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In The News
provided by
Koinonia
House
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Monitor The Strategic Trends
Introduction:
Tolerance is the buzz word
ricocheting around politically
correct circles over the past few
years. What that really means is
that all political, philosophical
and theologically correct viewpoints
must be tolerated, and any other
viewpoints must be mercilessly
squelched. The bottom line of this
whole rhetoric is that the Christian
viewpoint is hateful and must be
silenced.
[READ
THE FULL INTRODUCTION]
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**K-HOUSE
ARTICLES**
The Last Pope? by Steve Elwart
The Lure of the Occult by Chuck
Missler
Global Religion: Spirit Guides:
Coming to a Church Near You? by
Leisa Garcia, Director of Issachar
Studies
Strategic Trends Update: Coming to
America: Tony Blair Faith Foundation
by Leisa Garcia, IDB Folio
Specialist
Strategic Trends Update: The Placebo
Effect of Mystical Experience by
by Leisa Garcia, IDB Folio
Specialist
**ADDITIONAL
DOCUMENTS AND LINKS**
Note: These links are provided
for your further research and
education. Koinonia House does not
necessarily agree with the
information on these sites or
support the specific organizations.
Documents
Who stole Harry Potter's
phoenix? -
Related Sites
Message To Buddhists For The
Feast Of Vesakh 2001 - An
example of efforts to bring
Buddhists and Christians
together.
Earth Charter Completed--Global
Religion Not Far Away -
Bah' Faith - The second most
global religion -
Eagle Forum - Keep up to
date with education in politics
Voice of the Martyrs -
Updates on persecuted Christians
worldwide.
News Sources
Successor of the Apostle Peter - Pope Francis became absorbed in prayer and repeated with a loud voice the three professions of Peter: “Lord, You are the Christ, Son of the Living God”; “Lord, to whom do we go? You have the words of eternal life”; “Lord, You know all things! You know that I love you!” At that moment, we had the distinct impression that the life of Peter rose out of centuries past and became present and living in the current Successor of the Apostle Peter.
Pope Benedict Will Live Last Years At Vatican - Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say. In 2010, for example, Benedict was named as a defendant in a law suit alleging that he failed to take action as a cardinal in 1995 when he was allegedly told about a priest who had abused boys at a U.S. school for the deaf decades earlier. The lawyers withdrew the case last year.
Pastor Imprisoned in Iran Needs Support - The American pastor sentenced to eight years in Iran's Evin Prison after being persecuted for his faith questions whether enough is being done to help free him. Saeed Abedini mentioned his doubt during a visit with relatives on Monday. It was a second time he was allowed to see members of his extended family since he was convicted. Abedini expressed apprehension and concern to his relatives about his fate and openly asked if there were international efforts to secure his freedom, according to advocacy group American Center for Law and Justice. It is believed that Abedini's downtrodden spirit is due to abuse and brain-washing techniques used by officials at Evin Prison. Please pray for his freedom and for God's power and love to work in him and his fellow prisoners during his time at Evin.
The Flight Of Middle East Christians - The Middle East's Christian population has been gradually dwindling and is on the defensive with respect to its identity - and even its very existence. In the early 20th century Christians made up some 20 percent of the Middle East's population. Today they amount to less than 5 percent. The assault on the Christians in their home countries stems mostly from the processes of Islamization, which push them away from the Arab collective.In Lebanon, where Christianity was dominant, the Christians have recently lost their status and are currently trying to find their way amid the rise of Hezbollah. Syria's Christians are probably in the worst situation of all. Assad's regime protected them for many decades as part of the attempt to present itself as secular and pluralist. The civil war has dramatically affected the Christians, who found themselves caught in the test of loyalty to the Assad regime and to the Arab nation and have become a persecuted minority that is seeking asylum in Lebanon and several other countries.
Koreans Give Up On Christmas Lights At Border - A South Korean church group has scrapped plans to display Christmas lights near the border with North Korea after residents voiced fears Pyongyang might shell the illuminations. The Military Evangelical Association of Korea had planned to set up the giant display on three tree-shaped steel towers on hills near the heavily fortified border, as has been done for many years. The proposal required approval from the defense ministry as the hills are within three kilometers of the frontier. According to the ministry, local residents had protested against the plan on the grounds it might provoke a military response from North Korea. As a result, the church group agreed last week to shelve the proposal.
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***Brand New Release ***

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Redesigning the Church for the Age to Come;
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Many
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Living
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shine! I believe there will be one last great revival and it
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Description
Just who
is Jesus Christ? What did Jesus actually accomplish? Jesus
Christ is not “a concept,” an “idea,” or a “useful
traditional value.” He is an actual living person who
came to accomplish a specific purpose that prevails over
everything else: His achievement continues to impact you and
me, and determines our eternal destiny.
He is
the fulfillment of a pervasive promise made before the
foundation of the world and the very standard by which the
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Join Dr.
Chuck Missler from the Executive Briefing Room of The River
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This
briefing pack contains 2 hours of teaching
©
Copyright 2013
Available in the following formats
DVD:
1 Disc
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Files
Color,
Fullscreen 16:9, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, All Region
encoding This DVD will be viewable in other countries WITH
the proper DVD player and television set.)
M4A
With Embedded Slideshow:
2 M4A
Files
2 MP3
Files
PDF
Notes File
Files
play in itunes and any IOS player (iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch)
Audio
will play on most digital audio players and many MP3 players
Includes
embedded slideshow
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Featured
Bible Commentary |
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I
and II Thessalonians - DVD
Chuck Missler
Price: R
399.00
Media Type: DVD

Please note when buying the DVD
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***Brand
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Quick PDF REVIEW
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This briefing pack contains 2 hours of teaching
© Copyright 2013
Available in the following formats
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***IN
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Price R
159.00
This briefing pack contains 2 hours of teaching
© Copyright 2013
Available in the following formats
DVD:
1 Disc
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Region encoding .This DVD will be viewable in other
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Description
What are Christians called to do during these
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This follows the wonderful success of the
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Available in the following formats
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by Chuck Missler |
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23 May 2013, 07:02:00 AM
The U.S. State Department's
International Religious Freedom
Report for 2012 shows
persecution against Christians
and Jews is on the rise,
especially in Muslim countries.
22 May 2013, 08:53:00 PM
The Obama administration is
apparently requiring federal
workers to not only tolerate
homosexuality, but to "publicly
embrace and affirm" it.
22 May 2013, 08:43:59 PM
A man thought to be a serving
British soldier was killed by
two armed men in a frenzied
attack on a London street
Wednesday in what the government
is treating as a suspected act
of terrorism.
22 May 2013, 04:27:09 PM |
News Morning Star
A Muslim political candidate
suspected of murdering a
Christian has instigated calls
from mosque loudspeakers for
attacks on Christians, whom he
blames for his May 11 election
loss.
22 May 2013, 07:48:00 AM
Vermont is now the fourth
state to legalize
physician-assisted suicide after
Gov. Peter Shumlin signed it
into law Monday.
21 May 2013, 09:25:00 PM
An official at the center of
the Obama administration's IRS
scandal is now reported to have
a history of harassment.
21 May 2013, 08:48:00 PM
A federal court in San
Francisco on Tuesday struck down
Arizona's ban on abortions after
20 weeks of pregnancy.
21 May 2013, 08:20:00 PM
Americans' views toward a
number of moral issues have
shifted significantly since
2001. According to a new Gallup
poll, Americans' acceptance of
gay and lesbian relations has
increased the most, up 19
percentage points in the past 12
years to a record high of 59
percent today.
