Thousands in Israel Honor Jesus' Death
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/343402.aspx
Thousands of Christians are in Jerusalem on this Good Friday, retracing the route Jesus walked to his crucifixion.
Many are walking the old streets and visiting several of the sites that tell the story of what happened to Christ before he was nailed to the cross.
Some pilgrims carried large wooden crosses as they walked down the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Sorrows, stopping at 14 stations to commemorate the events of Christ's death.
Others crowded into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pray. Tradition holds that this was the site of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.
Some chanted hymns, while others prostrated themselves on a smooth stone slab marking the spot where Jesus' body was believed to have been placed after being removed from the cross.
Good Friday is the beginning of the celebration and culminates Easter Sunday, which marks the resurrection of Jesus.
Visitors in the city hailed from Brazil, the Philippines, Poland, Spain, and African nations.
The crowd in one of the Old City's streets included two dozen members of an American church group from Ohio. Eileen Joiner, 43, from Akron, said she was moved to be in Jerusalem.
"You see a picture and it looks impressive. You see it in person, and it's always so much more," she said.
The group's pastor, Janice Skeen, said a recent shooting attack in Jerusalem had not deterred them.
"You can't escape the feeling and the presence of God here. This is his special land," she said.
Linking Astronomy, History to Easter
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/341572.aspx
Throughout the world, whether in secret or in public, Christians are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
For centuries various detractors have tried to debunk the resurrection. But the belief that Jesus was raised from the dead is the unique core of Christianity, and has caused it to thrive among its adherents.
It is said that the whole world is full of God's glory, whether in the profound glow of a simple sunset or in the beautiful design of the stars.
But do we see that glory on the day of the cross?
Rick Larson says absolutely.
"Jesus Himself says, 'Hey, there are going to be signs in the sun, moon, and the stars. So it's legitimate to look for them," he said.
Larson believes God led him to research how astronomy and history match the Bible in detailing the life of Christ. Before Christmas, he released a DVD on the Star of Bethlehem.
He showed us how the magi would have seen the movements of Jupiter, and how the stars and planets pointed to the birth of Jesus in June of 2 b.c.
Larson also showed us how the Easter story played out in the stars.
"While He was on the cross all hell broke loose," Larson said. "There were earthquakes, big earthquakes big enough to bust boulders because the New Testament tells us this. The sky gets dark at noon. Joel in his vision of this event seems to describe billowing clouds of smoke that obscure the sun."
How do we know these were real events?
Fifty days after the cross at the feast of Pentecost, Peter quotes Joel, then reminds the Jewish crowd of those very signs associated with Jesus, saying: "As you yourselves know."
Secondly, ancient historians also record the darkness and earthquakes.
"Blood moon" is the old term for an eclipse of the moon by the earth. The redness comes from indirect sunlight altered to red as it passes through earth's atmosphere.
If you were on the moon - at the precise time of Christ's death - you would see earth eclipse the sun - in the heart of the constellation Aries, the Ram - the sacrificial lamb of Passover.
And on Good Friday evening, the people in Jerusalem could look up and see the return of the Virgin with the blood moon at her feet.
Why Do We Celebrate Easter
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06996.shtml
This exciting announcement is part of "Easter: The Story," a free Audio Bible program produced by Faith Comes By Hearing, the world leader in Audio Bible recordings, and is available for download at FaithComesByHearing.com. From the ministry website, listeners can download their copy of this Audio Bible story in either .MP3 or .wav format.
Taken from the New Testament book of Mark, this realistic audio recording was produced using multiple character voices, musical backgrounds and sound effects, adding excitement and emotion to the Scriptures. Faith Comes By Hearing produced this short program, which runs less than 11 minutes, to help people engage in the Bible and hear the Easter story in a dramatic, audio format.
"We want to help people answer life's most important questions," said Jon D. Wilke, organizational spokesperson. "Questions such as 'Who was Jesus?,' 'How did He die?' and 'Why do people celebrate Easter?'
"Podcasts and MP3 downloads are modern, relevant ways people can use technology to engage in God's Word and answer those pressing questions," Wilke said. "Families can gather together, listen and enjoy this stirring Bible story. People can use this to share their faith and express the meaning of this holiday with their children, friends and family."
Since being founded in 1972, Faith Comes By Hearing has been diligently working to share God's Word with illiterate and underdeveloped communities around the world. Because more than 50 percent of the world's population is unable to read, Faith Comes By Hearing helps others hear God's Word in their heart language by recording and using dramatized Audio Bibles. Using the latest digital technologies, this ministry has developed effective tools that make God's Word accessible to those with the least access.
Currently, Faith Comes By Hearing has New Testament recordings available in more than 280 languages, representing nearly 4.3 billion people or roughly 70 percent of the world's population. Along with our prestigious partners, Faith Comes By Hearing is working to record an Audio Bible in 2,000 new languages by the year 2016, which would reach 97% of the world's population.
90,000 in virtual solidarity rally for Israel
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2389
At least 90,000 people in different parts of the world joined via the Internet Thursday in what was billed as the largest ever online rally in support of those living under fire in Israel.
Beginning at around 11 pm Israel time, where Purim was already being celebrated while Jews further west were still keeping the Fast of Esther, the videoed gathering focused its attention on the Negev town of Sderot that Palestinian Arabs in Gaza have bombarded with thousands of rockets over the past few years.
Hundreds of the used rocket casings stacked in racks behind Sderot's main police station served as a backdrop for the main presentation of the rally.
Among the attendees were a number of terrorism victims, including - on his stretcher - Rami Tuito, who was wounded and whose 10-year-old brother Osher lost his leg in a Kassam rocket attack last month, and David Hatuel, whose pregnant wife and four little children were killed by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Pointing to these and other victims of terror, a rally presenter said they were living proof that the Jews would survive and overcome the enemies arrayed against them.
"We have come together," he said, "to tell the people of Israel and to tell the God of Israel that we stand together behind the State of Israel. We are one people."
After children from a Sderot sang "Od yavo shalom aleinu" ("Peace will yet come to us"), Israel's national police spokesman, Chief Inspector Miki Rosenfeld, also addressed the gathering. He reported that a rocket could be heard exploding on a nearby kibbutz while the rally organizers were setting up for the show.
More than 200,000 Israelis were today living under the constant threat of rocket attack, he said.
One of the guest speakers in the town was Harvard University Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who said he and his wife had come to "stand in solidarity with the heroes of Sderot."
They were, Dershowitz told the townspeople, "part of a long line of heroes who have resisted evil and have been on the forefront of the battle against genocidal murderers.
"You are being attacked for only one reason," he said, which is "because Hamas and the Hitlers and the Hamans before them knew that they could take advantage of Israel's higher sense of morality."
Gaza's terrorists fired "their anti-personnel rockets; their murder weapons, from behind human shields; their main goal is to deliberately kill as many Israeli citizens; civilians, men, women, children as they possibly can."
But the Arabs goal was also, he said, "to try to provoke the Israel Defense Forces into killing as many Palestinian civilians as possible because this is their cruel arithmetic of death."
"When they kill a Jewish civilian, they claim victory. When Israel inadvertently kills a Palestinian civilian in an effort to get at the terrorists they [the Arabs] claim victory."
The terrorists win, Dershowitz explained, because Israel does not want to kill civilians.
