a Navy admiral, delivered the line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" in the Vietnam epic film Apocalypse Now. He also portrayed General Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals.
"The reason we're here is to honor our men and women in uniform," said actor John Ratzenberger of the television series Cheers and Made in America.
"Without them you wouldn't have that camera on your shoulder and that microphone," he says. "You'd have a government official over your shoulder telling you what to do and what to say. We don't have that here in America, and it's only because of the GIs."
Gary Sinise, star of CSI New York, is a longtime soldiers' advocate, perhaps best known as Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump, a role for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Battle Fatigue?
Sinise who performs with his Lt. Dan Band for military audiences worldwide says, "In a time of war when we have troops deployed, and we're focused on our veterans and their care and the care of the wounded, and the care of the families deployed in harm's way, anything that's going to draw attention to our service members and their honorable services is a very, very positive thing. And that's what the GI Film Festival was born to do."
But are American movie-goers suffering from "battle fatigue?"
A rash of reports chronicle a long, long list of star-studded war films that bombed at the box office, including Lions for Lambs, with A-Listers Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, and Meryl Streep; Rendition with Reese Witherspoon; and In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon.
Some film critics blame tanking ticket sales on an unpopular, depressing war. Others say the films flopped because of their anti-American messages.
Critics say graphic images like Rendition's water boarding and torture scenes shape public opinion and erode military morale. With the War on Terror, some critics accuse Hollywood of crossing a cultural line and promoting films that trash the troops while the nation is still at war.
Most Films Negative
Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Turner who attended the GI Film Festival says most films coming out are negative and against the war.
"I personally haven't gone to see any of them because I don't want to see it portrayed in that way because I know that's not how it really is," Turner says.
"I haven't even seen any in the last year or two because they've all been negative," he says. "And I've got over three-and-a-half years of my life over there, and I'm not going to go see something negative about what I've spent a lot of time and lost a lot of friends for."
John Ratzenberger unhesitatingly says Hollywood's portrayal of the military seems out of balance.
"No, it's not a fair portrayal at all, even in the media in the newspaper," he says. "It's not so long ago there was a small, tiny little article buried in the paper somewhere about a GI who threw himself on a grenade and was a recipient of the Purple Heart. And on the front page there was something about Paris Hilton."
From World War I through Vietnam, American soldiers, like John Wayne in The Green Berets, were heroes on the silver screen. Films like Deer Hunter and Platoon, that were critical of Vietnam, were released years after the conflict ended, suggesting as the Army's top general George Casey told us, that movie messages matter.
Documentaries Capture Realities of War
Gen. Casey says he doesn't follow Hollywood that closely, but "I think the films, especially the documentary films that capture what our young men and women are doing in a very demanding environment in Afghanistan and Iraq make a very important contribution."
Jon Voight, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his Vietnam film Coming Home, says soldiers tell him they're fighting enemies at home as well as abroad.
"They all know that this war can be won and they want to get the politics out of it. And they say the generals know what they're doing, just let us do our work. This is what they're saying," Voight says.
Reluctant to criticize his industry, Gary Sinise says whenever you make a movie, you're always playing with the facts.
"Some of the movies that have come out have taken stories that have actually happened and who knows if they were accurate or not," Sinise says. "I don't know. I haven't seen a lot of those movies. What the GI Film Festival is trying to do is celebrate the heroism, bravery, and courage of the American spirit and the American soldier and that's a very positive thing."
"I've been around enough to know it's very difficult to say what the audiences want," Sinise says. "The movies that tend to get made are the ones people respond. Nobody wants to be in the business to make a bunch of movies that aren't going to be seen by anyone. There have been some movies on the military that haven't done well. If they had done well, then they'd probably make more because it means the audience is hungry for that kind of thing."
"With regards to these movies that maybe haven't worked, it's a painful time in our nation," he says. "Our nation is at war. We've lost service members. We've had a lot of wounded come back. We've made mistakes. We continue to deploy our troops. It continues to look like something that's going to last awhile, so it's a painful time. And maybe our nation isn't ready to look at that a lot right now.
"Certainly you know some of the things that have come out, have not been, you know, have not taken off. It's hard for me to guess why they didn't work or whatever, and I'm not going to criticize or comment on something I haven't seen," Sinise says.
"But I do know there's a lot of families that are out there that are hurting, and whatever I can do as an American citizen to go out and support our troops and support their families and try to help them out. And as a person who has benefited by the sacrifices of our service members over the years and the sacrifices of my grandfather and my uncle, and the folks that have fought the Nazi's and have liberated France and Germany, I benefited from that," Sinise says.
"And I feel a responsibility to try and pitch in and try and help these heroes out," he says.
