McCain Takes Shot at Obama for Hamas Support
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/25/mccain-takes-shot-at-obama-for-hamas-support/
John McCain taunted Barack Obama Friday for his recent “endorsement” from a Hamas adviser, wearing his own apparent rejection by the terrorist group as a badge of honor and saying that if elected he would be “Hamas’ worst nightmare.”
McCain spoke openly about the touchy subject on a conference call with bloggers Friday morning, even as he was fighting with a local Republican Party to take down an ad critical of Obama that he said was harmful to the “respectful” spirit of the race.
“I think it is very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States … I think that the people should understand that I will be Hamas’ worst nightmare,” McCain said when asked about the group’s recent statements about Obama.
Campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said the Hamas support “is a legitimate issue for the American people to think about.”
Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said two weeks ago in an interview with WABC radio and WorldNetDaily that the terrorist group supports Obama’s foreign policy vision.
“Actually, we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will [win] the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle,” he said.
McCain suggested that support stems from Obama’s willingness to have diplomatic talks with nations like Iran.
“I never expect for the leader of Hamas … to say that he wants me as president of the United States,” McCain said. “I think it is very clear … why they would not want me to be president of the United States, so if Sen. Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly.”
Rogers said plainly that “the reason for Hamas’ praise of Senator Obama’s foreign policy is his commitment to meet unconditionally with Iran … It is not only responsible to raise these critical issues in this election, but it would be the height of irresponsibility not to have this discussion with the American people.”
He called Obama’s foreign policy a “radical departure” from current standards of dealing with “rogue regimes.”
The Obama campaign fired back and issued a reminder that it already rejected Hamas’ legitimacy. Obama has said he would not negotiate with Hamas unless the group renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel’s right to exist and holds to other agreements.
“We want to take Sen. McCain at his word that he wants to run a respectful campaign, but that is becoming increasingly difficult when he continually tries to use the politics of association and makes claims he knows not to be true to advance his campaign,” Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a statement.
“This type of politics of division and distraction not only lead to a campaign not worthy of the American people but also has failed to help our families for too long.”
Though Yousef does frequent interviews with news outlets, he has not published an official endorsement of any U.S. candidate in the Gaza Strip area, where he lives.
McCain later said his comment was simply a “statement of fact.”
McCain has recently been selective in choosing which controversies he draws attention to.
The McCain campaign last criticized Obama for the Hamas statements a week ago in a fundraising letter, but it’s an issue McCain had previously given a pass in public.
According to The American Spectator, McCain also told bloggers Friday morning that Obama should apologize for his association with William Ayers, a college professor who was once part of the violent Weather Underground group.
But at the same time, McCain and the Republican National Committee have been trying to kill an ad set to run next week from the North Carolina Republican Party that criticizes Obama for his connection to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. McCain said the ad is “totally unacceptable.”
He said Friday that he’s sure Obama does not share the “extremist” beliefs of Wright, whose anti-U.S. sermons erupted into an Obama campaign controversy a month ago.
So far McCain has been unable to persuade the North Carolina party to drop the ad.
McCain, Huckabee Dodge VP Talk
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/McCain_Huckabee_VP_talk/2008/04/25/91098.html
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain and former rival Mike Huckabee dodged talk of whether Huckabee could be McCain's vice presidential running mate as they campaigned together on Friday.
Former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee maintained his race for the Republican presidential nomination even after it was clear McCain was going to clinch the position, only withdrawing once McCain secured sufficient nominating delegates in March.
The two men, however, have developed a friendly relationship -- based in part on the chats they had while sometimes waiting lengthy periods for questions to come to them during many Republican presidential debates.
McCain considers Huckabee quick on his feet with a quip and likes his ability to attract conservative Republicans, who were cool to McCain during much of his race for the nomination.
Huckabee has called the vice presidential position a job that no one could refuse but also one he does not expect to be offered. That has not stopped pundits from speculating about the possibility of a McCain-Huckabee ticket.
The two men, joined by their wives, Cindy McCain and Janet Huckabee, joked their way through a 20-minute ride on McCain's "Straight Talk Express" after the Huckabees greeted the McCains at their airplane on arrival in Little Rock.
McCain, asked about having Huckabee as his running mate, said he was just starting the search process and declined to speculate about Huckabee's chances.
"If you talk about people's names, it rapidly leads to an invasion of privacy," he said.
But he noted: "Governor Huckabee got the votes of millions of Republican voters. He's a very important part of any election process and I will rely on him for a lot of things. I think he has a greater service to render to this nation."
SEARCH FOR A RUNNING MATE
McCain says his vice presidential search is in the early process and that he will pick someone before the Republican nominating convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, in early September.
Huckabee did not lobby for the job.
"The main thing is getting Senator McCain elected," he said. "That's what is important for all Republicans who care about the future of the country. There's going to be a real stark contrast against Senator McCain and either of the two Democrats."
It was the second day in a row McCain has come face to face with a potential running mate. In New Orleans on Thursday, he appeared with Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, and McCain called him "part of the next generation of leaders."
Huckabee pledged to do whatever he could to get McCain elected, and McCain noted that the former governor who ran for president had a popularity approval rating of about 65 percent in his home state.
Huckabee could be a critical factor in Arkansas if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins her party's nomination over Barack Obama. The wife of former President Bill Clinton, a long-time Arkansas governor, leads McCain in hypothetical matchups in the state.
"He was particularly successful in the South," McCain said of Huckabee's presidential bid. "I think there are a lot of places where Governor Huckabee can be helpful."
McCain Teams up With Former Rival Huckabee in Arkansas
http://www.newsmax.com/politics/mccain/2008/04/25/90973.html
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain and former rival Mike Huckabee teamed up on the campaign trail for the first time on Friday, with Huckabee joking that they were so civil when they were opponents they don't have to "unsay" any bad things.
McCain said that early in the GOP campaign, the two had a lot of time to get to know each other when they both were dismissed as the longest of long shots. Chatting with reporters on the Straight Talk Express campaign bus, McCain recalled the days when they were relegated to the most distant ends of the podium in the early Republican debates, drawing few questions from the moderators.
"Governor Huckabee and I had lots of time to chat with each other," McCain laughed. "We became friends on the campaign trail."
They were joined on the bus by their wives, Cindy McCain and Janet Huckabee.
Huckabee, hugely popular with social conservatives, has been mentioned as a potential running mate for McCain, who needs to shore up his support among conservative Republicans.
McCain responded to that speculation by offering what he called his "standard answer," saying that he didn't want to mention any names because that quickly leads to an invasion of privacy for anyone being considered.
But McCain was quick to volunteer that "millions of Republican voters voted for Governor Huckabee" in the primaries, and that he wanted the former Arkansas governor to play a prominent role in his campaign. McCain noted Huckabee still has a 65 percent approval rating in Arkansas.
When reporters asked Huckabee if he planned to campaign for McCain, it was McCain who jumped in to answer with a ready "yes."
Huckabee, for his part, deflected a question about becoming McCain's running mate by saying, "The main thing is getting Senator McCain elected."
He said it would be easy for him to promote McCain's cause, saying, "I don't have to go around and unsay anything I said in the campaign. We ran a very civil campaign."
Huckabee's low-budget, upstart candidacy was one of the big surprises of the GOP primaries. He won eight states, including the Iowa caucuses, and was the last GOP rival standing before McCain claimed the prize.
Asked whether he could help McCain build support among wary conservatives, Huckabee predicted the party would rally around McCain because the stakes are so high. As for some grumbling among conservative leaders about McCain, Huckabee said, "I don't see that in the rank and file."