21 May 2013, 07:08:49 PM
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme
Court agreed to hear a case
during its next term about
whether a town that opened its
public meetings with prayer
violated the Constitution.
21 May 2013, 05:45:58 PM
The medical examiner has
revised the death toll in
yesterday's tornado in Moore,
Okla., to 24, down from 51.
21 May 2013, 07:24:00 AM
Ed Buckner, an atheist,
didn’t like the fact that Bibles
were in cabins at Georgia state
parks, so he protested and they
were removed while the state
attorney general looked into the
matter. Not long afterwards,
however, the attorney general
issued a ruling saying the state
was on firm legal ground because
it hadn't paid for the Bibles
and therefore wasn't officially
endorsing religion.
21 May 2013, 07:06:00 AM
Two men accused of helping a
young woman flee Saudi Arabia
after her conversion to
Christianity were sentenced to
prison terms and lashes with a
whip by a Saudi court last week.
21 May 2013, 07:00:00 AM |
Jones Russ
A massive mile-wide tornado
slammed the town of Moore,
Okla., just before 3 p.m.
Monday. The tornado, which
stayed on the ground for 40
minutes, tore through the
southeastern suburb of Oklahoma
City, wiping out neighborhoods,
two schools and businesses.
21 May 2013, 02:57:07 AM |
Purse Samaritan's
Samaritan's Purse is
responding to devastating
tornadoes that hit the Oklahoma
City area Sunday and Monday.
20 May 2013, 10:06:00 PM
The U.S. Department of
Education has announced that
student financial aid forms will
begin using the terms "Parent 1"
and "Parent 2" rather than the
gender-specific terms "mother"
and "father."
20 May 2013, 08:43:08 PM
Vermont is a step away from
becoming the third state to
legalize physician-assisted
suicide.
20 May 2013, 07:19:39 PM |
News Service WORLD
28-year-old John Andrew
Welden tricked his pregnant
26-year-old girlfriend, Remee
Lee, into taking a pill used to
induce labor and cause an
abortion. Lee's baby died after
she unknowingly took the
medication.
20 May 2013, 05:45:02 PM |
Dew-Jones Steve
Iran's treatment of its
Christian minority has come
under fresh scrutiny in recent
months with some damning
verdicts on the country's human
rights record.
20 May 2013, 07:50:00 AM |
Gibson David
News that scientists had for
the first time recovered stem
cells from cloned human embryos
prompted dire warnings from
religious leaders who say the
research crosses a moral red
line and could lead to designer
babies.
20 May 2013, 07:13:00 AM
A judge has dismissed most of
a civil lawsuit against
Sovereign Grace Ministries days
after it was amended to add
names and changes, but the
ruling didn't address the
allegations of sexual abuse
because the plaintiffs didn't
sue in time before the statute
of limitations expired.
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23 May 2013, 07:28:39 AM |
The Huffington Post
Bishop E.W. Jackson, the
controversial
Republican nominee for
lieutenant governor in Virginia,
once reportedly claimed that the
so-called "three-fifths clause"
was actually an anti-slavery
amendment -- an opinion disputed
by several American historians.
Ratified as part of the U.S.
Constitution in 1788, the
clause made
slaves worth three-fifths of a
"free individual" for the
purpose of state representation
in Congress.
Talking Points Memo's
Sahil Kapur points out that
Jackson called the clause "an
anti-slavery amendment" in
April 2011, when Jackson was
running as a GOP candidate for
Virginia’s open Senate seat.
Jackson also said at the time
that the clause's "purpose was
to limit the voting power of
slave-holding states."
Reporting on these
statements back in 2011, Kapur
wrote that Jackson had painted "a
remarkably inaccurate
interpretation of an
important aspect of American
history" and added that
historians had debunked similar
claims in the past.
Richard Beeman, a professor of
history at the University of
Pennsylvania, said in 2011
that, as far as the Founding
Fathers' compromises go, the
"three-fifths compromise, by
which slaves were counted as
three-fifths of a person, is not
something any of us would
applaud them for today."
Similarly, Albany Law
School professor Paul Finkelman
wrote in a recent New York Times
column that the "three-fifths
compromise was one of a number
of proslavery provisions" that
effectively "guaranteed a
continuation of slavery."
Though
Jackson has claimed he has
nothing "to rephrase or to
apologize for," regarding
his past statement, Emory
University President James
Wagner was quick to apologize
after he made a similar
statement about the three-fifths
compromise. Wagner in February
angered many in the academic
community after
praising the compromise as a
good example of the benefits of
political cooperation.
"As the price for
achieving the ultimate aim of
the Constitution -- 'to form a
more perfect union' -- the two
sides compromised on this
immediate issue of how to count
slaves in the new nation,"
Wagner wrote in the winter
edition of Emory Magazine.
"Pragmatic half-victories kept
in view the higher aspiration of
drawing the country more closely
together."
A few days later,
Wagner issued an apology to
"those hurt or confused by my
clumsiness and insensitivity."
Previously, Jackson has
drawn the ire of activists and
liberals for
comparing Planned Parenthood to
the Klu Klux Klan, and for
declaring a "direct connection"
between pedophilia and
homosexuality.
23 May 2013, 05:35:08 AM |
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
Pope Francis rocked some
religious and atheist minds
today when he declared that
everyone was redeemed through
Jesus, including atheists.
During his homily at
Wednesday Mass in Rome, Francis
emphasized the importance of
"doing good" as a principle that
unites all humanity, and a
"culture of encounter" to
support peace.
Using scripture from the
Gospel of Mark, Francis
explained how upset Jesus'
disciples were that someone
outside their group was doing
good, according to a report from
Vatican Radio.
“They complain,” the Pope
said in his homily, because
they say, “If he is not one
of us, he cannot do good. If
he is not of our party, he
cannot do good.” And Jesus
corrects them: “Do not
hinder him, he says, let him
do good.” The disciples,
Pope Francis explains, “were
a little intolerant,” closed
off by the idea of
possessing the truth,
convinced that “those who do
not have the truth, cannot
do good.” “This was wrong .
. . Jesus broadens the
horizon.” Pope Francis said,
“The root of this
possibility of doing good –
that we all have – is in
creation”
Pope Francis went further
in his sermon to say:
"The Lord created us in
His image and likeness, and
we are the image of the
Lord, and He does good and
all of us have this
commandment at heart: do
good and do not do evil. All
of us. ‘But, Father, this is
not Catholic! He cannot do
good.’ Yes, he can... "The
Lord has redeemed all of us,
all of us, with the Blood of
Christ: all of us, not just
Catholics. Everyone!
‘Father, the atheists?’ Even
the atheists. Everyone!"..
We must meet one another
doing good. ‘But I don’t
believe, Father, I am an
atheist!’ But do good: we
will meet one another
there.”
Responding to the leader
of the Roman Catholic church's
homily,
Father James Martin, S.J.
wrote in an email to The
Huffington Post:
"Pope Francis is saying,
more clearly than ever
before, that Christ offered
himself as a sacrifice for
everyone. That's always been
a Christian belief. You can
find St. Paul saying in the
First Letter to Timothy that
Jesus gave himself as a
"ransom for all." But rarely
do you hear it said by
Catholics so forcefully, and
with such evident joy. And
in this era of religious
controversies, it's a timely
reminder that God cannot be
confined to our narrow
categories."
Of course,
not all Christians believe
that those who don't believe
will be redeemed, and the Pope's
words may spark memories of the
deep divisions from the
Protestant reformation over the
belief in redemption through
grace versus redemption through
works.
The pope's comment has
also struck a chord on
Reddit, where it is the
second most-shared piece.
More from Reuters:
Atheists should be seen
as good people if they do
good, Pope Francis said on
Wednesday in his latest
urging that people of all
religions - or no religion -
work together.