India: Christians mourn stampede victims
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/india.christians.mourn.stampede.victims/21151.htm
Christians have expressed their shock at the deaths of around 150 Hindu pilgrims in one of India's worst ever temple stampedes on Sunday.
The stampede at the Naina Devi shrine in Himachal Pradesh occurred when rumours of a landslide sent tens of thousands of devotees trekking up to the shrine into panic.
The pilgrims were on their way to offer prayers and flowers as part of the annual nine-day festival of Shravan Navratras.
Women and children account for around half of the dead, officials say. Many of the deceased are believed to be from neighbouring Punjab and the capital New Delhi.
Punjab's chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal, said that relatives of the dead and injured would receive compensation.
Christians were amongst those to express their shock at the deaths. The Global Council of Indian Christians said in a statement that it "mourns the sad death of Hindu pilgrims gathered for the rituals and extends [its] heartfelt condolences to the kith and kin of the stampede victims".
China -- Mixed Signals; Persecution of House Church Christians Taking Place Despite Some Positive Olympic Developments
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07460.shtml
SANTA ANA, Calif., (christiansunite.com) -- With the start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing only 12 days away (August 8), China has sent out mixed messages regarding basic human rights, including religious freedom, in the last week.
On the positive side, China is permitting:
Printing of 90,000 Gospel booklets and Bibles for Olympic athletes and visitors.
Places of worship to be set up inside the Olympic village to provide religious services to the athletes.
Set up of special protest zones in three public parks several miles from the main Olympic stadium. However, demonstrators would need to apply for permission in advance.
On the negative side, China has:
Relocated Zhang Mingxuan, a prominent Beijing- based pastor and founder of the Chinese House Church Alliance, and his ailing wife Xie Fenglanto, to Hebei Province's Yanjiao Township after a week of harassment. According to Hong Kong's The Sunday Post (July 20), the government was concerned that he might be a "destabilizing factor" during the Olympic Games.
Continued its crackdown on house churches. According to Mingxuan, 2008 is the most difficult year in his 20 years as a Christian. "The crackdown on underground churches so far this year is much more intense than the past few years put together because of the Olympic Games."
Re-arrested Shi Weihan for publishing Bibles and Christian literature. Shi ran a Christian bookstore, a printing press and travel agency. The bookstore is located near the Olympic Village.
According to Johnny Li, Open Doors International Minister-at-Large who has spent many years in China, it's not unusual for the Chinese government to send out mixed signals to the world.
"The Chinese government is concerned about any group disrupting their plans for being a 'perfect' Olympic host. House churches are among the groups drawing special attention. The same government that says it's okay for Olympic competitors and visitors to bring in and read their Bibles and provides places of worship in the Olympic village is cracking down on house church leaders and relocating and imprisoning some of them."
Li adds that perhaps the No. 1 question is what will the landscape look like for Christians after the Games wind up August 24 -- better or worse?
Open Doors is urging Christians in the United States to email Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Whenzong to express their concern over the status of Weihan, including access to medical care and medicines, adequate clothing, visitation rights for his family and a fair and prompt trial. To send an email and for more information, go to www.OpenDoorsUSA.org
An estimated 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with millions more facing discrimination and alienation. Open Doors supports and strengthens believers in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to our Website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org
China Security Tightened After Attack
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/422693.aspx
CBNNews.com - KASHGAR, China - Police tightened security in China's western Xinjiang region Tuesday and Olympic organizers sought to reassure residents and visitors after a deadly attack on police heightened jitters just days ahead of the games' opening ceremony.
A full security alert was issued for government offices, schools and hospitals in Kashgar and police numbers were boosted along roads leading into the city, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Police boarded vehicles at checkpoints to search passengers' bags, and checked people's identity cards with handheld devices on routine street patrols, Xinhua said.
Sixteen officers were killed and another 16 were injured when two assailants rammed a dump truck and hurled explosives at a group of jogging policemen in Kashgar.
The attack in the city near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border brought an immediate response from China's Olympic organizers, who said security precautions are in place to ensure safety in Beijing and other Olympic venues when the games open Friday.
The timing so close to opening day heightened the attack's shock value.
"Security for the Olympic Games is of paramount importance. The more we give, the safer and more secure the residents will feel," Xinhua quoted Han Shubin, the deputy director of an Urumqi police division, as saying.
Li Li, a spokesman for Xijiang Public Security Bureau, said 18 terrorist suspects have been arrested in the region this year. The two men arrested in Monday's attack were not among that number, Li said.
Last month, officials said China had detained 82 suspected terrorists in Xinjiang in the first half of the year for allegedly plotting attacks against the Olympics. Under Chinese law, suspects are not officially considered arrested until they have been charged with a crime, so it was unclear whether the 18 were among the 82 detained.