What most Republican voters are worried about, Huckabee said, is "Hillary R. Obama."
The two later attended a closed fund-raiser. McCain was wrapping up his five-day "Time for Action" tour in Little Rock with a visit to a men's leadership class at Arkansas Baptist College, a traditionally black private college. He billed the tour as a journey to places that have been ignored in the changing economy. They are also places GOP presidential candidates have effectively ceded to the Democrats.
But with the Republican nomination long settled, and Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton still competing against one another for the Democratic nomination, McCain is reaching out in hopes of claiming some Democratic and independent voters.
City Turns to God in Face of Crime
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/364328.aspx
The big attraction Friday night at Birmingham, Ala., Boutwell Auditorium is not the usual fair for a venue known for hosting concerts and special events.
It's a prayer rally for the city, called for by Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and organized with the help of area pastors and other city leaders.
The Magic City has already had 27 murders in 2008, compared to 19 this time last year. Mayor Larry Langford wants to see his city turn to God for help.
At a recent city council meeting, Langford introduced the idea of praying in "sack cloth and ashes."
"When cities in the early part of this nation's history and the world's history... when they had gotten so far from God, begun idol worship and all kinds of crazy stuff that we are even doing today... that community came to its senses," Langford said.
"The Bible tells us that they put on sack cloth and ashes on their face and they prayed and God heard their prayer," he added.
He purchased 2,000 sack-cloths without using city funds and will hand them out at the event.
Several area ministers, as well as some nationally known ones, are joining together to lead the prayer rally. Two members of the Georgia legislature are planning to attend, in a show of support for the mayor's call to prayer.
Langford is working what he calls "Plan 10/30," which is based on the fact that most of the city's crimes are committed by African-Americans ages 10 to 30 against that same age group.
He has also held a series of summits as part of the project - the first one for men, another for women, and the last with families. After reporting to city leaders on the summit, Langford said there was only one thing left to do.
"To get this community back on the right track, we need to understand the power of prayer."
Many States Appear to be in Recession
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/364130.aspx
Are we in a recession or aren't we? The question has plagued the U.S. for a while now. But for some states it's a moot discussion, according to a report to be released Friday by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Many states' finances appear to be in a recession, a survey of all 50 state fiscal directors concludes. And matters look even worse for the fiscal year that starts July 1 in most states.
The weakening economy is affecting tax revenue in several ways.
People's discretionary income is being eaten up by higher food and fuel costs. And the tanking housing market means people are spending less on furniture and appliances associated with buying a house.
Grim in the East, Bleak in the West
The situation is grim in Delaware, with a $69 million gap this year, and bleak in California, with a projected $16 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, the report said. Florida does not expect a rapid turnaround in revenue because of the prolonged real estate slump there.
By the time mid-April arrived, 16 states and Puerto Rico were reporting shortfalls in their current budgets as the revenue those budgets were built on - usually, taxes - fell short of estimates. That's twice the number of states reporting a deficit six months ago.
Budget Shortfalls
The NCSL said the news is even worse for the upcoming fiscal year, with 23 states and Puerto Rico already reporting budget shortfalls totaling $26 billion. More than two-thirds of states said they are concerned about next year's budgets.
Some states "have declined so much that they appear to be in a recession," the NCSL report said.
It also noted the silver lining for states where the economy is based on energy, such as North Dakota and Wyoming. Alaska is making so much money from oil that it announced an estimated surplus next year of $8 billion, almost twice the state's annual budget.
In North Dakota, revenue is above legislative predictions by 13 percent, and in Louisiana, the oil and gas sector is robust.
"For energy-producing states, the fiscal situation is strong and the outlook is good," the report said.
Among other findings:
-More than half the 16 states reporting deficits this year have cut spending, including $1 billion by Florida lawmakers last year and across-the-board cuts in Nevada. At least eight states are debating raising taxes or fees, including a proposed $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase in Massachusetts to raise $175 million.
-Twelve states, including Georgia, Idaho and Illinois, reported that personal income tax collections were failing to meet estimates, and in eight of these, collections were even below a reduced forecast.
-Many states, including Alabama, Arizona, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin, plan to tap their rainy day funds, which contain money set aside for fiscal emergencies. Nevada may use its entire rainy day balance.
U.N. Secretary-General Calls Rising Food Prices 'Global Crisis'
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352556,00.html
VIENNA, Austria — A sharp rise in food prices has developed into a global crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.
Ban said the U.N and all members of the international community are very concerned, and immediate action is needed.
He spoke to reporters at U.N. offices in Austria, where he was meeting with the nation's top leaders for talks on how the United Nations and European Union can forge closer ties.
"This steeply rising price of food — it has developed into a real global crisis," Ban said, adding that the World Food Program has made an urgent appeal for additional $755 million.
"The United Nations is very much concerned, as all other members of the international community," Ban said. "We must take immediate action in a concerted way all throughout the international community."
Ban urged leaders of the international community to sit down together on an "urgent basis" to discuss how to improve economic distribution systems and the production of agricultural products.
Major Protest Saturday at Nation's Largest Planned Parenthood
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07118.shtml
AURORA, IL -- On Saturday, April 26 from 9- 11 am, the first major pro-life protest of 2008 will take place at the nation's largest Planned Parenthood facility located at 3051 E. New York Street in Aurora, Ill. The protests which began last August, are organized by the Pro-Life Action League and have continued strong on a monthly basis throughout the winter, seeing 200 protestors even when temperatures dipped below zero. The opening of the facility, scheduled for mid-September, was delayed for two and a half weeks while investigations were conducted into the deceptive process in which Planned Parenthood received its occupancy and building permits.
Pro-life community members have vowed to stay the course, even taking both the city and Planned Parenthood to court. The case alleging zoning violations has been moved to federal court and is currently in pre-trial activities. In addition, the city is in the process of settling a lawsuit against them which alleges violation of protestors First Amendment rights, while Planned Parenthood is facing libel charges after running anti-protestor ads in local papers with images depicting bombed-out abortion facilities.
Despite Aurora's willingness to settle the lawsuit alleging free speech violations, some major questions still remain. Last week, a grandmother praying and handing out material on the street by Planned Parenthood, was arrested by Aurora Police after crossing over into a major thoroughfare that the facility has deemed off limits to protestors. One of the issues that will be addressed in settlement hearings is determining clear, constitutional guidelines for police officers in dealing with the peaceful protests.
"Despite the difficulties we've had with the city, we will stay our course," states Eric Scheidler, communications director for the Pro-Life Action League and an Aurora resident. "Whether it takes eight months, 12 months or 12 years, we will be at this facility until abortions are no longer performed and this deceitful business is out of our city. We will be a peaceful, ever-present reminder of the atrocities that go on inside those walls."
Organizers expect more than 500 people to attend the rally. In addition to hundreds of picketers, the rally will feature a "prayer walk" and a "baby shower" for people to donate gifts benefiting local pregnancy centers. In addition, the group will erect a "cemetery of choice" on the nearby lawn in memory of the 347 women known to have been killed by legal abortion in the U.S.
"Our counselors have seen a dozen or more women turn away from abortion after speaking with them outside this Planned Parenthood," continued Scheidler. "The women and children in Aurora are what is most important to us and we will not sit by and let Planned Parenthood hurt anymore people in our community."
Heartbeat Pregnancy Centers Deliver Hope for Life
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07115.shtml
DALLAS -- 'America can do better than abortion,' said Heartbeat International President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D. 'Thousands of pregnancy centers around the world are providing positive choices for women faced with an untimely pregnancy. The women we see in our pregnancy centers are open to new life when hope is offered.'