The leader of the world's
1.2 billion Roman Catholics
made his comments in the
homily of his morning Mass
in his residence, a daily
event where he speaks
without prepared comments.
He told the story of a
Catholic who asked a priest
if even atheists had been
redeemed by Jesus.
"Even them, everyone," the
pope answered, according to
Vatican Radio. "We all have
the duty to do good," he
said.
"Just do good and we'll find
a meeting point," the pope
said in a hypothetical
conversation in which
someone told a priest: "But
I don't believe. I'm an
atheist."
Francis's reaching out to
atheists and people who
belong to no religion is a
marked contrast to the
attitude of former Pope
Benedict, who sometimes left
non-Catholics feeling that
he saw them as second-class
believers.
23 May 2013, 05:20:57 AM |
Jahnabi Barooah
By Fredrick Nzwili
Religion News Service
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) An
American missionary priest who
is entangled in a dispute with
the country’s top Catholic
cleric and a group of nuns in
Kenya over the ownership of two
mission hospitals has been
suspended from the priesthood by
his order.
The New York-based
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers
suspended the Rev. Dr. William
Charles Fryda after he refused
to drop a case he filed three
years ago against Cardinal John
Njue and Sister Marie Therese
Gachambi, the mother superior of
Assumption Sisters of Nairobi.
Fryda alleges that the
cardinal and the nuns were
attempting to seize control of
St. Mary’s Mission Hospital,
which has branches in Nairobi
and Kenya’s third-largest city,
Nakuru.
Fryda left his home in the
U.S. to work and live in
Tanzania and Kenya in 1980.
Having trained as a doctor, the
missionary wanted to help poor
Kenyans access medical services.
Many could not afford services
in private and government-run
hospitals.
Within 15 years, he has
built two hospitals, one in
Nairobi and the other in Nakuru,
about 150 kilometers north of
Nairobi.
Because he was a
foreigner, Fryda enlisted the
help of the nuns to register the
land on which the hospitals were
built. The agreement with the
nuns was that the hospital would
later be transferred to a new
company, known as St. Mary’s
Mission Hospital Limited. The
attempt to put the institutions
under the new company sparked
the dispute.
By then, the priest was
attempting to build a similar
hospital under the same name in
central Kenya, when the nuns
branded him a trespasser and
asked him to move off their
land.
The Maryknoll order asked
Fryda to drop his suit, and many
missionaries say the suit paints
them and the Kenyan Catholic
Church in a bad light, according
to one Maryknoll priest who did
not want to be named.
Last year Njue asked the
court to refer the suit for
arbitration within the Catholic
Church. His lawyers argued the
case could be resolved through
the church’s internal canon law,
but Fryda’s lawyers argued the
case should remain in civil
courts.
He later filed a
constitutional petition seeking
to stop the cardinal and the
Maryknoll Society and its
regional superior, the Rev.
Lance Nadeau, from interfering
with his rights.
Nadeau then circulated a
May 1 letter that said, “With
exception of the sacrament of
penance in danger of death,
Father Fryda is suspended from
exercising any public priestly
ministry or governance in the
church.”
Fryda’s lawyers said the
priest declined to comment on
the case.
23 May 2013, 12:57:48 AM |
Ron Kronish
I was blessed with the
opportunity to be present at the
circumcision (brit milah)
and naming ceremony of my first
grandson last week in New York.
I was at the ceremony with my
wife, daughter and son-in-law
(parents of the baby boy), and
with many other family members
(including family members in
Jerusalem who were watching the
ceremony on "face time" on their
computer) and also many friends.
For this wonderful milestone in
the life of our family, I was
particularly honored to be
invited by my daughter to be the
"M.C." for the ceremony as well
as to actually name the baby,
which means that I read the
traditional blessing during
which the baby officially was
named, thereby announcing his
name to the world.
In the past, I had been
involved with planning and
implementing five Simchot
Bat (a celebration of the
birth of a girl) for my three
daughters, and three
granddaughters (one set of
twins, so we only had one
combined ceremony for them). So
this was something new: a baby
boy! Wow! "What will we do for
this guy?" I thought to myself.
Naturally, my daughter the
rabbi came up with a good idea.
We weren't going to simply let
the circumcision ceremony for a
boy be cut and dry (pardon the
pun). We needed to be creative,
as we have always been. So I was
commissioned to come up with
some ideas.
My first call was to my
friend and colleague, Rabbi Levi
Weiman-Kelman, spiritual leader
of Congregation Kol Haneshama in
Jerusalem, who told me "I have
just the book for you!" One of
his former congregants, who is a
now a rabbi herself in London,
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, and
a good friend of mine too,
edited a book of naming
ceremonies. The book, which is
called Neshama Hadasha
("A New Life"), came out about
15 years ago, and has since
become a precious resource for
people who want to make a
circumcision or naming ceremony
more meaningful in contemporary
Jewish life.
While this book was of
much help to me since it gave me
many good ideas, the best part
of the ceremony took place when
my daughter and her husband,
explained to us, in their own
special way, why they chose the
name Ro'ei Yehuda, for their
son. Listening to them talk was
a highly spiritual and
meaningful moment for all of
those who were lucky to be part
of this wonderful occasion.
My son-in-law, Joshua,
explained why he and my daughter
decided to name the boy in
memory of his mother, who passed
away suddenly 10 years ago:
Ro'ei -- Naming you in my
mother's memory and honor is
our testament to her that
indeed we must navigate the
pain toward the future --
Grandma's legacy is a part
of who you are and hopefully
will be.
In the Ashkenazi Jewish
tradition, it is customary to
name a child after a deceased
relative. So this was very much
in keeping with Jewish custom.
(In some Sephardic Jewish
traditions, however, one names
the child after a living
relative.)
My daughter Dahlia also
had some inspirational words to
say. She spoke about the name of
the baby, based on the biblical
verses from the end of the book
of Genesis (48:15): The God whom
my Fathers -- Abraham and Isaac
-- walked before. The God who
has been Ro'ei, my
shepherd, from my birth until
this very day.
She also talked about the
nature of faith in personal and
poignant ways:
Today in addition to
being welcomed into the
Jewish community, you are
joining our family and in
doing so, you are joining
the Kronish clan.
I am very fortunate to
be a member of that clan,
for without it, I would not
have had the faith in God
needed to shepherd me to get
here today to meet you --
Ro'ei Yehuda.
My grandfather Rabbi
Leon Kronish taught me about
faith through the power of
song. Even when he could not
speak, Grandpa could
communicate his faith, his
love of people, humanity and
God through song.
Grandma Lil taught me
about faith through her
ability to face each day
even as she suffered one
loss after another. Grandma
Lil believed in the words
that her husband preached --
Forward Forward to the
future -- always look ahead.
My father -- your
grandpa -- will teach you as
he has taught me that faith
means seeing the world
through the eyes of an
optimist. He will teach you
about the true definition of
what it means to embody
Hope.
And finally your
grandma who, similar to your
father, lost her mother at a
very young age -- will teach
you that faith is about how
you put each foot in front
of the other and always
march forward.
My daughter captured the moment
with these inspirational words,
as she always does at family
celebrations. She has a unique
ability to give deep meaning to
family occasions which might
otherwise be routine.
In the book of naming
ceremonies, I found a reading in
the form of a blessing for the
new boy, which contained in it
special messages for him and his
life, that are inherent to the
Jewish Tradition, but often
neglected in baby-naming
ceremonies. This reading, which
calls to mind great teachers in
our Jewish Tradition, was
dedicated to my daughter, who is
a wonderful Jewish teacher of
the great values of our
Tradition through teaching the
classical Jewish texts of the
Bible and the Talmud in her own
creative way.