"These murderers must be stopped before their rockets hit - God forbid, a kindergarten, a school bus, a schoolyard, a hospital. They must not be allowed to continue to play Russian roulette with the lives of Jewish children."
"By firing rockets on Sderot," the law professor continued, "Hamas has declared war on the State of Israel. They have violated Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, they are committing war crimes, and they are trying to commit genocidal crimes against humanity. And yet it is Israel that is condemned by the United Nations."
Those who condemned Israel were "encouraging murder" and were "complicitous in evil."
Dershowitz warned that if the rockets were not stopped from hitting Sderot and Ashkelon, they would move on to strike Ashdod and Tel Aviv.
"The Kassams and Katyushas from Gaza and Lebanon are endangering hundreds of thousands. Tomorrow there may be nuclear weapons from Iran."
Referencing the celebration of Purim once again, Dershowitz said that the stated aims of the enemies of the Jews were "as clear today as they were in Shushan and Berlin: Genocide against the Jewish people."
We understand the moral imperative to use our military power in the cause of justice and peace.
The war on Sderot and against all Israel was a conflict "between good and evil; between those who love life and those who pedal death."
Canadian MP and former Justice Minister Irwin Cutler told the gathering the Palestinians of Hamas were guilty of double war crimes: The crime of aiming their rockets at Jewish civilians, and the crime of launching them from behind a human shield of Arab civilians. They were guilty of committing crimes against humanity through their terrorism, he said.
Their objective was genocidal and antisemitic.
Cutler described Sderot as the only community in the world today "which lives as a standing target of daily and relentless terrorist attacks."
He decried the fact that there has not been "one single condemnation by any agency in the international community of these relentless terrorist attacks in Sderot!"
The online rally then moved from Sderot to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, then to Tel Aviv and to London, where Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wondered why it is "that the people who first taught the world the sanctity of life has had to walk so often in the valley of the shadow of death?
"Why is it, in a world where there are 82 Christian nations and 56 Islamic ones, is it so hard for the world to accept the right of the Jewish people to just one land of its own?"
Directing his words at the terrorists in Gaza, Sacks said they would ultimately face "the fate of Hamman."
This has been, "throughout history, the fate of individuals and nations who try to destroy the Jewish people, their fate is that - in the end - they destroy themselves."
Guaranteed: Their end
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=118
For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, And those nations shall be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:12)
Chief Rabbi of London Jonathan Sacks told a special Internet rally held in solidarity with the citizens of rocket-ravaged Sderot Thursday that Purim has a message for Israel’s enemies:
They will suffer “the fate of Haman.”
This, the rabbi said, has been “throughout history, the fate of individuals and nations who try to destroy the Jewish people; that - in the end - they destroy themselves.”
On my laptop screen I have a poster bearing the following two-column list under the heading: “Civilizations, nations and empires that have tried to destroy the Jewish people.”
The left-hand column bears the following names:
Ancient Egypt, Philistines, Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Persian Empire, Greek Empire, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Crusaders, Spanish Empire, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, and Iran.
In the right-hand column, across from each nation name except for the last, is the single word, “Gone.”
A question mark stands opposite “Iran.”
To this list I would add the names of all the Arab states, all Muslim nations, all communist countries.
I would also add the names of the states comprising the European Union, Eurasia, the members of the Non-Aligned Movement, Developed Countries and Developing Countries.
My country, South Africa must be there, as must the Czech Republic, my wife’s homeland.
And topping the list of every country that exists in the world today I would add the United States.
The future of every one of these nations is at stake; their fate - if they continue to stand against Israel - as assured as the fates of the mighty empires that have reigned supreme in ages past, only to remain no more.
Israel is the only nation who future existence is guaranteed by the Creator of the Universe.
What’s guaranteed for all those nations that come against the Jewish people, is their end.
Is a World Government on the Horizon?
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/281353.aspx
President Bush has been urging the Senate to ratify a treaty, supporters say, which will protect America’s access to strategic international waters and the natural resources they contain.
The Law of the Sea Treaty
But opponents warn the United Nation's "Law of the Sea Treaty" could be the next step to world government.
The U.N. treaty governs the law of the seas - not just ocean access by military and commercial vessels - but control of natural resources from fishing rights and oil exploration to deep sea mining.
The 25-year-old treaty rejected by President Reagan and signed by President Clinton is being pushed by Bush. He's urging the Senate to ratify the treaty that already has 154 nations on board.
U.S. Navy Captain Pat Neher says The Law of the Sea Treaty is critical to national security and is needed to secure legal rights for U.S. armed forces to pass through key international straits.
“We're not a party. We're on the outside with a very small number of countries like Iran, Syria, North Korea, Libya,” he said.
Why are these so important? All the worlds’ commerce goes through choke points. And if the U.S. is going to get Iraq to re-supply American troops, it needs to go through the Straight of Hormuz.
The U.S. doesn't want Iran, for example, to follow Australia's lead and use environmental regulatory control to try to assert authority over vessels carrying sustenance to American troops in Iraq.
But Senate Republicans and some conservative groups warn that the treaty surrenders American sovereignty to a U.N.-like organization, called The International Seaboard Authority, or ISA.
“It is comprehensive approach to addressing seven tenths of the world's surface and essentially turning it over to a U.N. on steroids,” former Reagan defense official Frank Gaffney said.
Gaffney says the ISA is run by bureaucrats from countries such as Cuba, China, and Venezuela, who have a record of hostility toward American interests.
“They’re people who are appointed, unaccountable, who operate in non-transparent ways. We don't elect them. They have no responsibility to us, and yet under this treaty they will have considerable ability to interfere with our lives,” Gaffney said.
Americans Could Pay a Price
The Navy says the treaty would not interfere with U.S. military activities. But critics worry Americans would still pay a price.
The treaty would require U.S. companies who want to mine the sea or drill for oil to first seek ISA permission. They must share technology, and pay fees, critics say, that would amount to a redistribution of wealth.
“The danger is once we get into this organization and submit to its dictates; once we start infusing tens of millions of dollars in terms of our annual tithing to pay for its operations, it's going to become a considerably more formidable,” Gaffney said.
And Gaffney says even if the U.S. joins the treaty, there's no guarantee other member nations will play by the rules.
“History is replete with examples in which we honor our treaty obligations and people who have nothing but contempt for treaties and international law will violate them,” he said.
Gaffney says China is already guilty of treaty violations with its aggressive actions in the South China Sea.
“We do have problems with China and reasserting rights contrary to the convention. Now, because we're not a party, we only have use of force - or ‘threat’ of use of force - in our tool kit. What’s better for us is to have all tools available to us – including dispute resolution,” Neher said.
The Navy says ISA courts would settle disputes between nations. But without joining the treaty, America is denied a seat at the table with no vote or voice in the maritime debates.
“In the old days, Ghadafi would claim water as ‘all mine,’ and we'd have to go out there and through use of force, tell him that he's wrong. Today it's a more complex and subtle world,” Neher said.
Gaffney said, “The problem is, once we have a seat at the table, we're not going to be able to prevent bad things from happening. We will be obliged to live with whatever they come up with and we will be routinely outvoted.”
So then, is the Law of the Sea Treaty a threat to American sovereignty – or the key to U.S. security?