On the first anniversary of Gonzales v. Carhart, Heartbeat International joins with The Justice Foundation, Operation Outcry, and compassionate supporters from around the world to march for a future where abortion is unthinkable. The Hope for Life march begins at the Heartbeat International Conference at the Sheraton Hotel (formerly Adams Mark) and proceeds to the Dallas Courthouse, where the Roe v. Wade case was initiated and paved the way to more than 40 million abortions.
"Often, women tell us they were encouraged to abort, persuaded that abortion is a good choice without being informed about life-saving options. These same women tell us they would have rejected abortion had they known the truth and been encouraged to choose life," said Hartshorn. "Women need to know that Heartbeat is here to provide healthy alternatives to abortion."
Close to 700 pro-life pregnancy center leaders from the U.S. and 14 other countries are participating in the 2008 Annual Heartbeat International Conference to strengthen alternatives to abortion and provide hope and healing for those who have suffered from abortion.
More than 30 pro-life leaders from Canada, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Nepal, Serbia, Russia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are participating.
Conference keynote speakers include: Dr. Alveda King, founder of King for America and Civil Rights Activist; Julie Parton, founder of Prestonwood Pregnancy Center; June Hunt, founder of Hope for the Heart; and Carol Everett, founder of The Heidi Group
Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is one of the millions of women who regret choosing abortion. She is especially concerned about the history of abortion clinics that target minority communities.
Heartbeat International, founded in 1971, is an interdenominational Christian association of 1,070 pregnancy resource centers and post abortion groups in 48 states and 42 countries. Heartbeat International connects callers with the local help they need through OptionLine.org (800-395-HELP), a joint hotline operated with Care Net.
Yoko Ono Sues Over Use of 'Imagine' in Movie Challenging Evolution
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352585,00.html
NEW YORK — Yoko Ono is suing the producers of a movie that challenges the concept of Darwinian evolution, saying they used the song "Imagine" without her permission and led the blogosphere to accuse her of "selling out."
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, Ono accuses the producers of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" of suggesting to viewers that those who guard John Lennon's legacy somehow authorized or sponsored the film.
The producers of the film, which features Ben Stein challenging Darwinian theories that prevail in academic circles and suggesting that life could have emerged through intelligent design, said they used only "a very small portion of the song."
"Based on the fair use doctrine, news commentators and film documentarians regularly use material in the same way we do," Premise Media said in a statement. "Unbiased viewers of the film will see that the 'Imagine' clip was used as part of a social commentary in the exercise of free speech and freedom of inquiry."
Ono's lawsuit claims the producers did not ask for permission either because they knew they couldn't get it or because they did not want to pay for the rights. It objects to the way "Imagine" is listed in the film's credits, saying it suggested to members of the news media and others that the song's use had been approved.
"Internet 'bloggers' immediately began accusing Mrs. Lennon of 'selling out' by licensing the song to defendants," says the complaint, filed this week.
The lawsuit calls "Imagine" Lennon's signature song, saying it "has become closely associated with and is synonymous with John Lennon."
The complaint, which also names other firms involved with the movie, asks the court to stop the filmmakers from distributing, selling and promoting the movie, and it seeks financial damages. It was filed on behalf of Ono, Lennon's sons Sean and Julian, and EMI Blackwood Music Inc.
"Expelled" earned the No. 10 spot at the box office this weekend, bringing in nearly $3 million in its first weekend in wide release. Stein, an actor, quiz show host and former speech writer for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, has been visiting some state capitals to screen the movie for lawmakers.
Yale Student's Art Project a Natural Extension of Abortion Mindset Say 'Silent No More' Leaders
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07114.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 decried a Yale student's controversial performance art project scheduled to be exhibited next week. The project purports to document the young woman being artificially inseminated and then self-aborting her unborn children.
"I'm relieved that the student in question has admitted that she didn't really become pregnant for this project and that no innocent people had to die for her so- called art," said Georgette Forney, co-founder of SNMAC. "While initially shocking, though, the project is really just a natural extension of the abortion mindset's utilitarian view that unborn children are expendable. After all, if embryonic human beings can be destroyed for the sake of science, why can't they be killed in the name of art?"
"When people are treated like things, we all suffer," added Janet Morana, another co-founder of SNMAC. "The lie that unborn children are not children is a cancer that has resulted in the kind of calloused hearts and minds that would conceive and approve of a project like this. It's not just that the project is offensive, it diminishes human life."
Since the launching of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign in 2003, 2,326 women and men have shared their testimonies publicly at over 200 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
Southern Baptists now a 'declining denomination'
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/southern.baptists.now.a.declining.denomination/18342.htm
For the first time, Southern Baptists can say membership has reached a tipping point and the nation's largest Protestant denomination is now declining, says one long-time Southern Baptist.
"The decline that many of us have already believed is there is now becoming real," said Ed Stetzer, director for LifeWay Research, in an interview featured on MondayMorningInsight.com, a Web site for pastors and church leaders.
Baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention fell for the third straight year in 2007 to the denomination's lowest level since 1987, dropping nearly 5.5 percent to 345,941, according to LifeWay Christian Resources' Annual Church Profile (ACP), which was released this week.
Total membership also declined by 0.24 percent to 16,266,920.
"This report is truly disheartening," said LifeWay president Thom S Rainer, according to Baptist Press. "Total membership showed a slight decline. Baptisms have now declined for three consecutive years and for seven of the last eight years, and are at their lowest level since 1987.
"Indeed, the total baptisms are among the lowest reported since 1970. We are a denomination that, for the most part, has lost its evangelistic passion."
While technically membership has only dropped for one year, Stetzer cautioned fellow Baptists from dismissing the data.
"We don't want people to say 'it's not a big deal.' It is a big deal," he said.
"Southern Baptists have always said 'We're growing. We're growing slow.' You can't say it anymore."
Total membership dipped once before, and then grew in the following years. But this time, Stetzer believes the growth over the past five decades has plateaued.
"Many have predicted that membership (an inflated statistic anyway) would soon begin to decline, but the statement, 'Southern Baptists are a declining denomination' was not 'officially' accurate.
"Until today," he said in his blog on Wednesday.
And while the Southern Baptist Convention added 473 new churches in 2007, gave more than $1.3 billion to support mission activities around the world, and saw a 0.16 percent increase in worship attendance, Stetzer believes the denomination cannot ignore the trend moving toward decline.
"Some might want to point to the good news (attendance up slightly, more churches, etc). However, you cannot miss the fact that a dubious historical milestone has been reached – and it needs to be noted in denominational and church offices across the country," he said.
"My hope is this will cause people to wake up and change," he commented.
Offering a few suggestions for change, Stetzer said the Southern Baptist Convention needs ethnic and generational diversity in its leadership. Also, the "infighting" has to stop. Debates over theological differences and boundaries at every denominational meeting would only accelerate the trend toward decline, he said.
Most importantly, the recovery of the Gospel in Southern Baptist life is key, he said.
"We must recover a Gospel centrality and cooperate in proclaiming that gospel locally and globally," Stetzer stressed, as he expressed hope for a Great Commission Resurgence.
"It is time for us to once again rise to a new day," he stated. "The temptation will be that the news of the day will result in a new denominational obsession to fix the problem with a new plan. It won’t work. Instead we must refocus on the Divine Obsession (Luke 15), the obsession with lost people."
Europe mega-pastor gives tips for revival of US Christianity
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/europe.megapastor.gives.tips.for.revival.of.us.christianity/18330.htm
The pastor of Europe’s largest evangelical church gave advice on how to revive Christianity and the church in the United States Tuesday evening during a Q&A session based on questions submitted by American Christians.