Members of our extended
family joined me in blessing the
little boy with these thoughts:
May He who blessed Moses,
Aaron and Miriam, and gave
them leadership and
responsibility, the
pursuance of peace and
humility, give Ro'ei Yehuda
a pleasant nature and the
ability for self-sacrifice.
May She who blessed our
prophets with a pursuit of
justice, a powerful vision,
give Ro'ei Yehuda spirit and
adherence to principles, the
pursuit of peace and the
searching out of justice.
May He who blessed Rabbi
Akiva and Bruria with
curiosity and passion for
study, may He bless Ro'ei
Yehuda with a love of books
and with wisdom.
May He who blessed the
People of Israel with
keeping traditions and the
hope of better days, give
Ro'ei Yehuda optimism and a
lightness of laughter.
Naming a child in any religious
tradition is a momentous
occasion. In recent decades, in
the Jewish tradition, one can
combine traditional Jewish
ceremonies and contemporary
Jewish customs in a personal,
familial and communal way which
perpetuate the values and ideals
which we cherish.
I was privileged to be
part of this meaningful
milestone in the Jewish life
cycle of a new member of my
family. It was such a momentous
occasion in my spiritual life
that I wanted to share it with
readers all over the world. May
you too enjoy such poignant
memories in your own personal,
family and communal lives.
23 May 2013, 12:34:25 AM |
Brian C. Stiller
Lying south of China and its
assorted neighbors of Thailand,
Vietnam and Burma, Malaysia is
strung out on a peninsula lying
where the China and Andaman Seas
connect. It is spectacular in
scenery, rich in soil and
fertility and complex in
religion and politics.
Here philanthropists and
business men and women met this
spring, a group called Market
Place Initiative, believing
their gifts of entrepreneurship
matter to Christian witness and
kingdom deployment.
Linked to a global group
of pastors from "mega" churches,
it is an idea created and led by
Elias Dantas, a Brazilian and
Fuller grad, and Pastor Sameh
Maurice -- made famous when he
opened his church as a field
hospital to those injured in the
Arab Spring at Tahir Square,
Cairo, Egypt. They bring
together pastors to energize
their vision for kingdom
influence in their world and
beyond. Going beyond pastors, it
extends to those in business who
believe their calling is as
kingdom-driven as is that of
pastors.
Key to the working of this
group is a South African, Graham
Power, a civil engineer and
building construction magnate.
An unlikely candidate to lead a
prayer movement. After coming to
faith in the late 1990s, in 2001
he launched the Global Day of
Prayer at the Newlands Stadium
in Cape Town with 45,000 in
attendance. In just a decade,
this prayer movement encircles
the globe, linking prayer
groups, encouraging Christians
to live within the power of
prayer.
A year ago, I was invited
along with my colleague Geoff
Tunnicliffe (Sec. Gen. for the
World Evangelical Alliance) to
sit alongside this group, as
spiritual advisers. In the end,
we were the ones advised.
Inherent in the vision of these
business leaders is a biblical
understanding that each is
called, anointed and equipped by
the Spirit to advance kingdom
life.
More than 500 years ago,
Martin Luther unleashed a
reformation of faith, breaking
the bondage of human
administered-faith with
heart-believing faith. The
priesthood of every believer
became foundational in this new
paradigm of understanding.
Graham Power and his
colleagues have figured that out
and are pressing forward,
calling men and women from all
sorts of professions and
businesses, from inventors to
financiers, from developers to
judges. Learning from each
other, pooling ideas, and
praying in faith, they look for
ways in which their skills,
knowledge, connections and pools
of capital can lift people from
poverty, re-craft the
environment in renewal and bring
into the church a vital and rich
understanding of the importance
of Christ-centered professional
and business leadership.
I've too often seen people
in business seen as worthy
contributors to spiritual
enterprises but not as examples
of spiritual virtue, for after
all, isn't business done on the
fine edge of ethical choices?
Graham and his colleagues
disagree. There should be no
more inclination for those in
business to veer from the path
of the ethical than one in any
other sort of vocation.
However, to drive home the
point, Graham upped the ante,
not letting business leaders or
pastors slip under the door of
ethical behavior.
To move the idea into gear
he assembled an idea under the
Unashamedly Ethical campaign,
which challenges people to fight
systematic corruption and
pressing governments, businesses
and individuals to work at
eradicating systemic poverty.
Power notes that to come
anywhere close to our promise of
reducing poverty by half by
2015, it will cost $210 billion
per year. He estimates that the
poor lose over $1 trillion
through deliberate or direct
dishonesty.
For Graham Power, while
living ethically is both
biblical and Christ-honoring, it
also is practical. It functions
to break the binding nature of
poverty so people can rise in
the quality of life, lifted to
see their being in God's image
and set loose to renew their
lives, families and societies.
The commitment form of the
Unashamedly Ethical campaign is
tough, calling on leaders of
organizations, corporations,
churches and businesses to sign
on their behalf. Note what it
includes:
To be entirely truthful
in all I say; to be faithful
in my family relationships;
to do nothing out of selfish
ambition or deceit, but to
look out for the interests
of others; to refuse to
elicit, accept or pay any
bribes and to report those
who do; to be a diligent
leader without being harsh,
and to pay my staff what is
just and fair; to be a
peacemaker; to do my work
wholeheartedly; to submit
myself to just and ethical
governing authorities; to
remember the poor by
investing generously and
sacrificially in the broader
community; to collaborate
with my peers to impact our
community and nation.
No easy exit allowed.
Listening to business
professionals and entrepreneurs
tell stories of failure and
success, describing plans to see
their communities and nations
changed, I saw an emerging
strategy to use the gift of
leadership and wealth to lift
the poor and unleash the church
in its kingdom witness.
An understanding of the
priesthood of every believer is
alive and well.
Graham Power demonstrates
that.
23 May 2013, 12:15:03 AM |
Rabbi Aaron Alexander
I recently had the honor and
privilege of ordaining, along
with my colleagues, a new cohort
of rabbis from the Ziegler
School of Rabbinic Studies at
American Jewish University. I'd
like to share the invocation I
delivered, a cherished
opportunity to invite God into
our sacred moment.
"Me, I will always
side with hope -- and never
cease to adorn you with praise.
My mouth strives to speak of
your justness, of the constant
potential you provide for
redemption, though surely my
words will always be
incomplete." (Psalm
71:14-15)
Adonai Ro-iy,
God, who sees what we so often
cannot:
We thank you for bringing
us to this very moment. One
eternally imagined but never
previously before experienced --
just like this.
We thank you for our
God-given capacity to dream of
sacred gatherings -- such as
this one -- and we thank you for
the dedicated people who toil to
ensure they happen.
We praise you, God, for
providing a world in which the
only true hierarchy
begins with you and immediately
ends, equally, with each one of
us. In here, out there,
everywhere.
We praise you, God, for
entering this world as pure
dynamism, a lofty example of our
own potential to endlessly
demonstrate that uniqueness is
Godliness, that diversity is
both sanctified and sanctifying.
We praise you for giving
each of us the inner strength to
know that the only authentic
measure of "likes" in this world
is that which we can feel in you
and your great name. Almost
anything else is fleeting, a
distraction, a mere illusion.
Thank you, God, for
blessing us with teachers for
teachers, clergy for clergy and
healers for healers. We have
come to know that your Torah,
our gift, permeates only in so
much as its infinite depth is
refracted through those who live
it, embody it, and carefully
deliver it as a soulful script.