It's a decision that lies in the hands of the Senate as it moves to consider the decades-long debate.
'Old-style' antisemitism alive and well in Russia
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2387
Russian Christian children face being kidnapped and having the blood drained from their veins for the making of unleavened bread before Passover next week.
This is the heinous message being conveyed on posters across Novosibirsk, the third-largest city in Russia, according to reports in the Israeli press Thursday.
"These vermin [the Jews] are still performing rituals, stealing small children and draining their blood to make their sacred bread," it reads.
Known as blood libels, such outrageous accusations against Jews have been around for centuries, and were frequently used to turn popular opinion against Jews, often even fomenting pogroms and other forms of antisemitic persecution.
While many in the west would find the Novosibirsk report shocking, such libelous instigations against the Jews are not a rarity in the Middle East.
Israel's Arab neighbors, from Egypt to Syria, have in recent years screened television films "proving" that Jews do indeed kill kids to make matza.
Inciting literature like "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and "Mein Kampf" are best sellers in those countries.
Mid-East watchers have observed how international press coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict appears to often employ the "blood libel" effect - accusing Israel of perpetrating all kinds of terrible crimes in order to turn world opinion against the Jewish state.
These blood libels have been as successful in the present day as they were in the past.
Purim terror in Israel
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2386
A 13-year-old boy was wounded in a terrorist attack near Hebron Thursday evening, and at least three rockets rained down on the Negev Friday morning, shattering an uneasy calm.
The attacks came as the Jews of Israel and the world - along with their friends - had begun celebrating the weekend holiday of Purim - their deliverance from an unending train of enemies, beginning with Haman of ancient Persia - present-day Iran.
According to reports, the attack Thursday evening was a roadside explosive charge detonated as a car drove by, sending shrapnel into the body of the boy and leaving him moderately wounded.
Security personnel forces searched for the perpetrators but without success.
No injuries were reported in Friday's rocket attacks, which left people enjoying the fancy dress fun of Purim shaken.
Meanwhile, Israel's forces were on the alert countrywide following reported warnings had been received of seven specific planned terrorist attacks, among them "suicide" bombings, shooting attacks and kidnapping attempts.
Hamas' Haven for Terror
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/342103.aspx
The terrorist group Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip for almost a year now. After the elections, supporters hoped Hamas would root out the Palestinian Authority's corruption and bring a cleaner, Islamic-style government.
But the reality is that life there is more brutal than many had suspected. During a recent demonstration, the government's so-called "Executive Force" took control by killing seven people and wounding 90. More than 100 were arrested, most of them from the rival Fatah party headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas leaders blame Israel's siege of Gaza for this behavior because their police officers are blocked by Israel from going to neighboring countries for training. They also say Palestinian television incites people to kill each other.
Hurting Their Own
Still, the old, the young, and even women are punished for being guilty in the eyes of Hamas. Some are arrested for their political views, some for misconduct.
Raji Sourani, the head of the Human Rights Palestinian Center in Gaza City, says some atrocities are committed in the name of Hamas.
"A lot of people are arrested insulted, humiliated and tortured. Some of them were released and some are still in jail," he said. "Hamas should be punishing the people who were responsible for the killings of two people under torture."
Even some Hamas political leaders such as Younes al-Astal admit the problem.
"It is not a secret to say that more than 500 policemen were punished in the last six months for wrongdoings," al-Astal said.
Islamist Indoctrination in Prison
Hamas's central goal is to destroy Israel. But another goal is to educate Gazans and others in the ways of Islam as they perceive it.
A trip to the main prison reveals some of the Islamist tools Hamas employs with the captives inside Gaza.
A poster there promoting the Executive Force says, "Our hands are white and clean" - a suggestion that Hamas is more pure and uncorrupted than the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.
The prison cells hold a number of women and girls. Hamas officials have charged the women with a variety of crimes, from adultery to prostitution to robbery.
The female supervisor considers herself part of the Hamas Islamic prison outreach.
"They came to us as animals," she said. "And after teaching them the religion of Islam, they will leave as different people."
One Hamas jail worker said, "I do correction and orientation for prisoners; we teach them how to pray and how to repent in order to leave this place purified from their sins."
Prisoners must pray five times per day with their heads covered.
"We pray with them in the morning," the jail worker said. "We will have a 'Ring of Faith' as a group. We will read to them easy and small scriptures to be memorized because they know nothing about the religion. We will pray for them and ask Allah to forgive them, with the hope that they will be forgiven because of their grave sins."
Koran Rewards
Hamas will also reward the people who memorize part of the Koran.
"If they will memorize part of the Koran, we will reduce their imprisonment time, and if someone is able to memorize the whole Koran, we will release him or her right away," al-Astal claims.
In addition, Hamas is allowing some conjugal visits, unheard of in the Middle East.
"Legal lovemaking between married couples is allowed," al-Astal said. "If the husband is guilty, his wife is not supposed to be punished."
Destroying Israel
Still, among some Gazans, including one woman who lost her son because of Hamas, even the dreaded Israeli "occupation," which ended in August 2005, was more merciful than what they have now.
The Hamas regime may become an issue in the U.S. presidential election contest. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, visited Israel this week.
He told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas and the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon want to destroy everything that Israel and the United States hold dear.
"If Hamas and Hezbollah succeed here, they are going to succeed everywhere, not only in the Middle East, but everywhere," he said.
"They are dedicated to the extinction of everything that the US, Israel and the West believe and stand for. So America does have an interest in what happens here, far above and beyond our alliance with the State of Israel," he said.
Referring to the call from some in Europe and Israel for Israel to negotiate with Hamas, McCain said, "Someone is going to have to answer the question for me of how you are going to negotiate with an organization that is dedicated to your extinction."
Hamas' charter states explicitly that the organization's goal is to destroy Israel.
Gaza's Arabs to get power from Egypt
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2388
Contrary to the globally-circulated reports painting Israel as the aggressor in Gaza, the Jewish state demonstrated once again Wednesday that it cares enough about the needs of its enemies in the Strip to arrange for them to receive all the electrical power they can use.
According to reports on the website of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Israel has agreed in principle to allow Egypt to directly supply the Gaza Strip with electricity via a line from the Sinai.
Originating in Arish, and traveling via a conduit that will cost $35 million to install, 150 megawatts of power will be on tap for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs within two years.
Israel has sanctioned this alternate sourcing of power to Gaza even as Kassam rockets continue to fall in the Negev, fired against Israeli targets with the exulting support and approval of the majority of "Palestinians" living there.
When, in an effort to end to the rocket launches, Israel threatened to turn off the power it supplies to Gaza, the international community erupted in protest, fed by Hamas-prepared disinformation campaigns that disseminated hoax photos via the Internet.
Even such a non-military response was unacceptable.
Compared to the clamor for Israel not to respond, barely a voice has been heard telling the terrorists that stopping the firing would end the need for any kind of Israeli reaction.
Israeli Airliners to Get Missile Defense
http://www.newsmax.com/international/israel_airline_protection/2008/03/21/82151.html
JERUSALEM -- Israel will within weeks begin outfitting its airliners with defense systems designed to thwart missile attacks, Israeli military officials said.
The officials said the system fires flares that distract an incoming missile's heat-seeking mechanism. It will be installed first on planes flying to destinations considered dangerous, especially in Africa and parts of Asia.