On Tuesday, the streets in northwestern Kashgar were quiet, though four soldiers in uniform and helmets marched up the sidewalk on patrol, carrying short, black clubs.
"I heard the attack yesterday morning. It was not loud. It just sounded like a car's tire bursting," said a waitress who worked in a small nearby restaurant who refused to give her name for fear of reprisals.
"It doesn't seem like there are more police on the streets, but the neighborhood patrols seem to be tighter. They're coming around and checking more often," she said.
Underscoring tensions in the region, Chinese authorities clashed late Monday with two Japanese journalists who rushed to Kashgar to report on the attack, Xinhua and Japanese officials said. The clash occurred when the journalists tried to film a restricted area, Xinhua said. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters in Tokyo that the two had been detained and roughed up.
"We plan to lodge a strong protest," Machimura said.
Xinhua cited Eskar, an official from the regional office of foreign affairs in Kashgar, as saying local authorities apologized to the reporter and photographer, though they had disobeyed the rules.
"We are sorry for the incident and the damage to the equipment that belonged to the reporters," Eskar, who was identified by just one name, was quoted as saying. He said the border police would pay to repair the equipment and "the medical bills for physical checks" of the journalists, Xinhua said.
Authorities have said they suspect terrorism was behind the attack. Last month, an extremist Uighur group believed to be based across the mountainous border in Pakistan's tribal frontier threatened to target the Olympics.
The two suspects arrested were Uighurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority group that has waged a sporadically violent rebellion against Chinese rule.
State broadcaster China Central Television said in its noon broadcast Tuesday that the two men, aged 28 and 33, had planned the attack, stealing the dump truck and ramming it into some 70 border patrol paramilitary police as they passed a hotel during a morning jog. They then hurled the explosives and attacked the policemen with knives, CCTV said.
One of the attackers lost his hand when the homemade explosives detonated. Afterward, police recovered additional explosives, a gun and "contents about a holy war," CCTV said.
China has made safety a major priority for the Summer Games, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of police, military and local residents as part of a huge security net over the capital. But the Xinjiang attack underscored that, with so much security focused on Beijing, areas far from the capital make tempting targets.
The assault took place on a treelined thoroughfare in front of the small Yiquan Hotel, housed in an older three-story building covered in dusty white, yellow and maroon tile.
The hotel was closed Tuesday, with a large plastic tarp covering the entrance. Just to the right of the hotel, a group of four trees appeared to have been recently uprooted.
Monday's attack was all the more surprising because it follows years of intensive security measures in Xinjiang. A wave of violence in the 1990s mainly targeted police, officials and Uighurs seen as collaborators. Separatists also staged nearly simultaneous explosions on three public buses in the provincial capital of Urumqi.
In response, the government stationed more paramilitary units in the region and shut unregistered mosques and religious schools seen as hotbeds of anti-government extremism.
China in massive security operation for Olympic Games opening Friday
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5487
While security measures have been imposed across China ahead of the Olympic Games opening Friday, special steps have been taken in the northwestern province of Xinjiang after two Uighur members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) killed 16 policemen in Kashgar, 4000 km from Beijing Monday, Aug. 4. The regional authorities have tightened security for trucks, buses and transport hubs, reporting that the assailants who drove a garbage truck showed that ETIM had for the first time begun using cars or trucks in their attacks.
Chinese police report finding nine homemade explosives, a homemade gun and propaganda materials "promoting jihad.”
Officials have said Xinjiang's Uighurs seeking an independent "East Turkestan" homeland are among the biggest threats to the Olympic Games. Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia, has about 8.3 million Uighurs, most of them Muslim.
Franklin Graham brings message of rebirth to North Koreans
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/franklin.graham.brings.message.of.rebirth.to.north.koreans/21156.htm
The Rev Franklin Graham concluded his trip to North Korea on Sunday with a message about rebirth through Jesus Christ at a Protestant church in capital city Pyongyang.
He shared from the book of John about the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. Graham told the hundreds of North Koreans in the audience that they could be born again through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, according to the Christian relief agency Samaritan’s Purse, which Graham is president of.
The North Korean choir sang “Amazing Grace” after the sermon.
Graham and his father, renowned evangelist Billy Graham, are the only two Americans who have been permitted to preach at Bongsu Church. Billy Graham visited the Pyongyang church in 1992 and 1994 and Franklin Graham preached at the church in 2000.
The church was re-located to a new building within the past year using donations from South Korean Christians.
“I did not come here as a politician,” Graham told the congregation, “but as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The message was repeated by Graham throughout his four-day trip to the troublesome country.