We thank you, God, for the
courageous hearts of people,
such as these to be ordained
tonight, who love you deeply and
are motivated by that love to
live lives of service. On your
behalf and on our behalf.
We ask of you, God, to
help us help you in supporting
them -- each with precisely what
they need -- as they take leave
from the warm, rigorous,
embracing and complicated
shelter of the Ziegler School --
to teach, to preach, and to
spread Torah in a world that so
desperately depends on ancient
wisdom coupled with modern,
textured, truth. Please bless
their hands with conviction,
compassion, courage and
reasonably thick skin.
We also ask you to also to
bless this holy community to
always remember that our role as
Jews in this world is to elevate
you and your Torah by providing
religious meaning to chaos, by
seeing, like you, precisely what
goes unnoticed, by uplifting
those who are fallen, and by
gathering closely those who are
marginalized -- whether it be by
others or whether they sideline
themselves -- for we know not
what is in their hearts unless
we stand in their presence, they
in ours.
May God grant strength to
all God's people; May God bless
humanity with peace (Psalm 29).
Amen.
22 May 2013, 11:59:33 PM | AP
PHOENIX -- An atheist
lawmaker's decision to give the
daily prayer at the Arizona
House of Representatives
triggered a do-over from a
Christian lawmaker who said the
previous day's prayer didn't
pass muster.Republican
Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday
said the prayer offered by
Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of
Tempe at the beginning of the
previous day's floor session
wasn't a prayer at all. So he
asked other members to join him
in a second daily prayer in
"repentance," and about half the
60-member body did so. Both the
Arizona House and Senate begin
their sessions with a prayer and
a recitation of the Pledge of
Allegiance.
"When there's a time set
aside to pray and to pledge, if
you are a non-believer, don't
ask for time to pray," said
Smith, of Maricopa. "If you
don't love this nation and want
to pledge to it, don't say I
want to lead this body in the
pledge, and stand up there and
say, `you know what, instead of
pledging, I love England' and
(sit) down.
"That's not a pledge, and
that wasn't a prayer, it's that
simple," Smith said.
Mendez said he was just
looking for a way to convey his
own feelings like other members
do when they take the rotation
giving the daily prayer.
"I wanted to find a way to
where I could convey some
message and take advantage of
the opportunity that people have
when they offer these prayers,"
he said. "If my lack of religion
doesn't give me the same
opportunity to engage in this
platform then I feel kind of
disenfranchised. So I did want
to stand up and offer some kind
of thing that represented my
view on what's going on."
Wednesday's dust-up over
religion comes just days after
the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to
decide whether an upstate New
York town is violating
constitutional prohibitions on
government sanction of religion
by offering prayers to open
public meetings. The justices
will review an appeals court
ruling that held that the
upstate New York town of Greece,
a Rochester suburb, violated the
Constitution by opening nearly
every meeting over an 11-year
span with prayers that stressed
Christianity.
Arizona House Speaker Andy
Tobin and Senate President Andy
Biggs filed a legal brief
agreeing with the town's
position.
On Wednesday, Tobin said
he had no problem with Mendez's
prayer.
"From my perspective I
didn't see an issue with Mr.
Mendez yesterday," said Tobin,
R-Paulden. "I can appreciate
what Mr. Smith was saying, but I
think all members are
responsible for their own
prayerful lives and I think the
demonstration that we take
moments for prayer we all do
collectively and in our own
hearts."
Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai,
who represents a northern
Arizona district on the Navajo
reservation, did take offense.
She said Smith's criticism of
another member's faith, or lack
of it, was wrong.
"I want to remind the
House and my colleagues and
everybody here that several of
us here are not Christianized.
I'm a traditional Navajo, so I
stand here every day and
participate in prayers," even
without personally embracing
them, said Peshlakai, D-Cameron.
"This is the United States, this
is America, and we all represent
different people ... and you
need to respect that. Your God
is no more powerful than my God.
We all come from the same
creator."
Mendez gave the invocation
Tuesday while members of the
Secular Coalition for Arizona
were in the visitors' gallery.
He began his remarks by asking
fellow lawmakers not to bow
their heads but to instead look
around at the other men and
women in the room, "sharing
together this extraordinary
experience of being alive and of
dedicating ourselves to working
toward improving the lives of
the people of our state."
___
Follow Bob Christie on
Twitter at
http://twitter.com/APChristie
22 May 2013, 11:16:11 PM |
Andrew Lawton
When officers from York
Regional Police's Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion Bureau paid
a visit to the Chabad @ Flamingo
Synagogue in Thornhill, Ontario
to discourage the synagogue's
rabbi from hosting an event with
Jewish author and activist
Pamela Geller, all they had to
do was threaten his job before
he pulled the plug on the event.
After learning that his
position as a volunteer chaplain
for York Regional Police would
be "reassessed" if the Geller
event went forward, Kaplan
rescinded his offer for the
Jewish Defense League to use the
Chabad @ Flamingo for the May 13
event.
It has been moved to the
pro-Israel Toronto Zionist
Centre.
As egregious as it is that
a police force, in the name of
"diversity, equity and
inclusion," would threaten a
respected rabbi with a long
history of community service,
it's even more offensive to be
that Rabbi Kaplan gave in.
York Regional Police's
initial involvement in this
event is not because a crime
took place, nor because there
was any reason to suspect one
would. Rather, it was the result
of a complaint by one member of
the region's Muslim community.
By York Region standards,
one person's complaint is cause
enough for the police to say
that Geller "runs contrary to
the values of York Regional
Police and the work we do in
engaging our communities,"
according to comments made by
diversity officer Ricky
Veerappan.
A statement released by
York Regional Police on Thursday
revealed that Kaplan "was
provided with additional
information regarding the
proposed guest speaker by
Inspector Ricky Veerappan,"
before cancelling the event.
There is no way Kaplan
could have accepted the initial
invitation for Geller to appear
without a solid grasp on what
sort of controversy was likely
to take form.
A speech by Ann Coulter at
the University of Ottawa in 2010
was cancelled when student
protests threatened Coulter's
safety.
Later that year, Mark
Steyn was denied a room at the
London Convention Centre in
London, Ontario when the
facility's managers claimed
pressure from local Islamic
groups.
For Kaplan, however, one
Muslim's spastic call to the
police and the potential loss of
a non-paying job was reason
enough to silently tiptoe away
from the fallout of embracing
free speech.
In doing so, not only did
Kaplan give the police license
to bully and strong-arm future
community leaders over similar
circumstances, but he did it to
preserve a relationship with the
officers that knocked on his
door to threaten him in the
first place.
I'm so proud to live in a
country with such a commitment
to diversity, equity and
inclusion.
22 May 2013, 11:05:00 PM |
The Huffington Post
A lesbian reverend in South
Africa is filing a lawsuit after
being dismissed by her church
after
tying the knot with her partner.
As ioL News points out,
Reverend Ecclesia de Lange's
2010 dismissal from the
Methodist Church of South Africa
came after she wed her wife
earlier that same year. The
church was in cahoots about
taking a stance on same-sex
marriage when de Lange
informed her congregation
that she was planning to wed her
partner in 2009, according to
Buzzfeed.
The Methodist church has
been debating about the issue
for 13 years now and still has
yet to make a decision.
Lawyers representing the
church said that the 43-year-old
minister disobeyed a church
rule, stating that "no positive
steps toward same-sex unions ...
be taken pending further
determination."
The church believed that
de Lange's marriage to her
partner was an attempt to impose
her views on marriage equality,
on the entire church community.