Other nations, including the United States and Singapore, have said they also were working on similar anti-missile defenses for jetliners. Some systems use flares to deflect missiles and others use lasers to jam a missile's heat-seeking guidance equipment.
The need was recognized in 2002, when an Israeli passenger jet was targeted after takeoff by Islamic militants using shoulder-fired missiles outside Mombasa, Kenya. The rockets missed, but spurred Israel to find a way to protect its airliners with a defense similar to that already used by its air force.
Test installations were conducted several years ago, but the widespread fitting of the country's commercial fleet was held up until this month by an argument over who would foot the bill, the government or El Al and Arkia airlines.
But threats by the militant group Hezbollah to retaliate against Israeli targets for the assassination of terrorism mastermind Imad Mughniyeh last month prompted the government to agree to pay most of the cost, the military officials said this week. They agreed to discuss the decision only if not quoted by name because they were not authorized to discuss defense policy.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the car bombing that killed Mughniyeh, but Hezbollah and its Iranian backers have blamed the Jewish state.
Krauthammer: Obama Fraud Speech
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Obama_Fraud_Speech/2008/03/21/82158.html
Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday has been widely hailed as an attempt to deal honestly with the race issue in the U.S. and his longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright, but Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer is having none of that.
In an Op-Ed article headlined “The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud,” Krauthammer acknowledges that Obama condemned Rev. Wright’s inflammatory remarks as “wrong and divisive” — without specifying the remarks he was referring to.
But Krauthammer goes on to say: “The question is why didn't he leave that church? Why didn't he leave — why doesn't he leave even today — a pastor who thundered not once but three times from the pulpit (on a DVD the church proudly sells), ‘God damn America’?
“Obama's 5,000-word speech, fawned over as a great meditation on race, is little more than an elegantly crafted, brilliantly sophistic justification of that scandalous dereliction.”
Krauthammer opines that Obama’s defense of his relationship with Wright rests on “moral equivalence” and “white guilt.”
For moral equivalence, Krauthammer notes, Obama places his white grandmother at the “other end of the spectrum” from Wright, since according to Obama she “once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."
Krauthammer writes: “Does he not see the moral difference between the occasional private expression of the prejudices of one's time and the use of a public stage to spread racial lies and race hatred?”
As for white guilt, Krauthammer observes that Obama's purpose in his speech was to put Wright's outrages in the context of history — and by history, “he means the history of white racism…
“What lies at the end of his recital of the long train of white racial assaults from slavery to employment discrimination? Jeremiah Wright, of course.
“This contextual analysis of Wright's venom, this extenuation of black hate speech as a product of white racism, is not new. It’s the Jesse Jackson politics of racial grievance, expressed in Ivy League diction and Harvard Law nuance. That's why the speech made so many liberal commentators swoon: It bathed them in racial guilt while flattering their intellectual pretensions.”
Krauthammer asserts that Obama “flatters himself as a man of the future transcending the anger of the past as represented by his beloved pastor…
“Then answer this, Senator: If Wright is a man of the past, why would you expose your children to his vitriolic divisiveness?”
The writer concludes: “Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?”
Zimbabwean presidential contender relying on God to defeat Mugabe
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/zimbabwean.presidential.contender.relying.on.god.to.defeat.mugabe/17450.htm
A teacher and businessman turned presidential candidate in Zimbabwe said his Christian faith led him to run for office to repair a country suffering from intense economic woes, including the world’s highest inflation rate.
Langton Towungana, a resident of the northwest tourist town of Victoria Falls, is running against incumbent President Robert Mugabe, former finance minister Simba Makoni, and head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai.
But Towungana is not intimidated by his politically savvy opponents, instead pointing to God as his strength and motivation to run for the highest office in Zimbabwe.
“Everyone is on their knees. There is no food in the shops. Everybody is crying. In the rural areas there is no sugar. There is no bread and there is no mealie-meal," said Towungana, according to London-based SW Radio Africa – a radio station run by exiled Zimbabweans that broadcasts materials critical of Mugabe’s government into the African nation.
Towungana said men and politics have failed to solve the country’s problem and now it is time to give God a try.
“As a man of God I thought I must run in this race for president,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s society is in ruins due to an economic meltdown with inflation over 100,000 percent. An estimated 3.5 million Zimbabweans have fled to neighboring South Africa and other countries to escape the hunger and to earn money to send back to family members still living in their homeland.
Though Zimbabwe by title is a democracy, the country, under Mugabe, has crushed protests against the its economic crisis – leading some to see it as a police state or under dictatorship.
Christian leaders in Zimbabwe have been arrested for criticizing the country’s leadership, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his party members were violently beaten, arrested, and detained by the government while on their way to a prayer meeting, reported The Associated Press last year.
Last December, the second highest ranking cleric in the Church of England, Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu, made a striking protest when he cut up his clerical collar and vowed not to wear one until Mugabe was ousted from power.
Hoping to defeat the unpopular but powerful Mugabe, Towungana commented, "To be president doesn't require a very big man. What is needed is a person who has got the people at heart. A person who has compassion," according to SW Radio Africa.
Towungana has no political experience and was the last man to join the race – successfully applying to be a candidate just last month. Although he admits there is not enough time to campaign and get his message out to citizens, he hopes to remedy the problem by holding many radio interviews and by believing God is on his side.
“It’s the only thing that can give us salvation,” said the candidate whose campaign posters feature a Christian cross, according to The Earth Times. “God, not man, can give us direction.”
But some have accused Towungana of being a prop for Mugabe’s party, the ZANU-PF, created to split the opposition vote. His message of forming a government of national unity is similar to the ruling ZANU-PF’s platform.
Moreover, the state media, or the mouthpiece of ZANU-PF, has given Towungana interviews with both the official Herald Daily and the state ZBC television. Neither of the other main presidential rivals have been given similar interviews.
“Mugabe is surprised by me,” Towungana responded to his critics. “He does not know who I am. I am not a stooge. I am not ZANU-PF and I am not associated with any party.”
Towungana, who repeatedly calls himself a man of God, said although he entered the race late, “the most high God is the driver of this thing.”
Zimbabweans will head to the polls on Mar. 29 to vote for the leader they think can lift them out of the country’s economic quagmire.
Pastor Proposes Armed Security in Church
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/343403.aspx
A Colorado pastor is recommending that all churches hire armed security guards.
Rev. Brady Boyd leads new life church in Colorado Springs.
A gunman shot two girls at his church last December.
A volunteer guard was credited for stopping the rampage by shooting and wounding him before he committed suicide.
This month, Pastor Boyd hosted a church security conference.
And he said, "We just don't want this to happen anywhere else. Had we not had someone on our campus with a gun, we would have been doing funerals for three weeks."
More than one hundred other churches attended that security conference at new life.
Howard Jones: A Lesson in Love
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/343058.aspx
Many people may not be familiar with the name Howard Jones, but the legendary preacher paved the way stepped out on faith and worked tirelessly for decades preaching the word of God in order to bring all the races together -- under one roof -- for the Lord.
In 1958, Rev. Jones became the first black minister hired by the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. As the "first," Jones faced many giants.