Sunday Adelaja, founding pastor to the 30,000-member God’s Embassy Church in Kiev, Ukraine, was the featured guest of a teleconference hosted by Strang Communications, the publisher of Charisma and Ministry Today magazines.
God’s Embassy Church boasts more than two million converts and 600 church plants worldwide.
During the Q&A, Adelaja emphasised that the church should not be pulpit-focused, but rather concentrate on how to reveal Jesus Christ to people if they want to experience growth.
The Nigerian-born Christian leader used his own church as an example, saying that it first experienced massive growth after four fruitless years when he started to go out and feed the poor and take care of the drug addicts and alcoholics in Ukraine.
He also encouraged every single church member to influence and impact the culture for God.
“Do not let your people get comfortable with sitting down in the pews,” Adelaja advised a pastor who submitted a question during the teleconference. “You have to literally push them out of the pews and strengthen them so they can go out there and invade the darkness of the world because they are the light of the world.
“You have to really keep on pushing them to believe in themselves that they can change the world for God.”
The influential European pastor said that the mayor of Kiev, the chief justice of Ukraine, and the prime minister of the country all come from his church.
Adelaja was also critical of US churches, saying they were a “far cry” from real churches and that this generation of Americans have not seen the real church yet.
“The way things are now in America, the way we do church is kind of like a programme,” Adelaja observed. “We are doing church as a club. We are trying to make people feel good, to entertain them, or try to keep them. So because of that concern – we don’t want them to go or to lose them – we kind of try to suit them.
“We are pleasing men instead of pleasing God,” the megachurch pastor continued. “I think we need to change our focus and our focus has to be ‘what is the heartbeat of God?’ ‘What does God desire?’ ‘Does He really want me to just make these people happy and keep them here forever until they die or I die? Or is it better for me to fire them up and encourage them to go and live their life truly for God and for kingdom?’”
Adelaja also diagnosed American Christians as egocentric and said that they need to be taught that the focus of their life is not themselves, but God. Adelaja said that as long as pastors teach that the purpose of believing in God is for them to be blessed then people will never influence their culture.
Earlier this year, Adelaja released his latest book, ChurchShift, which broke Amazon.com’s top 10 Bestsellers list. ChurchShift’s mission is to spark a revolution in American culture with the goal of reforming 10,000 US churches so that they will in turn reform American society.
Adelaja grew up a poor orphan in Nigeria and was raised in a Christian home by his grandmother. He did not own a pair of shoes until he was 12 years old and had to earn a living from the age of six. Through the prayers of his Christian grandmother, Adelaja gave his life to Christ at 19 years of age. He travelled to the Soviet Union to study journalism on a scholarship and later founded Embassy of God Church after the Soviet Union was dismantled.
The Embassy of God Church is the largest church in all of Europe with some 100,000 total members, including those from all its satellite locations. Although Adelaja is African, white Europeans make up 99 per cent of his church. The church has planted more than 600 churches in more than 45 countries, including 20 churches in the United States.
EU treaty set to be examined by Czech and German courts
http://euobserver.com/9/26045?rss_rk=1
The Lisbon treaty is set to be examined to see if it breaches national laws in two member states, raising the risk that the 1 January 2009 deadline for the document to come into force across the EU will be delayed.
The Czech Senate on Thursday (24 April) voted in favour of asking the constitutional court to check whether the treaty is in line with Czech law.
Of the 70 senators present, 48 voted in favour of the move, four against and 18 abstained.
The senate will not take a vote on the treaty until after the court has been consulted - the lower house already voted in favour of the charter.
The court announced it would deal with the issue straight away but its spokesperson refused to speculate on how long the procedure will take.
The key issues that the senators asked the court to check include the transfer of certain powers to EU institutions, the shift of decision-making among member states from unanimous to majority voting, as well as the legal implications of adopting the Charter of Fundamental Rights - with the charter causing the most concern among Czech lawmakers.
The move was originally mainly promoted by a number eurosceptic figures within the ruling ODS party but was eventually also supported by the party's junior coalition partner, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
The key centre-left opposition party of CSSD tried to push through the ratification but was unsuccessful.
Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg spoke out against the court move. He concluded the debate with senators with a story about a poor boy who married a rich girl from Brussels but as he was to start fulfilling his marriage duties after the wedding, he asked his lawyer whether by doing so he would also be assuming new duties and so he didn't let his wife into his bedroom for a year.
"Admit that this bridegroom must be making quite a weird impression on his new family," the minister told senators, according to the Czech Press Agency.
Germany
Meanwhile, Germany's court is also set to examine the treaty. After the lower house of parliament strongly endorsed the charter on Thursday, conservative MP Peter Gauweiler repeated his intention to bring the treaty before the country's constitutional court.
"What Brussels is supposed to get in powers is not compatible with our democratic principles," Mr Gauweiler told the Saarbruecker newspaper.
He said his reason for bringing the case is the constitutional court's loss of power to the European court. The constitutional court has until now kept an eye on the inalienable rights of German citizens given to them by Germany's constitution (Grundgesetz), he noted.
"With the Lisbon Treaty, the sovereignty over these rights is given to foreign courts, whose members are not sworn to protect the constitution. That is not allowed by the constitution," the MP told the paper.
The MP is expected to formally present the complaint after the upper house has ratified the treaty next month.
The court case could delay signature of the treaty by Germany's president Horst Koehler – the signature is needed as the final step of ratification.
All 27 member states must approve the treaty for it to come into place as planned at the beginning of next year. So far 11 countries have ratified it.
Several debates and discussions about the technical preparation of the implementation of the treaty are currently being undertaken in Brussels with the expectation that January is the date of entry into force.
Satanic cults in fashion in Rome, warns Vatican exorcist
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/satanic.cults.in.fashion.in.rome.warns.vatican.exorcist/18341.htm
Satanic cults are on the rise in an unexpected location – Rome, says a Catholic priest.
"There is a greater openness towards the devil," said Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's Chief Exorcist, to the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Father Pedro Barrajon, a Catholic priest in Rome, stated, “Satanism and the occult are in fashion.”
The overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation of Italy has an estimated 800 satanic cults, with more than 600,000 followers. But Rome, home to Vatican City and the pope, is where the fiercest spiritual battle is taking place.
Last year, the Vatican started to offer courses to bishops on how to perform exorcisms – freeing a person of evil spirits.
When Father Amorth, 81, performs an exorcism, he uses oil for mass or baptism, and the cross.
"If a person is not violent I let them sit in this armchair, and I do the exorcism here,” said Amorth, showing CBN the small room that he uses. “If they are violent I lay them down and if necessary I also tie them down.”
The priest commented that medicine and science cannot solve all illnesses, but some are resolved by exorcism.
In recent years, gruesome murders have been linked to devil worship in Italy including a case several years ago involving members of a heavy metal band named the Beasts of Satan. Band members stabbed, clubbed and buried alive two teenagers in northwest Milan.
One of the victims was allegedly killed because she resembled the Virgin Mary.
Then there is Marco Dimiti, who heads the Children of Satan, which reportedly has more than 1,000 members.
In 1996, Dimiti was accused of raping a 2-year-old boy and a teenage girl in satanic rituals in 1996. He was jailed for 14 months before being pardoned by the Italian courts.
"True Satanism puts man at the centre of the universe – and is a noble expression," Dimitri said. "I want to say to Father Amorth what I say to all exorcists. Leave people in peace!"
Vatican priests are now working with Italian authorities to confront the increase in satanic crimes.
"We invite the police to sit-in on the exorcism classes so that they can understand the spiritual and theological dimensions of this phenomenon," said Father Barrajón.