The reverend, who is now
divorced, feels that she was
unfairly fired from her ministry
because she is a lesbian. She
took her case to court, after
enduring arbitration from the
church. On May 21, the High
Court of Western Cape accepted
her claim, under the pretense
that the Methodist Church of
South Africa violated South
African non-discrimination laws
that include sexual orientation.
de Lange recently voiced
her frustration with the case
via her
Facebook page.
"The last two days have
been physically and emotionally
draining," she wrote. "Listening
to the arguments of both
counsels were the culmination of
three and a half years of
anxiety, fear, hard ache and
tears. It also highlighted the
amazing love and grace that I
have experienced from all my
supporters, family and friends."
In 2006,
same-sex marriage became legal
in South Africa, making it the
first African country to do so.
Watch a video above of de
Lange discussing her case.
22 May 2013, 10:12:05 PM |
Peter Rollins
I remember being in a
nightclub with a good friend of
mine in Belfast. It was late and
the place was filled with music,
laughter and dance. But in the
midst of the entertainment I
could see something else going
on behind the manifest aesthetic
pleasure. Despite all the
seeming affirmation of life one
could glimpse a nervous grasping
of a drink, a momentary loss of
confidence, a faked glance at a
mobile phone or a faltering kiss
unsure of the pleasure it is
supposed to be giving and
receiving.The whole
mise-en-scene reminded
me of something that Johannes de
Silentio (one of Kierkegaard's
pseudonyms) wrote in the 19th
century. He commented that "most
people live dejectedly in
worldly sorrow and
joy."
He wrote that some do not
dance at all but "sit along the
wall" while others partake in
the revelry. But neither is
necessarily free from anxiety,
frustration and fear.
Concerning the people who
do dance widely Johannes de
Silentio noted, "One need not
look at them when they are up in
the air, but only the instant
they touch or have touched the
ground -- then one recognizes
them." For when their feet touch
the ground a careful observer
can witness their momentary
stagger and half-concealed
grimace.
While standing in the
nightclub that night I imagined
what might happen if the music
suddenly stopped, the lights
went up and the DJ asked us to
put down our drinks so that we
might be able to really look at
each other for an awkward
moment.
In many ways it is this
event of "turning on the lights"
that I argue is one of the roles
of the new collective that
arises out of the
practice of pyrotheology.
The new collective is to
be a desert in the Oasis of our
lives, a searingly hot and
blindingly light space where we
can't pretend (to ourselves or
anyone else) that everything is,
or will be, fine. Where we
encounter each other in our
beautiful, wondrous, terrifying,
human frailty. Not so that we
are crushed by the sight, but so
that we learn to say "yes" to
this vision and to each other in
the midst of it.
For it is in saying "amen"
to the highs and lows of life
that we are able to live fully
in both worldly sorrow and joy,
touching what Johannes de
Silentio called "the sublime in
the pedestrian."
For more videos
subscribe to my
YouTube and
Vimeo channels.
22 May 2013, 10:09:05 PM |
Common Ground News Service
by Kiran Ansari
Chicago - When 30,000 people
participated in Project Bread's
walk to eradicate hunger in
Boston on 5 May, there was a
group among them that was
energised but cautious. Just
three weeks after the tragedy at
the Boston Marathon, members of
Muslims Against Hunger were
receiving calls from worried
family members urging them not
to participate due to fear of
backlash.
Project Bread runs
community-based meal programs
and school nutrition initiatives
that assist the hungry in
Massachusetts. At their 45th
Walk for Hunger this year, the
organisation raised around $3
million. It was perfectly in
sync with the objectives of
Muslims Against Hunger, a
grassroots organisation with
volunteers in 20 cities that
aims to mobilise the community
to tackle hunger, poverty and
homelessness. Approximately 150
Muslim participants raised over
$5,000 for Project Bread.
A young mother of three
children, Shazia Tariq from
Westborough, Massachusetts was
one of the Muslims walking for
the cause. She had learned about
Muslims Against Hunger through
the soup kitchens that they
regularly organise. An avid
athlete, she had registered for
the Project Bread Walk in March
and had been training for the
gruelling 20 mile trek. But
after the horrific attacks on 15
April, her family, like that of
many others, was worried that
because she wears a headscarf
she would be easily identifiable
as a Muslim and cautioned she
should sit this one out.
"The cause is very close
to my heart," Tariq said. "First
as Muslims we believe that
feeding our neighbours and
feeding the hungry is a crucial
part of our faith. Second, as a
mother I am always telling my
children how blessed they are to
have a pantry full of food and
this was my chance to put my
words into action." She found
the resolve to participate and
received her family's blessing
despite their initial anxieties.
After the Boston tragedy,
a representative from the
Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) came to speak
to the Muslim community at the
Worcester Islamic Center, where
Tariq volunteers regularly.
After the presentation on civil
rights and tips on how to
prevent and report backlash, she
approached the CAIR
Representative, Todd Gallinger,
and asked him for his opinion.
He reinforced her decision to
carry on, calling it the perfect
opportunity to dispel
stereotypes about Muslim
Americans.
"I had already made up my
mind," Tariq said. "But when Mr.
Gallinger said that this is the
perfect time to engage in
interfaith activities and
showcase all the positive
contributions of Muslim
Americans, it just solidified my
intention. I would not be at
peace by not going, especially
since I was not afraid, it was
just my loved ones that were
worried for me."
As she walked and ran the
20 miles with friends from the
mosque, Tariq was cautious not
to attract attention in any way.
When she saw an exhausted
eight-year old girl sitting on
the sidelines, she felt like
helping her over the finish
line. But her gut instinct said
that this was not the right time
or place to be over-friendly as
a stranger to the child. Instead
Tariq brought the little girl
oranges and shared a few words
of encouragement. She was
pleased to see the girl complete
the walk a few feet ahead of
her.
Tariq had originally
wanted to participate in the
Boston Marathon but was dealing
with asthma during training
season. She had planned to at
least go and watch the marathon
but was sick in bed on that sad
day. As an athlete and a
Bostonian, she felt she would be
getting the best of both worlds
by making the iconic Boston
Marathon her first ever full
marathon.
The Project Bread walk
experience has motivated her to
train for the Boston Marathon
next year. She believes that
when it comes to her personal
goals, or encouraging her
children in sports or academics,
its important to push them, and
herself, to achieve more. She
feels there is a need to
cultivate this enthusiasm in
community service as well. When
her kids were little, she felt
they were keeping her back from
volunteering in the community.
But now she feels she has to do
it for the kids because it can
have a much bigger impact on
their lives when they see her
working for a cause rather than
just lecturing them about it.
"When a couple in their
70's can walk hand in hand and
an eight-year old can cross the
finish line, so can I," Tariq
said. "As Muslims, more of us
need to get out of our bubble
and directly help the needy, and
I plan to continue going the
extra mile for it."
Kiran Ansari is a
writer for publications
including the Chicago Tribune,
Daily Herald, Halal Consumer and
Azizah Magazine. She lives with
her husband and two children in
the suburbs of Chicago. This
article was written for the
Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
Source:
Common Ground News Service (CGNews),
21 May 2013. Copyright
permission is granted for
publication.
22 May 2013, 10:02:50 PM | T.
Sher Singh
Awash in the glare of the
sun, we cross the
Nevada-California border and
head toward the Funeral
Mountains. Once through this
mini-range we enter what is
correspondingly named the Death
Valley.We first do the
two-hour drive through the
valley, from one end to the
other, in a single stretch.
The mountains rise
menacingly around us, crumpled
into uncomfortable shapes by the
vagaries of time. Their
multi-coloured frowns scan the
barren valley, streaked by salt
flats, sand dunes and countless
boulders which, it is obvious,
have been blown around at some
point in the remote past with
the very ease in which today's
wind transfers dust from one
basin to another.