"It hasn't been easy," Jones told CBN News. "It really hasn't and those moments when I felt the sting of prejudice against me, I have wept. I've gone to the Lord on my knees and to the Book and said 'Lord, you have got to help me.'"
The Meeting
In 1952 Graham decided he was never going to speak to segregated audiences again. It was easier for Graham to preach to integrated audiences in the South. But it was far more difficult in the North.
Few blacks attended Graham's crusades in New York City that year, even though he preached to crowds of about 20,000 people. So, at the urging of a colleague, Graham sought out Jones for advice.
The two met after one of his crusades at Madison Square Garden in 1956. Jones said that Graham was "a tall, lanky, handsome fellow."
"Howard, I'm in a quandary," Jones recalled Graham saying. "I'm troubled. I'm reaching thousands of people every night here in Madison Square Garden, but I'm not reaching any blacks. What would you suggest that we do?"
"I said if blacks aren't coming, go where they are," Jones said. Not understanding at first what he meant, Jones suggested he "go to Harlem."
Graham took his advice. He preached to thousands of blacks at Salem Methodist Church and later went to Brooklyn. Famed singer Ethel Waters rededicated her life to Christ at one of the events.
And slowly, African Americans began attending the crusades.
Praying Through the Hard Times
Jones remembers how hard it was for him personally at some of those events. He said he sat on the stage with the other ministers in the BGEA, but quickly realized he wasn't welcomed.
"Many a night on the platform I was lonely and some people didn't want to sit next to me," Jones said. "But Billy realized what I was going through, and he was always aware of my problems and he made it easier for me, but I had to just hang in there."
Graham received quite a bit of hate mail from people saying they would revoke their financial support if they didn't fire Jones and return to segregated crusades.
"He showed me a lot of the letters," Jones said. "Some I can't use the words, but some whites wanted to know why you would fool around with these people, and some said if you're going to integrate your team we will not support you. We will not give you money, so they used all kinds of pressures on him, but he said I don't care. I'm going to stick by my guns."
Evangelizing Around the World
Jones preached the gospel around the world. He was one of the first blacks to spread the Good News in Africa. Being a missionary in Africa wasn't easy either.
"I went to a white college and I heard missionaries say that if blacks come, they won't be accepted. But I was determined that I was going to prove them wrong," Jones said.
And he did. Early in his career, Jones had a very successful radio show that aired throughout Africa on Sundays.
It would later be the ticket that allowed him to travel to the Continent.
"I'm preaching right across Liberia into Ghana, Nigeria, reaching thousands and millions of people. And the station wanted me to say, 'This is Howard Jones a black American preaching from Cleveland,' so that the audience would know who I was," Jones said.
"And that really did the trick, because when I got there, they said praise the Lord, you're a brother," he said. "And they came around me and some said, 'You're lighter than we are, but you're still a brother.' And a couple of them rubbed my hair and said, 'Well, you've got the same hair as we have, so you're one of us.' Oh we had a time!
His wife Wanda got in on the action, too.
"They had never seen a black American man or woman before," he said. "The white missionaries stood back a little bit to say this is Howard's hour and Wanda's hour."
His wife eventually went to Nigeria and spoke to some 3,000 women.
"There's one thing about travel," Jones said. "It broadens your horizons and teaches you not to be so bigoted and self centered. Because when you travel, you see people of different colors and different races. And if this book is right and Heaven is made up of all races, all nationalities, then we'd better start getting along with one another."
Bringing the Races Together
Jones has always had a heart for diversity. He believes that the church should lead the way.
"We need more people to take a stand because the race problem is still with us as you know. And it's got to start in the church," Jones said.
"Just take a stand. Simple as that. In other words, if it's an all white church, the pastor ought to take a stand and say that we're going to integrate the church and let all races come," he said. "That's the way it's going to be in Heaven, and I've often said in my sermons that if we can't adjust to that now, what will we do when we get to Heaven? There's no segregation there."
Jones says we must all work together to build God's kingdom.
"The bitterness, the anger, the hatred -- these are things that will destroy a black man or a white man or a yellow man or a red man. It doesn't make any difference as to race. So I feel that we have a job to do."
Iraq's Christian Community Grows
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/343404.aspx
We've all heard about the progress of the troop surge in Iraq.
But there's been little reporting on the plight of Iraq's Christian community.
Since the war started five years ago, they've been targets of Muslim violence, and more than two-thirds of them have been forced from their homes.
But the church is growing again.
Colombians Risk Lives to Share Gospel
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/338763.aspx
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently shook the hand of his Colombian counterpart.
Just days earlier, he called President Uribe a liar, a gangster and a criminal.
A Colombian army raid in Ecuador against leftist guerillas-- called the FARC--led to troop movements and threats of war. But Uribe's apology at a summit in Santo Domingo resulted in smiles and talk of brotherhood.
Recent revelations that Chavez has given the guerillas $300 million makes one wonder, just how long will the peace last?
Colombian evangelists Henry and Celso believe lasting peace will come to their nation and neighbors only by way of a spiritual awakening.
I joined some evangelists in a remote region of Colombia who worked their way down a river in a conflict zone to bring the Bible and other Christian books to people desperate for the gospel. They're risking their lives in doing this.
Celso, 69, was captured by FARC guerillas and held for two months in late 2005. The commander asked why Celso had ventured into the danger zone.
"I told him a lot of people in the cities are praying for you guys-not just Colombians, but from other countries," he said. "They believe that you have souls and you also need peace and they have made this trip possible to bring this for you because you are part of Colombia."
Several books distributed by Celso and others have raised the ire of the leftist guerillas. Among them? Richard Wurmbrand's "Marx and Satan."
The guerillas have told Celso it depicts them in a bad light.
"But I believe it really works to alert young Colombians about the evils of communism," he said. "I could possibly be killed for distributing the book."
Henry loads Bibles into his truck before departing on a four hour journey deep into a coca producing region of Colombia. He feels that day, but he had problems during his last mission. That's when right wing paramilitaries accused him of conspiring with the leftist guerillas.
Henry hasn't taken sides in the conflict. He says he's on God's side, and right now he's spending more time with the guerillas because the paramilitaries have hardened their hearts towards the Gospel.
"That's because they've taken over and have chased the guerillas out of these areas-the para's have power and food. The guerillas are more open to the gospel because they have no food and are more desperate for God," Henry said.
Henry's been in dangerous places--he's felt the explosions of landmines and grenades going off nearby, and he's heard the whine of bullets flying through air.
He admits he's been frightened, but he says God directs his steps and keeps him safe.
"I want to reach them, he said. "It's risky and sometimes I don't have much money, but when I die, I want to know that I have taken a few of these souls with me...to heaven"
Bin Laden Accuses Pope of 'New Crusade'
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/342704.aspx
Osama bin Laden threatened severe attacks on Europeans and accused Pope Benedict XVI of helping in a "new Crusade" against Islam.
The threat comes in his latest audiotape, posted late Wednesday on a militant Web site that has carried al-Qaeda statements in the past.
He warns severe reaction is coming because Danish newspapers reprinted a cartoon that shows Muhammad bearing a bomb-shaped turban. Bin Laden says the cartoons are part of crusade against Islam.
"The response will be what you see and not what you hear and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of (Allah)," said a man on the tape believed to be bin Laden.
He said the cartoons "came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role," according to a translated transcript released by the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. group that monitors terror messages.