Barrajon has trained 300 priests in exorcism, and says that he teaches them how to distinguish between psychiatric problems and satanic possession.
"This is the key but I can tell you that those who perform exorcisms, they just have this sense, they just know," he said. "Sometimes they look for signs like if the person is afraid of the cross or baptismal water or pictures of Christ. They shake a lot or start screaming and they may possess extraordinary strength. The priests know what to look for."
Barrajon encourages Italians to pray more, attend church, and be conscious that the devil is very real.
"The actions of the devil are not just limited to here in Italy – his evil spirit is roaming the earth, tempting people," he said. "We are trying to educate the society and families about the dangers of his influence."
Israel Honors Dutch Christians Who Saved Jews
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07116.shtml
HAARLEM, The Netherlands -- Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Harry Kney-Tal today presented members of the Netherlands' ten Boom family with a certificate posthumously honoring two of its members for saving nearly 800 Jewish lives during the Holocaust.
At a solemn ceremony here, Israel's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, Yad Vashem, bestowed the title of Righteous Among the Nations on Casper ten Boom and his daughter, Elisabeth (Betsy), for their wartime heroism.
As devout Christians, the ten Boom family participated in the resistance against the Nazis and willingly sheltered those seeking refuge, both Jews and non- Jews. By the time the entire ten Boom family was arrested in February 1944, they had managed to save almost 800 Jews.
They were sent first to Scheveningen Prison in Holland, where 84-year-old Casper ten Boom died soon after being captured. Elisabeth and her younger sister, Cornelia (Corrie), were then sent to the notorious Ravensbrck concentration camp in Germany in September 1944, where Betsie died. Corrie survived only because she was released - due to a clerical error - in December 1944.
At the time of the family's arrest, the Gestapo carefully searched the ten Boom's house, but could not find any fugitives. They did not discover that two Jewish men, two Jewish women, and two members of the Dutch underground were safely hidden behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom. From this "hiding place" (the title of Corrie ten Boom's book about the period) the Resistance freed the fugitives nearly two days later. They were the last of an estimated 800 Jews, and many Dutch underground workers, saved by the ten Booms.
According to witnesses, when Casper ten Boom was asked by his captors if he knew he could die for helping Jews, he replied, "It would be an honor to give my life for God's ancient people."
Dr. Michael D. Evans, founder and chairman of the board of the Corrie ten Boom House Foundation, spoke of the revival of the century-old ten Boom tradition of praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Begun in the Netherlands by the Christian Zionist family in 1844, the weekly prayers for Jerusalem continued until they were brutally halted when the Nazis sent family members to their deaths.
The Jerusalem Prayer Team, headed by Evans, renewed the tradition of the ten Boom family and has spread it throughout the world, where millions of Christian Zionists pray for the peace of Jerusalem each week in some 200 countries.
After the war, Corrie ten Boom began a world-wide ministry which took her to more than 60 countries over the next 33 years. She was the first ten Boom to be honored by Yad Vashem and lived until 1983, when she died at the age of 91. The heritage of the ten Boom family is lovingly preserved at the Corrie ten Boom Museum in Haarlem. Corrie's book, The Hiding Place (1971), was made into a film by World Wide Pictures in 1975.
Israeli General Warns on Iran
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Israeli_General_Warns_on_/2008/04/25/90934.html
The commander of Israel’s air force says he takes Iran’s threats against his nation very seriously and compares them to Hitler’s warnings against Jews before the Holocaust.
In an interview to air on “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy said about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vow to destroy Israel: “I think it is a very serious threat to the state of Israel, but more than this, to the whole world.
“They are talking about what they think about the state of Israel. They are talking about destroying and wiping us from the earth.”
Shkedy — whose family survived the Holocaust — said ignoring Ahmadinejad’s threats today reminds him of the atmosphere that enabled the Holocaust, the Houston Chronicle reported.
“In those days, people didn’t believe that Hitler was serious about what he said. I suggest not to repeat this way of thinking, and to prepare ourselves for what they are planning. We should be prepared for everything…
“We should remember. We cannot forget. We should trust only ourselves.”
Destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities would be much more difficult than taking out Saddam Hussein’s single nuclear reactor in Iraq, as the Israelis did in 1981, Zeev Raz — who commanded the attack on the Iraqi facility — told “60 Minutes.”
“I really hope it will be solved another way,” he said, but added: “There is only one thing worse than the Israeli air force having to do it — Iran having a nuclear bomb.”
Navy-Contracted Vessel Fires Warning Shots on Fast Boats in Persian Gulf
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352579,00.html
A vessel contracted by the Navy in the Persian Gulf fired warning shots Thursday on two fast boats believed to be of Iranian origin.
In a story first reported by FOX News, Navy officials said the Westward Venture fired upon two boats about 50 miles off the coast of Iran.
U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Cmdr. Lydia Robertson said the boats were of unknown origin, but other Navy officials told FOX News that the markings of the boats and their behavior led them to believe they were Iranian and typical of those used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The Iranian Navy countered those claims Friday, saying on Iranian television station Al-Alam that they didn't have a confrontation with a U.S. ship and that the Westward Venture may have fired on a non-Iranian vessel, Reuters reported.
The approximately 1,000-foot-long Westward Venture is contracted by the U.S. Military Sealift Command to carry military cargo to Kuwait. It fired upon the fast boats while traveling north in international waters. Defense officials told FOX News it did so after attempts to get the boats' attention failed.
A Navy security team of 12, armed with M-16 rifles and .50-caliber machine guns, was onboard the Westward Venture at the time the warning shots were fired.
The incident, which lasted for about 15 minutes, began when the Westward Venture attempted to make bridge-to-bridge contact to warn the fast boats that they were too close.
The Military Sealift Command vessel then blew its whistle and fired flares before finally firing warning shots with the machine guns and M-16s when the boats came within 100 yards of the cargo ship.
Bridge-to-bridge communication was established after the shots were fired, with someone claiming to be the Iranian Coast Guard contacting the Westward Venture.
"It is not clear if this was one of the small boats or a separate boat," Robertson said.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is suspected of being involved in this incident, officials told FOX News.
Defense officials said that typically the guard behaves in a very unprofessional and aggressive manner, using unmarked boats and uniforms, unlike the Iranian Navy.
Oil prices rose sharply Friday on news of the confrontation, on concerns that a conflict between U.S. and Iranian forces could cut oil supplies from the Persian Gulf region. The cost for a barrel of light, sweet crude oil for June delivery rose $3.08 to $119.14 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising as high as $119.50.
Prices were already up before the report on news of a pipeline attack in Nigeria and a looming refinery strike in Scotland.
The incident follows two other encounters between U.S. and Iranian ships. Five small Iranian boats swarmed three U.S. warships in the Gulf's narrow Strait of Hormuz in early January. The U.S. commanders did not fire any warning shots despite hearing a strange radio call saying the boats would explode, and the Iranians eventually retreated.
In mid-December, a U.S. ship fired a warning shot at a small Iranian boat that came too close in the Strait of Hormuz, causing the Iranians to pull back.
Thursday's incident took place in the central Persian Gulf, not the Strait of Hormuz, officials said.
Syrian Diplomat Says U.S. Fabricated Nuke Allegations
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352623,00.html
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said Friday that the allegations that his country was building a nuclear reactor were fabricated and were driven by U.S. officials trying to torpedo Washington's nuclear deal with North Korea.
"There are the hawks (in the U.S. administration) who are against any deal with North Korea," he said. "Some others are much more moderate and they believe in dialogue and diplomacy."