We stand on the lip of a
crater half a mile wide and 500
feet deep and try to imagine the
day, now enshrined only in the
memory of the land itself, when
a smouldering cauldron exploded
at this very point, scattering
its contents with nuclear
fervour for miles around.
It's late in the day. The
world around us changes colour
and shape even as we move
through it, still in a hurry, as
if there is a destination and a
deadline.
I see something move on
the tarmac a bit ahead. I slow
down.
It's a coyote, young and
curious. And daring. It stands
in the middle of of the road,
right in my path. Like a Sardar
on the Grand-Trunk Road,
twirling his moustache, scanning
the horizon for signs of the
next bus. Staring at me. I stop
the vehicle. He looks at us
questioningly. Unmoving.
We are at an impasse, it
appears. He decides to look us
over some more. He circles the
machine, stares up at us again,
as if incredulous at what he
sees. He proceeds to
circumambulate us relentlessly
-- to our delight.
We have some birthday cake
with us, the only thing we feel
he may not find toxic. We throw
a few pieces out of the window.
He stops. Looks at us warily.
Eats the offering. And resumes
his inspection.
We reluctantly drive away.
He jogs with us for a short
distance, and then disappears
into the landscape.
We head for yet another
forebodingly named spot on the
map: Dante's View.
We follow a serpentine
route up the mountains. It takes
a dozen miles and considerable
groaning on the part of the
engine along the incline and
hairpins, before we arrive at
the top, about 5,500 feet higher
than we started in the valley
below.
Directly across -- close
enough, it appears, for one to
reach out and touch it -- and
towering another 6,000 feet
above us, is Telescope Peak. The
sun is perched on it, ready to
roll down the other side, out of
sight. It is almost six o'clock.
Spread out between us on
Dante and the sun atop the
Telescope, lies Death Valley.
It sprawls over several
miles. To the right, you can see
it all the way to the horizon.
Much of the full length of the
drive we did earlier in the day
is visible because the air is
crystal clear.
I make my way down a
pathway over a promontory
jutting over the valley. It
rises and falls like a roller
coaster until I find myself at
the edge.
The Edge. Black jagged
teeth of rocks make it easy to
clamber over them. I find a nook
with a flat surface and sit down
to catch my breath.
I close my eyes to relax
and savour the cool breeze, a
welcome respite from the 85
degree Farenheit we've had in
the valley all day. I lean back
on the rock behind me. I snuggle
by spreading out my elbows and
feel the hard cool on both
sides.
I open my eyes some time
later. I gradually focus them.
The sun has disappeared. The
brightness is also gone. Only
pastels remain.
The cliff-face slopes down
in front of me and then, a few
feet away, suddenly drops
precipitously. But for a sharp
edge here and a short ledge
there, there is nothing between
me and the floor of the valley.
Five thousand five hundred feet
beneath me. Further, in fact,
because I realize that directly
below me -- way, way below, on
the white sheet of salt that
shrouds the valley for miles in
every direction -- is Badwater,
much touted as the lowest point
on land in the Western
Hemisphere, at almost 300 feet
below sea level.
I notice that I am free of
the fright I usually have for
heights. I settle back even
further in my seat. I look out
at the expanse of creation
before me.
It's the land where native
tribes have lived for 10,000
years. A landscape whose
configuration began, according
to the experts, 3 million years
ago. Since then, the Ice Age
arrived and departed. Oceans
have come and gone. Rivers have
meandered through it, and left
only memories behind. Storms and
flash-floods and heat -- brutal
135-degree heat -- have visited
this land, and continue to do
so, since time immemorial.
I have read of God who was
in the Beginning and will be in
Eternity. But I have no way of
visualizing the beginning of
creation or its existence into
the eternal future. I realize
that God who has no beginning
and no end is even more
unfathomable for me.
But sitting here with
Dante, I can get an inkling.
Just.
My eyes take in a land
that has been around, from my
limited perspective, for ever.
And will stay around, in the
same measure, for ever.
Sitting here in my ancient
chair, almost 6,000 feet above
the infinitely small cars parked
beside the salt flats of
Badwater below, I see a creation
that remains untouched by
anything that shouldn't be here.
Sure, there is a roadway down
below, but it was delineated no
more than 50 years ago. It will
crumble in a few years and
another one will be built. And
yet another. But for how long?
It doesn't even pretend to
compete with the eternity that
surrounds it.
A thousand species of
plants and trees thrive, and
have done so from the Beginning
in this vast desolation. And
creatures -- like our coyote --
and lizards and snakes and
scorpions and crows and eagles,
rule the land.
The Homo sapien
is but a mere visitor and is the
only one around that has to
struggle with the question as to
whether he will be in the
picture when the next
rearrangement of this landscape
takes place.
The sculpted mountains,
the carved valleys, the shifting
dunes, the stoic creatures, all
have been around since long
before Man. And will remain long
after he is gone.
They were around before
man invented the wheel, and lit
the first fire. Before the
pyramids of Egypt were even
imagined by a pharaoh. Before
Moses came down from Sinai.
While Alexander strutted across
the globe, and Ashoka surveyed
the killing-fields of Kalinga
with sad eyes. Even as Jesus
overturned the tables of the
money-lenders and sent them
packing. When Nanak the Teacher
walked the earth. Or when Hitler
played out his madness.
Through all the nuclear
tests carried out on the other
side of the Funeral Mountains in
Nevada -- in the name of peace,
freedom and democracy. They left
nary a mark compared to the
scars of infinity on this land.
The winds have wafted in news of
all gods and goddesses, prophets
and saviours, saints and
philosophers, and short shrift
has been made of them all.
This land IS God.
It is not dependent on
tribute, homage or supplication.
Or subscription and membership.
It boasts no righteousness. This
is the eternity where nothing
really matters.
Except one thing: that it
is.
Back home, we have covered
all evidence of the timeless
with layers of illusion. We have
hidden what really matters under
the quilt of cancer-like
world-class cities and populated
them with infernally complicated
machines that ultimately do
nothing. With words that say
nothing, with actions that
achieve nothing, with thoughts
that arrive nowhere.
And through all of it, we
worry ourselves to death,
perennially striving for power
and money and promotions and
status and beauty and, of
course, the last word. But when
we ultimately die and fulfill
the prophecy of birth, we do so
without really having lived at
all.
Imagine, this creation
that spreads out in front of me
in its fullest glory; in its
pristine, fierce, colorful,
brutal, lifegiving beauty.
A mere century-and-a-half
ago -- that is, in the last 150
years of its 3 million years of
current existence -- a handful
of gold-seekers stumbled through
this valley, found it seething
hot and inhospitable to their
needs.
So, they named it Death
Valley. Blind to everything it
had represented, it is now
damned by humankind as the
devil's domain. Ergo, Dante's
name on the peak that overlooks
it all.
They didn't stop there.
Since man could not live in this
valley, it was to be condemned
eternally. Furnace Creek.
Devil's Golf Course. Hell's
Gate. Devil's Cornfield...
Hop over the Funeral
Mountains, jog south a few
miles, and you'll arrive at
mankind's most celebrated
creation and encapsulation of
its credo: Las Vegas!
Its unabashed worship of
wealth and man-made beauty. Its
unique wedding chapels. Its
brand of generosity: "Cash your
pay-check with us, and you get a
free shot on the slot-machine!"
It's notion of charity:
free food and accommodation for
those who're willing to gamble
their life away.
It's vision of bliss:
instant unions and instant
freedom from relationships.
Ask any man or woman
living it up on the Strip, and
you'll be told: This is Life!
This is one view: shaped
by human limitations and the
incapacity to imagine eternity.