'Reckoning Will Be Severe'
"You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings," he said. "This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe."
A Vatican spokesman said bin Laden's accusation against the pope is "baseless." He said the pope on several occasions has criticized the cartoons, first published in several European newspapers in 2006 and republished by Danish papers in February.
The paper says it wanted to show its commitment to freedom of speech.
Muslims viewed the cartoons as an insult, depicting the prophet as violent. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
One U.S. group that monitors terrorists says it's a clear threat against EU member countries and could indicate an upcoming attack.
Update on Algerian Christians Facing Sentencing
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06995.shtml
In February, Middle East Concern (MEC) requested prayer from Christians around the world on behalf of Christians facing court hearings and awaiting official verdicts in Algeria. On March 4, they requested prayer for three items. First, one Christian brother had a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday, March 5. The believer concerned had been told informally that he would be sentenced to one year in prison and fined. On March 6, MEC happily reported that he had been acquitted.
According to MEC, two other items require your prayers. The written verdicts for three Christian men accused of insulting Islam was expected on February 12 but has still not been received. They have been told informally that they will be sentenced to prison and fined. Another brother has a hearing scheduled for April 2.
Christians in Algeria ask that we continue to pray that our three brothers awaiting a written verdict will not be sentenced to jail and that the brother involved in the hearing on April 2 will be acquitted. Please pray that the media attention will have a positive impact on the church, drawing more people to respond to the love and truth of Jesus. Pray also that fellowships recently closed in Algeria will be allowedto reopen and t hat believers will find worship and fellowship with others. Pray that God will provide pastors for the groups of Christian migrant workers in the country. Finally, pray that Algerian officials will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and respond to His love.
Go to www.persecution.net/country/algeria.htm to learn more about the increasing pressure being put on Christians in Algeria.
Christians Continue to Face Abuse in India
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06994.shtml
The Voice of the Martyrs continues to receive numerous reports each week of Christians facing charges and abuse for their evangelistic activities in India.
Pastor Nagaraj from the village of Srirampura, Karnataka has had a complaint formally lodged against him for converting Hindus. On March 4, he and his wife were beaten by a Hindu mob. He was then taken by force to the local police station where he was detained until the next day.
Forty-one year old Vijay Burman converted to Christ 14 years ago. On February 29, Bajrang Dal and Dharma Sena activists lodged a written complaint against him that he is converting people by promising good jobs to anyone who turns away from Hinduism. Those who live near him in Bhongadwar Kajarwara, Madhya Pradesh say that this accusation is completely false. Such accusations are commonly made against those who are involved in evangelistic work in India.
Remember to pray for the continuing evangelistic ministry of Christians in India. Pray that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured, and that those who share the Good News may be delivered from wicked and evil men (2 Thess. 3:1-2).
To view more reports on the rising persecution facing Christians in India, go to www.persecution.net/country/india.htm. Video reports are also available on www.persecution.tv.
ACLU Intimidates and Seeks to Deny Free Speech to Christians
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06999.shtml
"It's very troubling for the government to dictate what kind of prayers Christians can or cannot offer in the public forum," says Dr. Gary Cass. "Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father in His name. To require Christians to not pray in the name of Jesus Christ is asking them to pray contrary to their faith. By what authority does the Government deny Christians their First Amendment right to pray according to the dictates of their conscience?"
Reverend Hashmel Turner, a member of the Fredericksburg, Virginia city council, was threatened with lawsuits by from many secular anti-Christian groups, including the ACLU, for his Christian prayers during a council meeting. Turner was apart of a rotation of all the council members who would take turns praying at the council meetings. His case is currently making it's way to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 19, and would allow Christians the right to pray "in Jesus' name" in the public forum. This case will have a tremendous impact on city councils and state legislatures throughout the United States.
"Just because somebody objects to praying in Jesus' name does not mean that should Christians must deny their faith to accommodate another person's opposing beliefs. This is discrimination," said Dr. Cass. "Over 80% of American's self-identify as Christians, but Hindu's, Muslim's and Jew's have all prayed in the public forum and no one has restricted the content of their prayers and the ACLU has not threatened them.
"The majority of Christians are subjected to non- Christian prayers, why are Christians told what they can or cannot pray? This is simply anti-Christian bigotry and an attempt to deny free speech for Christians," said Cass.
The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is a non-profit organization devoted to protecting the rights of Christians to confidently live their faith. Dr. Gary Cass has degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary. He previously served as Executive Director of the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy.
California Bill Would Disincentivize Marriage
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06997.shtml
Sacramento, California - A bill ensuring that unwed parents remain unmarried is receiving strong opposition from a leading California-based pro-family organization.
SB 1066 by state Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) would allow cohabitating men and women to receive every marriage right and all marriage benefits that married husbands and wives receive under California law. Under SB 1066, more than 300 spousal rights - meant to bond together a husband and wife in the law - would go to unmarried couples. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 11, Democrats for, Republicans against. Last year, the same bill failed to pass the Legislature.
"SB 1066 rewards unwed parents for not getting married," said Campaign for Children and Families (CCF) President Randy Thomasson, who did TV interviews this week on the issue. "This foolish bill promotes cohabitation just as government welfare programs subsidized illegitimacy. SB 1066 ensures that unwed parents remain uncommitted. Why get married if you can get the legal rights and benefits of marriage without saying 'I do?' And what about the kids, who research shows do much worse in unmarried environments? SB 1066 is bad public policy. It's blind to the evidence that marriage is 1000 percent more stable than shacking up."
SB 1066 is in stark contrast to the federal program promoting marriage in California. The California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC) is spending $11.9 million on a statewide public information campaign, which includes media ads, local seminars for pastors and community leaders, and marriage education classes. CHMC says it "expects to see a decline in the marriage/divorce ratio, a reduction in child abuse, domestic violence, poverty, criminal behavior, and an improvement in physical, emotional, and mental health."
Campaign for Children and Families is urging Californians to call their state senator, state assemblymember, and Gov. Schwarzenegger to urge SB 1066's defeat. "If unmarried couples want stability and security, they should get married," said Thomasson, "and the legal rights of marriage will accompany their good decision. The evidence shows that marriage is much more healthy, secure, and long-lasting than is shacking up for men, women, and the children they often produce."
Contrary to what many people think, "living together" before marriage actually decreases a couple's chances of staying together if they marry. Respected cultural scholar and UCLA Professor Emeritus James Q. Wilson explains, "But cohabitation is a two-way street. It may attract people with certain views, but it also changes the view of people who do cohabit. Living together without getting married makes people more willing to accept divorce. As two scholars put it, 'cohabitation may change the way individuals view marriage and divorce' by, for example, persuading them that 'intimate relationships are fragile and temporary in today's world'" (James Q. Wilson, "Why Not Just Live Together?," American Experiment Quarterly, Summer 2001).
"Is cohabiting a good way to prepare for marriage?" asked researchers David Olson and Amy Olson-Sigg. "Generally not. The social science evidence suggests that living together is not a good way to prepare for marriage or to avoid divorce. In fact, virtually all the major studies have shown a higher divorce rate among couples that cohabited before marriage than those who did not. No positive contribution of cohabitation to a successful marriage has been found to date." (Olson and Olson-Sigg, "Overview of Cohabitation Research," 2006, www.prepare-enrich.com/research.html).