Top U.S. intelligence officials in Washington on Thursday said the United States became aware North Korea was helping Syria with a nuclear project in 2003. The critical intelligence that cemented that conclusion came last year after dozens of photographs taken from ground level showed the construction both inside and outside the building, said the intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.
After Israel's September attack, the U.S. alleged Syria tried to bury evidence of the reactor's existence and erected a new building to hide the site. The building is not believed to house a new reactor, the officials said.
Syria's president scoffed at U.S. claims that his country was building a nuclear reactor, according to excerpts of an interview published Friday.
President Bashar Assad questioned the logic of such allegations and insisted once again that a site in Syria destroyed by Israel seven months ago was an unused military facility.
"Is it logical for a nuclear site to be left without protection and not guarded by anti-aircraft guns?" Assad told the Qatari newspaper Al-Watan, which published excerpts of the interview Friday. "A nuclear site under the watch of satellites in the middle of Syria in the desert and in an open location?" Assad added sarcastically.
He repeated Syria's previous contention that the site destroyed by the Israelis was "a Syrian military position under construction and not a nuclear reactor."
The full interview with Assad, to be published Sunday, was conducted Tuesday, just as U.S. intelligence officials announced they would show Congress members evidence supporting their case that Syria was building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance before Israel destroyed it.
Assad did not specifically address the allegations that North Korea was aiding Syria in the published excerpts.
A top U.S. official told The Associated Press that the alleged Syrian reactor was within weeks or months of being functional when Israel destroyed it. The facility was mostly completed but still needed significant testing before it could have been declared operational, said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
However both the U.S. intelligence officials and independent analysts said there was no reprocessing facility at the site — something that would be needed to extract plutonium from spent reactor fuel for use in a bomb. That gives little confidence that the facility was meant for weapons development, they said.
Syria's government has staunchly denied the U.S. allegations. On Friday, it repeated its stance and accused Washington of misleading Congress about the country's nuclear activity.
"This campaign launched by the U.S. administration is aimed primarily at misguiding the U.S. Congress and international public opinion ... in order to justify the Israeli raid on Syria in September last year, which this administration apparently was involved in executing," an unnamed Syrian government official said in a statement carried by the state news agency, SANA.
A similar statement was issued Thursday by the Syrian Embassy in Washington.
Senior U.S. officials said the U.S. military was not involved in the attack, and the U.S. government, although informed in advance, did not approve it.
Israel has maintained almost total silence since the Sept. 6 airstrike.
The U.S. signed an aid-for-disarmament deal with North Korea last year, but some U.S. officials have criticized the agreement as too generous to Pyongyang.
Syria Accuses U.S. of Aiding Israel in Raid
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Syria_US_raid/2008/04/25/90881.html
Syria accused the United States on Friday of involvement in last year's Israeli attack on Syria that Washington said struck a suspected nuclear reactor built with North Korea's help.
A Syrian statement said: "The U.S. administration was apparently party to the execution" of the September raid by Israeli warplanes on eastern Syria. The statement did not give details. A U.S. official said on Thursday that Washington did not give Israel any "green light" to strike the area.
The United States presented on Thursday what it described as intelligence showing that North Korea had helped Syria build a suspected nuclear reactor that was targeted by the Israeli warplanes in September.
The White House said the United States was convinced that North Korea had helped Syria to build a secret nuclear reactor. The comment came after intelligence officials briefed U.S. lawmakers about the raid.
The Syrian statement repeated Damascus's denial of involvement in nuclear activity and dismissed Washington's accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.
"The Syrian government regrets the campaign of lies and falsification by the U.S. administration against Syria, including allegations of nuclear activity," said the statement, which was issued on the state news agency.
"Syria asks the United States to act responsibly and stop creating more crises in the Middle East," the statement added.
Syria, a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, said at the time of the strike that the target was a conventional military facility. It said the international community should hold Israel accountable for a massive nuclear program developed over decades with Western help.
EMBARRASSMENT
The White House statement said Syria did not inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the construction of the reactor and covered up its existence after it was hit.
"This cover-up only served to reinforce our confidence that this reactor was not intended for peaceful activities," the statement said.
Diplomats with contacts in the IAEA have said Syria has not granted IAEA requests to send inspectors to the site, although it has no obligation to do so without hard evidence of nuclear activity there.
The new U.S. allegations will raise pressure on the IAEA to send inspectors and for Syria to accept them, diplomats in the Syrian capital added.
"The Syrian government could be looking at a major embarrassment," one of the diplomats said.
Imad Moustapha, Syria's ambassador to the United States, said on Thursday U.S. accusations were "a fantasy" that would develop into an embarrassment for Washington, similar to allegations about illegal weapons in Iraq that were never found.
The Israeli attack did not prompt retaliation from Damascus, which wants Washington to oversee possible peace negotiations with Israel. Israel remained largely quiet on the target.
Syria said this week that Israel had told a Turkish mediator the Jewish state was ready to meet a main Syrian demand of returning all of the occupied Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace.
Catastrophic Nuke Terrorism 'Inevitable,' Say Experts
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Catastrophic_Nuke_Terror/2008/04/25/90882.html
If a major metropolitan area suffers a nuclear attack, the consequent catastrophe would overwhelm America's ability to respond and kill thousands from the heat, blast, and radiation of the detonating weapon, various experts have said. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) agreed that such an attack would be devastating, but he said deterrence can work by threatening retaliation against the states that produced the weapon.
Clifford May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative group, told Cybercast News Service that "the ramifications" of a nuclear attack on a major metropolitan area in the United States "would be catastrophic. Should an American city be wiped out, the death toll in the next terrorist attack would rise from 3,000 to 100,000."
"America would survive as a nation," he said, "but it would never again be the same."
At a hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee this month, Ashton Carter, co-chairman of the Preventive Defense Project at Harvard University, said that the "scale of this disaster would quickly overwhelm even the most prepared city, and state governments." He also predicted that in the wake of such an attack, Americans would evacuate cities and disperse throughout the country.
Carter added that over the past five years, the possibility of a nuclear attack has "surely" grown. North Korea has become a nuclear power and Iran is attempting to do the same. Pakistan could potentially lose its nuclear technology to terrorists should the state disintegrate, and Russia's Soviet-era nuclear material remains unsecured.
He then predicted that should a Hiroshima-grade bomb of 10 kilotons be detonated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. -- the grassy stretch of public space that extends from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial -- an area within a two-mile radius would be destroyed.
Those immediately under a fallout cloud driven by the prevailing wind would suffer lethal doses of radiation, even should they seek "modest shelter," said Carter. People downwind could possibly survive if they sought shelter, but should they jam the roads in an attempt to evacuate, they would likely be exposed to heavy amounts of fallout.
In his column in National Review Thursday, May cited another expert, Cham D. Dallas, director of the Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia, who said a nuclear attack is "inevitable," and added, "I think it's wistful to think that it won't happen by 20 years [from now]."
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal last June, Sen. Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed that "the most dangerous threat America faces is the possibility that one of the world's most extreme groups -- like al Qaeda -- gets its hands on a nuclear bomb."
However, he said, "[A] would-be nuclear terrorist cannot make the ingredients for a modern-day Hiroshima by himself. Either a state will have to give or sell him a bomb or the nuclear material to make one, or the terrorist will have to steal the material."
Deterrence, said Biden, "will rest on our scientific ability to examine the air and ground debris created by an attack to determine the source of the nuclear material. ... In the aftermath of an attack -- or much better, if terrorists are caught smuggling nuclear material before an attack -- scientists [could] compare the samples they collect against what is known about other countries' nuclear material, to figure out the samples' country of origin."