Reports emerging from the reclusive country tell of extensive crimes against humanity, including widespread torture, imprisonment without trial, rape and forced labour against civilians deemed a threat to the government. A simple criticism of the government or being a Christian could constitute a threat to the state and result in imprisonment and other forms of punishment. Citizens are also punished for leaving the country and are sent to labour camps and tortured when recaptured.
Besides horrendous human rights violations, North Korean is in the midst of a serious famine. The UN Food Programme recently warned that millions of North Koreans are in danger of starvation in the coming months if they do not receive aid.
The country suffered from devastating floods last August that washed away crops and resulted in the worst level of hunger in nearly a decade.
Samaritan’s Purse, in response to the flood, delivered $8.3 million worth of medicine and other emergency supplies to North Korea last autumn. It is one of only five non-government organisations allowed to help distribute food provided by the US government within North Korea. The first shipment of grain arrived in July.
During his visit, Graham further discussed with North Korean officials how Samaritan’s Purse could help the North Korean people and strengthen US-North Korean relations.
At the welcoming dinner Thursday night, Graham was introduced by the Rev Kang Yong-sop, chairman of the central committee of the Korean Christian Federation. He was also welcomed by Ri Jong-ro, director of international affairs for the Korean Christian Federation, and Jong Tae-yang, vice director of foreign ministry.
Graham recalled his family ties with North Korea. His mother, Ruth Bell Graham, had attended a Presbyterian mission school in Pyongyang in 1934. She had often recalled fondly her experiences at the Pyongyang school, Graham said.
Billy Graham, meanwhile, first visited North Korea in April 1992. Graham shared his father’s recollection of his visit:
“President Kim pointed outside and said that just as the long Korean winter was about to give way to the warmth of spring, so he hoped that the relations between our two countries would soon move away from the coldness of winter and into the warmth of spring.
“In the years following the late President Kim’s statement to my father, many people in my own country doubted if it would ever happen. But because of recent events we can truly say that a new spring time has arrived in the relationship between my country and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Franklin Graham said.
Recently, North Korea has made progress on its nuclear disarmament to the praise of the international community.
“There are understandably differences between our countries,” Graham said, "but the overarching theme is the friendship that was established between my father and Kim Il-Sung. My prayer is that this relationship will grow even stronger, and I pledge to do everything I can to make this happen.”
The head of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association also visited medical development projects, including a hospital in Sariwon where the group is preparing to instal a generator and solar panels to provide a dependable source of electricity.
Graham arrived in North Korea on Thursday and concluded his trip on Sunday.
Korean missionaries harness energies for worldwide evangelisation
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/korean.missionaries.harness.energies.for.worldwide.evangelisation/21152.htm
WHEATON, Illinois – A Korean mission conference that drew 5,000 people from over 80 countries came to a close Friday with hope for future global mission and fulfilling the unfinished tasks of evangelising the whole world.
The 6th Korean World Mission Conference (KWMC) consisted of daily services, mission forums and special lectures which provided missionaries with mission strategies from various mission specialists and scholars. This year’s speakers included the Rev Lorean Cunningham of Youth With A Mission, the Rev Reinhard Bonnke from Christ for All Nations, and Dr Ralph Winter of the US Center for World Mission.
At the closing service, the Rev Joon Won Kang, the chairman of KWMC, urged the missionaries in his message to keep going after the unreached.
“There are a lot of people running in this world … but where are they running toward?” he asked.
The mission leader reminded attendees to run towards God and remember to direct others to runing towards God.
“Even in difficult situations, remember that you are taking part in delivering the Gospel globally,” he said. “If God is with us, anything can happen.”
Korean missions has grown rapidly since the first KWMC conference 20 years ago. Korea now sends around 18,000 missionaries to 168 countries, making it the second largest missionary-sending country in the world. The July 28 – August 1 conference concluded with a new goal to send out 100,000 missionaries by 2030.
Another highlight to this year’s conference was its fully-documented declaration which was formally composed and presented. KWMC staffs the Rev John S Ko and the Rev De Heung Kang read the declaration, titled the “2008 Wheaton Manifesto”, in the honour of the world renowned evangelist the Rev Dr Billy Graham and Wheaton College who supported the founding of the conference 20 years ago.
The declaration starts with stating the historical significance of the mission conference, which started in 1988 to avoid “mistakes of misguided zeal and amateurity” of the earlier attempts of Korean missionaries. It also proposed 21st century mission strategies to be developed in the future.
The next KWMC conference is slated for 2012. Held every four years at Wheaton College since 1988, KWMC was founded by a small group of Korean-American pastors and endorsed by Dr Billy Graham. It is sponsored by three Korean mission organisations, Korean World Mission Council for Christ, Korean World Mission Association and the Korean World Mission Fellowship.
Unborn children should have the right to keep and bear arms - and legs and ears and eyes etc.! Dave
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