What The Evidence Says: Cohabitation versus Marriage
Short-lived relationships: About half of cohabitating couples either marry or break up after two years of cohabitation (Sheela Kennedy and Larry Bumpass, "Cohabitation and Children's Living Arrangements: New Estimates from the United States," 2007, Center for Demography, University of Wisconsin). One half of all cohabitating unions end within a year and 90 percent within five years. "The common view of cohabitation as a steppingstone to marriage needs to be serious questioned," said Daniel Lichter, professor of policy analysis and management and director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell. "Instead, serial cohabitation may be an emerging norm as cohabitating unions form and break up" (UPI, "Study: Cohabiting not prelude to marriage," July 10, 2006). "Cohabitors and married people who cohabited before marriage have higher risks of union dissolution than people who married without prior cohabitation ("Unmarried Cohabitation and Union Stability," Demography, 2006, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 203-221). In contrast, 57.7 percent of married relationships last 20 years or longer (U.S. Census, "Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 1996," February 2002).
Less safety: Cohabitating couples experience physical aggression in their relationships at rates three times higher than those reported by married couples. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, "unmarried, cohabiting couples have higher rates of intimate partner violence than do married couples" (DOJ, "Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence," July 2000).
More child abuse: As already shown, children of cohabitating couples are highly likely to see their parents separate within one to two years. Reaffirming what law enforcement sees everyday, research found children in single-parent families had a 77 percent greater risk of harm by physical abuse and an 87 percent greater risk of harm due to physical neglect (Sedlak and Broadhurst, Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996).
Less faithfulness: "Cohabitors are less likely than spouses to view their sexual union as permanently exclusive...cohabitors are less faithful to their partners than are married couples, and even when sexually faithful, they are less committed to the idea of sexual fidelity. Even if they are currently monogamous, many cohabitors say they are unwilling to say their partner will be the only person they ever sleep with for the rest of their lives" (The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially, 2000, pg. 39).
Less happiness: "According to the latest data, 40 percent of the married said they are very happy with their life in general, compared to just under a quarter of those who were single or who were cohabitating. The separated (15 percent very happy) and the divorced (18 percent very happy) were the least happy groups. The widowed were, perhaps surprisingly, just about as likely to say they are very happy as singles or as cohabitors - 22 percent" (The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially, 2000, pg. 67).
CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (CCF) is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. CCF stands for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, and back-to-basics education.
World Congress of Families Outraged by California Home-Schooling Decision
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06991.shtml
World Congress of Families founder, Allan Carlson, expressed shock and consternation at a recent California court decision in effect banning home-schooling.
Carlson called the ruling by California Appeals Court Judge H. Walt Croskey "blatantly anti-family." Croskey held that parents who home-school their children without a teacher's certificate could be criminally prosecuted.
"It's an attempt to cut-off escape routes to families fleeing the public education system," Carlson said. "This had nothing to do with the quality of home- schooling. Home-school graduates tend to score higher on aptitude tests than products of public education. Students schooled at home frequently attend the best Ivy League colleges and universities."
"Judge Croskey doesn't want children to miss out on all of the wonderful indoctrination that has become an integral part of public education, like National Day of Silence, where students are compelled to affirm the homosexual lifestyle," Carlson insisted.
Even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's generally liberal on social issues, was appalled by the decision, promising: "This outrageous ruling must be overturned and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."
Carlson said the ruling "shows just how far some judges will go to strip parents on any rights over their children's education."
In 2005, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, held that schools could provide students with any sexual information or instruction they chose, and parents had no right to object.
"Now, another California court is trying to take more rights from families," Carlson declared. "This horrendous decision must be reversed."
For more information on families and home- schooling, go online to www.profam.org/docs/acc/thc_acc_hhssf.htm to read the Allan Carlson article, "How Home-Schooling Strengthens Families."
For more information on World Congress of Families, visit www.worldcongress.org.
HLI Calls for Ouster of Notre Dame President
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06992.shtml
FRONT ROYAL, Va. -- The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today called for the firing of University of Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins, C.S.C., for his approval of the presentation of the play The Vagina Monologues on campus. Father Euteneuer is a Notre Dame alumnus, Class of '84.
Euteneuer said today, "This is really getting tiresome. For forty years Catholic university presidents have been intimidated and afraid of 'offending' ideological feminists and others who have undisguised contempt for the Catholic Church. These groups have been welcomed to Catholic campuses and have been spitting in the eye of the Church ever since. They cannot be pleased or placated."
Euteneuer continued, "Father Jenkins has been given several chances to take a truly Catholic position on this heinous piece of ideological propaganda and has consistently voted against the pleas and well- reasoned arguments of students, faculty and alumni alike. He needs to step down from his position or the ND Board of Directors needs to dismiss him. A Catholic priest just does not endorse this screed."
In the March 10 statement, Father Jenkins said: "Notre Dame's policy on controversial events rests on the conviction that truth will emerge from reasoned consideration of issues in dialogue with faith.... [I]t is, in my judgment, the action that best serves the distinctive mission of Notre Dame."
Father Euteneuer responded, "The distinctive mission of Notre Dame is to communicate the Catholic Faith. There is nothing inherently truth-producing about 'dialogue' or controversy, especially on immoral issues.
"Catholics deserve better from a university named for Our Lady."
Founded in 1981, Human Life International is the world's largest pro-life, pro-family organization that is dedicated to defending life, faith and the family, with branches and affiliates around the world.
Banks Urged to 'Come Clean' on Support of Planned Parenthood
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06993.shtml
FRONT ROYAL, Va. -- "Bank of America continues to play word games in an attempt to mislead consumers," said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). "And Wachovia is not any better than Bank of America." Both corporations appear on The Boycott List, which identifies corporate supporters of Planned Parenthood.
In November 2007, LDI sent a letter to Bank of America Foundation President Andrew Plepler, which addressed the issue:
"You write that Bank of America's involvement with Planned Parenthood is driven 'primarily' by its employees. You go on to write that Planned Parenthood is one of many groups that receive funding via Bank of America's Matching Gift Program...
"In a letter to Mr. Kenneth D. Lewis dated July 30, 2003, we specifically addressed a statement repeatedly made by Paula J. Fraher, executive director of the Bank of America Foundation, which is identical to one used by you: "Our involvement with Planned Parenthood is driven primarily by our associates. This group is one of many organizations that benefit from our Matching Gift Program (emphasis added).
"Once again, we will ask the same questions that Bank of America has refused to answer over the past several years. Is the Matching Gift Program the only way in which Planned Parenthood receives support from Bank of America or any related entity? Are local banks still allowed to support the abortion-committing group? Needless-to-say, it is your use of the word "primarily" that leaves us concerned.
"As you might expect, it is important that we leave no room for miscommunication or misunderstanding. Please respond to our questions very specifically-- without ambiguity."
"As noted in the LDI letter, a response to the July 2003 request for clarification was never received," Scott said. "Several months have now passed and our November 2007 request has also been ignored. Now why does Bank of America refuse to answer our simple question?"