To that end, Biden suggested creating an international forensics library to store information on the signatures of nuclear weapons and material produced in the world in order to credibly threaten retaliation against the states that produced the material, transmitted it or allowed terrorist agents to procure it.
May told Cybercast News Service that deterrence should be attempted -- it should be very clear to our enemies that we will not hesitate to retaliate -- and in a way that is beyond 'proportionate.' That said, those with the mentality of a 'suicide bomber' can not be deterred by the threat of death and destruction."
May suggested other means, as well, to guard against nuclear terrorism, including "passing FISA [intelligence telecommunications gathering] reform so we can at least attempt to listen in on the plans being made by our sworn enemies. Interrogation techniques for captured terrorists also must be adequate to the task - that need not include or imply torture. Control America's borders. Authorities must know who is visiting this country and what they are doing here. Resolve to defeat the enemy on every battlefield on which he is encountered."
At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/world/europe/24church.html?_r=1&bl&ex=1209268800&en=0f8a35dd4edbbafb&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin
STARY OSKOL, Russia — It was not long after a Methodist church put down roots here that the troubles began.
First came visits from agents of the F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B., who evidently saw a threat in a few dozen searching souls who liked to huddle in cramped apartments to read the Bible and, perhaps, drink a little tea. Local officials then labeled the church a “sect.” Finally, last month, they shut it down.
There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin.
Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia.
This close alliance between the government and the Russian Orthodox Church has become a defining characteristic of Mr. Putin’s tenure, a mutually reinforcing choreography that is usually described here as working “in symphony.”
Mr. Putin makes frequent appearances with the church’s leader, Patriarch Aleksei II, on the Kremlin-controlled national television networks. Last week, Mr. Putin was shown prominently accepting an invitation from Aleksei II to attend services for Russian Orthodox Easter, which is this Sunday.
The relationship is grounded in part in a common nationalistic ideology dedicated to restoring Russia’s might after the disarray that followed the end of the Soviet Union. The church’s hostility toward Protestant groups, many of which are based in the United States or have large followings there, is tinged with the same anti-Western sentiment often voiced by Mr. Putin and other senior officials.
The government’s antipathy also seems to stem in part from the Kremlin’s wariness toward independent organizations that are not allied with the government.
Here in Stary Oskol, 300 miles south of Moscow, the police evicted a Seventh-day Adventist congregation from its meeting hall, forcing it to hold services in a ramshackle home next to a construction site. Evangelical Baptists were barred from renting a theater for a Christian music festival, and were not even allowed to hand out toys at an orphanage. A Lutheran minister said he moved away for a few years because he feared for his life. He has returned, but keeps a low profile.
On local television last month, the city’s chief Russian Orthodox priest, who is a confidant of the region’s most powerful politicians, gave a sermon that was repeated every few hours. His theme: Protestant heretics.
“We deplore those who are led astray — those Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ’s robes like bandits, who are like the soldiers who crucified Christ, who ripped apart Christ’s holy coat,” declared the priest, the Rev. Aleksei D. Zorin.
Such language is familiar to Protestants in Stary Oskol, who number about 2,000 in a city of 225,000.
The Rev. Vladimir Pakhomov, the minister of the Methodist church, recalled a warning from an F.S.B. officer to one of his parishioners: “ ‘Protestantism is facing difficult times — or maybe its end.’ ”
Most Protestant churches are required under the law to register with the government in order to do anything more than conduct prayers in an apartment. Officials rejected Mr. Pakhomov’s registration this year, first saying his paperwork was deficient, then contending that the church was a front for an unspecified business.
Mr. Pakhomov appealed in court, but lost. He said he could now face arrest for so much as chatting with children about attending a Methodist camp.
“They have made us into lepers to scare people away,” Mr. Pakhomov said. “There is this climate that you can feel with your every cell: ‘It’s not ours, it’s American, it’s alien; since it’s alien we cannot expect anything good from it.’ It’s ignorance, all around.”
Yuri I. Romashin, a senior city official, said the denial of the Methodist church’s registration was appropriate, explaining that the government had to guard against suspicious organizations that used religion as a cover.
“Their goal was not a holy and noble one,” he said of Mr. Pakhomov’s church.
Mr. Romashin said the government did not discriminate against Protestants. “We have to create conditions so that we do not infringe upon their right in any way to their religion and their freedom of conscience,” he said.
Yet, like many Russian officials, he referred to Protestant churches with the derogatory term “sects.”
Religious Intolerance
The limits on Russia’s Protestants — roughly 2 million in a total population of 142 million — have by no means reached those that existed under the officially atheistic Soviet Union, which brutally suppressed religion. And churches in some regions say they have not experienced major difficulties.
The Russian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and Mr. Putin has often spoken against discrimination. “In modern Russia, tolerance and tolerance for other beliefs are the foundation for civil peace, and an important factor for social progress,” he said at a meeting of religious leaders in 2006.
Mr. Putin has also denounced anti-Semitism. While many Jews have emigrated over the past two decades, the Jewish population — now a few hundred thousand people — is experiencing something of a rebirth here.
Anti-Semitism has not disappeared. But in some regions it seems to have been supplanted by anti-Protestantism and, to a lesser extent, anti-Catholicism.
Mikhail I. Odintsov, a senior aide in the office of Russia’s human rights commissioner, who was nominated by Mr. Putin, said most of the complaints his office received about religion involved Protestants.
Mr. Odintsov listed the issues: “Registration, reregistration, problems with property illegally taken away, problems with construction of church buildings, problems with renovations, problems with ministers coming from abroad, problems with law enforcement, usually with the police. Problems, problems, problems and more problems.”
“In Russia,” he said, “there isn’t any significant, influential political force, party or any form of organization that upholds and protects the principle of freedom of religion.”
This absence looms especially large at the regional level. At the request of a Russian Orthodox bishop, prosecutors in the western region of Smolensk shut down a Methodist church last month, supposedly for running a tiny Sunday school without an educational license. The church’s defenders noted that many churches and other religious groups in Russia ran religious schools without licenses and had never been prosecuted.
The F.S.B. has been waging a battle across Russia against Jehovah’s Witnesses. In Nizhny Novgorod, in the nation’s center, the local Jehovah’s Witnesses have had to cancel religious events at least a dozen times in the last few months after the F.S.B. threatened owners of meeting halls, the church’s members said.
In February, some officials in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest, proposed creating a commission to combat what it called “totalitarian sects.” The governor of the Tula region, near Moscow, charged that American military intelligence was using Protestant “sects” to infiltrate Russia.
Officials do not say precisely which groups they are referring to, but Protestant ministers say the epithet is so widespread that most Russians assume the speakers mean all Protestants.
The term has clearly seeped into the public’s consciousness.
“As a Russian Orthodox believer, I am against the sects,” said Valeriya Gubareva, a retired teacher, who was asked about Protestants as she was leaving a Russian Orthodox church here. “Our Russian Orthodox religion is inviolable, and it should not be shaken.”
Like other parishioners interviewed, Ms. Gubareva said she supported freedom of religion.
A New Identity
While church attendance in Russia is very low, polls show that Russians are embracing Russian Orthodoxy as part of their identity. In one recent poll, 71 percent of respondents described themselves as Russian Orthodox, up from 59 percent in 2003.
There are a few hundred thousand Roman Catholics in Russia, and the Russian Orthodox Church has had tense relations with the Vatican, accusing Catholic missionaries of trying to convert Russians. The Vatican says it seeks only to reach out to existing Catholics.
The Russian government has often refused visas for foreign Catholic priests, whom the Vatican has sent because there are few Russian ones.