Scott said that Wachovia has told customers it has not made donations to Planned Parenthood for many years. Yet an article that appeared in The Weekly Standard late last year proved otherwise. "If what Wachovia has been telling customers were true, why won't someone at the corporation tell LDI the same story?" Scott asked. "We would simply ask a few questions, as we did with Bank of America, to be sure there is no room for misunderstanding due to vague rhetoric. Oddly, the Company will not give LDI the chance to ask such questions because no one will speak to us."
"We urge executives at Bank of America and Wachovia to come clean on this issue. The truth is surely not too much to ask," Scott said. Both Bank of America Corporation and Wachovia Corporation remain boycott targets. Wells Fargo, Chase and Northern Trust are some of the other financial institutions that are boycott targets due to their support of Planned Parenthood.
Life Decisions International (LDI) is dedicated to challenging the Culture of Death, concentrating on exposing and fighting the agenda of Planned Parenthood. LDI's chief project is a boycott of corporations that fund the abortion-committing giant. To learn more about Planned Parenthood, please visit LDI's website at fightpp.org
South Dakota Ultrasound Law Will Save Babies' Lives, Spare Women Torment Say 'Silent No More' Leaders
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06998.shtml
STATEN ISLAND, NY -- Leaders of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, the world's largest network of women and men harmed by abortion, today praised South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds for signing into law a measure requiring doctors to offer women the chance to view ultrasound images of their unborn babies prior to performing abortions.
"Two of the most heartbreaking words I hear from post-abortive women are, 'If only...,'" said Janet Morana, Co-Founder of SNMAC. "If only they had known, if only they had understood, if only they had seen. This law will give to women who want it the opportunity to see what their children look like before it's too late. Not only will it save babies' lives, it will spare women years of torment."
"With this law, South Dakota offers women visual information that speaks volumes about the humanity of the child in the womb," added Georgette Forney, another Co-Founder of SNMAC. "Basically, it gives women the chance to see the truth, which is why the abortion industry opposes laws of this type. More truth means fewer abortions. I'm grateful that the Governor and South Dakota legislature stood up for women and their children."
Since the launching of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign in 2003, 2,326 women and men have shared their testimonies publicly at 189 gatherings in 44 states and six countries where more than 15,000 spectators have heard the truth about abortion's negative aftereffects. More than 4,100 people are registered to be Silent No More. Raising awareness about the hurtful aftermath of abortion and the help that is available to cope with the pain are two of the Campaign's goals.
The Silent No More Awareness Campaign is a joint project of Anglicans for Life and Priests for Life. For more information, please visit their website: www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org
US church helps ex-porn star come back to Christ
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.church.helps.exporn.star.come.back.to.christ/17457.htm
A former porn star has left the sex industry to start a new life as a college student and church secretary, a group ministering to sex workers announced Tuesday.
Sophia Lynn, 24, is now an office staff at Celebrate Community Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the US, where she will work while attending college. The South Dakota church offered Lynn a place to live, a college scholarship, and a job at the church office when they heard she wanted to leave the sex business.
“This is like a dream,” Lynn reflected from her new home in South Dakota nearly a week after her move. “I hope I don’t have to wake up from this. I feel like my life has been saved.”
Lynn came from a self-described devout Christian family and entered the porn industry only to make money to support herself and her young child after a divorce.
"When you have bill collectors calling you every five minutes, you start to feel hopeless," she said to ABC News last year.
She began with modelling but then was encouraged to try the porn business at the age of 18.
“I kept thinking, 'Why am I doing this?' But then I reminded [myself that] my car payment was due."
Lynn was re-introduced to Jesus Christ and eventually delivered from the sex industry with the help of Heather Veitch, an ex-stripper turned Christian evangelist. Veitch, who founded the ministry JC (Jesus Christ)’s Girls, and has been counselling Lynn for more than a year.
Veitch said many girls want to leave the business, but find it difficult to start a new life.
"It takes the kind of commitment we're seeing from Celebrate Community Church,” the ex-stripper explained. “This is the story of the little church that could.”
Celebrate Community Church claims to have 550 members and about 2,200 attendees on the weekends.
The South Dakota church first heard about Lynn when she appeared on an ABC news report last March and expressed her intention to leave the industry. The church reached out and invited Lynn to visit, but without success.
Instead, Veitch flew to South Dakota and spent a weekend educating the church on the size and extensiveness of America’s sex industry. The former stripper told the congregation that the first step towards helping girls like Sophia Lynn is to pray for them, which the church did, according to a report by the ministry.
"Three weeks later, my phone rang and it was Sophia," Veitch recalled. "She told me she was ready to make a real life change and wanted some real help. I called Pastor Loy [of Celebrate Community Church] and told him God held up his end, so now what are we going to do?"
The following morning at 6 am Pastor Keith Loy called Veitch and said, “We’re ready to take this on.”
Sophia Lynn, who was living in New Jersey at the time, was on a plane to a new life in South Dakota six hours later.
"We're not going to play church anymore," Loy said. “We're going to be a church."
The JC’s Girls founder urges churches to follow Celebrate Community Church and help a sex worker leave the industry and start a new life.
“I’m calling it ‘One Church For One Girl Program',” said Veitch.
Last month, a new documentary – “The PussyCat Preacher” – was released chronicling Veitch’s journey as she formed the ministry JC’s Girls. The film records her initial struggle with gaining acceptance from women at her former church in California to winning them over and actually bringing them to strip clubs to minister to dancers.
Veitch now resides in Las Vegas where her ministry is supported by Central Christian Church.
Study Proves It's Better to Give than Receive
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/343095.aspx
The Bible says it's better to give than to receive, and science agrees.
A new study released Friday in the journal "science" found that people who gave gifts to others or to charities were happier than those who did not.
Earlier reports almost always linked more money to increased happiness, but researchers wanted to know if it mattered how that money was spent.
And it did.
"This work suggests that even making small alterations in how we spend money on a daily basis can make a difference in happiness," lead researcher Elizabeth Dunn said.
Dunn is an an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. The school partnered with Harvard University to conduct the study.
Dunn added that she doesn't see anything "special" about money, and noted that giving doesn't need a large price tag, and can be in other forms like time or advice.
"(It) doesn't mean go get a high paying job so you can spend tons of money on others," she said. "The message is, given what you have, how can you make little alterations to do something for others."
Report: Private Eyes on the Case After UFO Photographer Vanishes
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,339912,00.html
A duo of California private eyes have taken on the unusual case of a UFO photographer who mysteriously vanished into cyberspace after posting his photos on the Internet, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Shortly after posting photos of the clunky-looking spacecraft hovering over a utility pole on Craigslist.org, an Internet persona known only as “Raji” disappeared. The mystery peaked the interest of London-based Open Minds group, which specializes in “UFOlogy,” the Times reported.
An unidentified woman representing the Open Minds group then hired private eyes Frankie Dixon and T.K. Davis to help find Raji. She told the detectives that she e-mailed “Raji” shortly after he posted the pictures, and he said he snapped them in Capitola, Calif. Before she could ask more questions, Raji’s e-mail account was canceled and he wasn’t heard from again.
But Raji was not alone. Others in the Internet world have allegedly posted photos of the craft, which has become known as the “California drone” due to its apparent inability to fit a person inside, the paper reported.
Go to http://www.foxnews.com/images/354364/0_61_032008_UFO.jpg for a picture of the craft that "Raji" photographed.
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