Russia has far more Muslims than Protestants or Catholics — anywhere from 7 million to 20 million, depending on how religious observance is measured. But the Russian Orthodox Church regards Islam as far less likely to lure converts.
There have been considerable numbers of Protestants in Russia since the second half of the 18th century. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Protestant faiths in the West saw Russia as fertile territory and spent heavily to send missionaries to help the existing worshipers and to convert others.
But the Russian Orthodox Church, which was widely persecuted under Communism, was rebuilding and worried about losing adherents.
A backlash ensued. In 1997, under President Boris N. Yeltsin, the first major federal law was enacted restricting Protestant churches and missionaries, requiring many of them to register with the government. But Mr. Yeltsin had a far more ambivalent relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church than does Mr. Putin, and in the chaos of the times the laws were not always enforced.
Under Mr. Putin, who has worn a cross and talked publicly about his faith, the government has added regulations, and laws have often been enforced more stringently or, some Protestants say, capriciously.
For its part, the church, with its links to the czars, has conferred legitimacy on Mr. Putin by championing his rule as he has consolidated power and battered the opposition. In December, after Mr. Putin selected his close aide, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor as president, Aleksei II extolled the decision on national television. Mr. Medvedev, who takes office on May 7, easily won election last month.
Aleksandr Fedichkin, a leader of the Russian Evangelical Alliance, which represents many Protestant churches, said governors, who are appointed by Mr. Putin, regularly deferred to Russian Orthodox bishops.
“Many times, officials say to us, ‘Please, you must ask the Orthodox bishop about your activity, and if he agrees, then you can work here,’ ” Mr. Fedichkin said.
Asked about such complaints, Dmitri S. Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Protestants had made impressive strides in Russia, with the number of officially registered religious organizations in the country having increased nearly fivefold, to more than 23,000, in recent years. Many of those, he said, were Protestant.
“First of all, all religions are treated on an equal basis,” Mr. Peskov said. “But at the same time, we have to keep in mind that the Russian Orthodox Church is the leading church in Russia, it’s the most popular church in Russia.”
He added, “Speaking about violations in terms of Protestants or others, about possible complaints, it’s very hard to draw any trends.”
He recommended seeking the views of Bishop Sergei V. Ryakhovsky, head of the Pentecostal Union, whom Mr. Putin appointed to the Public Chamber, a Kremlin advisory council.
Bishop Ryakhovsky said in an interview that while the Kremlin voiced support for tolerance, the situation at the regional level was troubling. Little if anything was being done, he said, to help Protestant churches that are routinely barred by officials from obtaining space for services. Nor, he said, did the Kremlin seem interested in discouraging Russian Orthodox clergy members from attacking Protestants.
“These questions, like construction and obtaining plots of land, are deeply problematic all over Russia,” he said. “The issue is not some particular regions or provinces. I am like a firefighter, and I have to rush to different areas of the country, to find ways to establish a dialogue with the authorities.”
The Grip of Orthodoxy
Here in southwestern Russia, the Belgorod region, traditionally a stronghold of Russian Orthodoxy, has been at the forefront of the anti-Protestant campaign.
In 2001, during Mr. Putin’s first term, the region enacted a law to drastically restrict Protestant proselytizing. More recently, it mandated that all public school children take what is essentially a Russian Orthodox religion course. A guide for teachers of young children recommends that schools have religious rooms with portraits of Jesus Christ, Russian Orthodox icons and other sacred items.
The regional governor, Yevgeny Savchenko, who calls himself a Russian Orthodox governor, declined to be interviewed for this article.
Archbishop Ioann, the chief Russian Orthodox priest in the Belgorod region, said Russians had a deep connection to Orthodoxy that the government should nurture. “In essence, we have begun to live through a period that is like the second Baptism of Russia, just as there was before the Baptism of ancient Russia,” he said, referring to Russia’s adoption of Christianity in the year 988.
He said the church wanted warm ties with other faiths, though it was hard to overlook the foreign connections of Protestants. “You know, what else alarms me, the majority of them are born — I must apologize, but I will tell the truth — from the West’s money,” he said. “Naturally, they need to play the role of the offended ones who need protection.”
The archbishop denied that the church disparaged Protestants.
“In our sermons, you will never hear us trying to condemn them or say that they do anything wrong,” he said.
In fact, on the day the archbishop was being interviewed, local television was repeatedly showing the sermon of his deputy, Father Zorin, likening Protestants to those who killed Jesus Christ.
The Protestant churches here say they are left alone by the authorities only if they keep their activities behind closed doors. And so it was that on a recent weekend, clusters of Protestants made their way to whatever gathering spots they could find.
The Lutheran pastor, the Rev. Sergei Matyukh, held a service in a small apartment with his Methodist colleague, Mr. Pakhomov, as a show of support. Many at the service said that what most bothered them was that the officials who harassed them once professed loyalty to Communism, and had switched to Russian Orthodoxy.
“The power holders, they are, as a rule, atheists,” said Gennadi Safonov, who works in marketing. “They have adopted a fashion or a trend.”
One of the few Protestant groups with a permanent base is the Evangelical Baptists, who in the relative freedom of the early 1990s were able to obtain a sturdy building that seats several hundred people. They have been allowed to stay, though they say they would not be permitted to find other space.
Protestants here must receive official permission before doing anything remotely like proselytizing. The Rev. Vladimir Kotenyov, a Baptist minister, said his church had given up asking.
“Naturally, it will be perceived as propaganda directed at our population,” Mr. Kotenyov said. “ ‘What kind of propaganda are you preaching?’ they would ask. ‘An American faith?’ ”
“This is how they think: If you are a Russian person, it means that you have to be Russian Orthodox.”
Eritrea forcing Christian ministers into military camps
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/eritrea.forcing.christian.ministers.into.military.camps/18343.htm
The Eritrean Government is reportedly sending some leaders of the Eritrean Orthodox Church to military training camps, a persecution watchdog group reports.
On Thursday, a small number of church priests and deacons were given replacement identity cards, exempting them from military training, but the majority of church leaders did not receive the updated identity cards and are now required to go to military training camps, according to International Christian Concern.
The largest Eritrean Orthodox Church in the country, St Mary, is located in capital city Asmara. St. Mary had 96 ministers, but only 10 of them were issued IDs that exempted them from military training.
Similarly, in rural areas, where most Orthodox churches are located, the maximum number of priests and deacons allowed to serve in any church is 10. The rest are expected to report for military service if they are under the age of 50.
Besides churches, the new campaign also forces many in Orthodox monasteries to be conscripted into the army.
In 2006, the Eritrean Government had informed churches of its decision to rescind a long-standing exemption of clerics from compulsory military service.
The Roman Catholic Church in Eritrea was the only church to express strong public opposition to the unprecedented action.
In contrast, top leaders of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, who were hand-picked by the government, readily agreed to the new policy. As a result, officials are now forcibly recruiting church ministers into military service on a wide scale.
The persecution of the Orthodox Church is a relatively new move by the Eritrean Government. Previously, officials focused crackdown efforts on “unregistered churches”, which are mainly evangelical.
But over the last two years, the government has tightened its grip on the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the oldest and most established religious institution in the country.
His Holiness Patriarch Abune Antonios, the head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, has been under house arrest since January 2006 after he openly criticised the government’s interference in church affairs. The government also responded by replacing him with a hand-picked pontiff.
Almost 45 per cent of the Eritrean population belongs to the Eritrean Orthodox Church.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has for three straight years listed Eritrea under “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPCs) – the label given to the worst religious freedom violators.
It is estimated that some 2,000 Christians are currently detained without trial or charge in Eritrea with some in metal containers and others routinely tortured.
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