But, if anything, it is
when one looks into places like
the Death Valley -- deep into
its jaws -- that we learn about
life. About meaning. About
truth. About reality.
And yes, a bit about
eternity.
22 May 2013, 09:51:14 PM |
Rabbi Alan Lurie
Like the idea that religion
is the cause of most wars (see
my earlier blog), the idea
that there is a conflict between
religion and science is often
presented by well-intended,
educated individuals as a
self-evident fact. This comes
from the assumptions that being
religious means that one must
reject any scientific
discoveries that contradict
religious doctrine, and that
believing in God means that one
is satisfied with supernatural
explanations for natural events,
and therefore has no interest in
looking to science for answers.
Let's briefly examine these
assumptions by first looking to
history. There is a common
belief that in the past any
scientist who dared to challenge
religious doctrine was arrested,
tortured or even brutally killed
by religious authorities. There
appears to good evidence to
support this idea: The burning
at the stake of Dominican friar
Giordano Bruno in 1600 for his
cosmological views, the house
imprisonment of Galileo from
1634 until his death in 1642,
the excommunication of Baruch
Spinoza in 1656 for teaching the
"abominable heresy" of
pantheism, to name a few...
These are tragic incidents
for which religious
establishments must be held
responsible. But a detailed
investigation reveals that these
tragedies are much more nuanced
than the simple model of
religion vs. science allows.
These incidents were generally
more about political power and
personal ambition at times of
change than religious dogma, and
much of what we think we know is
not wholly true. For instance,
the popular image of Galileo
brought to trial in chains to
face a sadistic Inquisition,
where he uttered his defiant
statement "but it moves," before
being thrown into the papal
dungeon, is a dramatic 19th
century fabrication. In fact,
the pope at that time, Urban
VIII, had been a good friend and
supporter of Galileo, and
reluctantly confronted him not
because the Church condemned
heliocentrism, but because
Galileo publically mocked the
pope (and while not minimizing
the injustice of Galileo's
punishment, one can well imagine
that mocking a secular ruler at
this time in history would have
resulted in a much more severe
consequence than being confined
to a beautiful Tuscan villa with
servants and wealthy visitors).
Incidents of persecution
by religious authorities against
scientific research are actually
quite rare. Over most of its
existence, in fact, the Catholic
Church was the center of open
scientific investigation,
supporting mathematicians,
physicists, botanists and
astronomers. Many people are
surprised to learn that, in
spite of common belief to the
contrary, the Catholic Church
did not oppose Darwinism
(Christian opposition to
Darwinism came in the early 20th
century from the newly created
sect of Protestant
Fundamentalism), knew that the
Earth was round as determined by
ancient Greek calculations,
supported human anatomical
dissection and openly accepted
geological evidence concluding
an age of the Universe which is
vastly older than counting days
in the Bible. There was no
perceived division between
theology and science because the
Bible was read for wisdom, not
scientific facts. The 16th
century Italian Cardinal Caesar
Baronius made this position
clear in his defense of
Copernicus, saying, "The Bible
teaches us how to go to Heaven,
not how the Heavens go."
Judaism too has always
supported rational, scientific
investigations. Certainly there
are ultra-Orthodox communities,
as in every religion (and in
every institution), that do
restrict questioning and seek to
silence those who disagree, but
these are a tiny fraction of the
Jewish population, and do not
represent traditional Judaism,
which has always urged us to dig
below the surface to uncover
truth. "Examine the contents,
not the bottle," the Talmud
advises.
The idea that religion has
historically been opposed to
science is simply an erroneous
and unsupported construct that
was created in the late 19th
century, primarily as an
anti-Catholic polemic. And it is
an idea that all (yes, all)
knowledgeable historians
categorically reject.
Some critics of religion
argue, though, that religious
beliefs themselves stop science;
that for believers "God did it"
is the final answer, and so the
need to discover natural,
measurable causes never arises.
This theory has been labeled the
"God of the Gaps" and goes
something like this: Ancient
people saw natural occurrences
such as lightening bolts
flashing across the sky, and
knowing nothing about natural
causation, assigned the cause of
the lightening to an angry man
in the clouds, which was the
best explanation that they could
up with, given their level of
knowledge. And in order to
appease this fictional angry
man, religions were created. If
these ancient civilizations had
known that electrical discharges
cause lightening, this theory
posits, the need for a sky god,
which once filled a gap in
scientific knowledge, would
disappear, along with the
religion. But, this theory
asserts, these ancient people,
like religious people today,
were so invested in the need to
believe in their imaginary gods
and to follow their tribal
religion that they refused to
consider scientific
explanations. And so, this
theory concludes, the conflict
between religion and science was
born and continues.
Last year I saw the "God
of the Gaps" theory played out
on television. In a debate with
a prominent atheist who called
religion a "scam," Fox TV host
Bill O'Reilly answered, "I'll
tell you why [religion's] not a
scam, in my opinion: tide goes
in, tide goes out. Never a
miscommunication. You can't
explain that." In response, The
Daily Show's Jon Stewart asked
noted astronomer Dr. Neil
DeGrasse Tyson to respond to
O'Reilly's comment. Dr. Tyson
explained that the motion of the
tides is caused by the
gravitational pull of the Moon,
not by supernatural forces. The
audience applauded the victory
of reason over superstition.
While in its presentation
O'Reilly's "tides" comment was
not sophisticated theology, I'm
sure that he, like all educated
adults, knows that the Moon's
pull on the Earth causes tides.
(And I know the risk of
defending O'Reilly and
criticizing Stewart on HuffPost...)
He wasn't suggesting that God is
a cosmic magician who wiggles a
finger to make the tides slosh
around, but rather that God, as
the creative intelligence of the
Universe, created a reality that
operates according to finely
established physical laws,
resulting in predictable
movements, such as the tides, in
which the Moon is a causational
component.
God doesn't replace
natural phenomena as the cause
of an action, but God is the
first cause of all action.
Natural phenomena, like gravity,
are secondary causes. (To be
clear, I'm not asserting that
God is not active and does not
intervene, but the topic of
God's involvement can't be
addressed in this short format.)
All actions and objects
have multiple causes, and we
don't need to pick only one. For
example, a car operates because
a designer conceived it, workers
fabricated and assembled it, and
the engine operates in
accordance with the physical
laws of internal combustion. All
are necessary, non-conflicting
causes. Declaring, "Ford did it"
doesn't means that one no longer
desires to understand internal
combustion and metal
fabrication. Quite the contrary.
Through the exploration of the
workings of the car one can
uncover and marvel in the mind
of its designer. Conversely,
taking apart the engine and
understanding the laws behind
its mechanical operations
doesn't mean that there is no
designer.
To assert that religion is
inherently in conflict with
science is, I believe, to deeply
misunderstand both. One can
certainly question God's
existence and qualities, and a
vast amount has been written on
this, but we must recognize that
the belief in a Creator -- who
goes by many names over many
traditions -- does not
contradict natural explanations,
and the Bible is not, and
historically has not been, seen
by most religious leaders,
thinkers and followers as a
replacement for science. We need
not choose between religion and
science, faith and reason,
because both are needed for a
full experience of life.
As a rabbi I fully agree
with Pope John Paul II, who
wrote in his 1998 encyclical,
"Faith and reason are like two
wings on which the human spirit
rises to the contemplation of
truth." To me, the majestic 13.7
billion year journey from the
explosive beginning of our
Universe, to the coalescence of
matter into spinning galaxies,
to the fits and starts of life
as it struggled toward
consciousness, is the greatest
story ever told. In addition, I
find personal and communal
growth in my religious practice,
and I find my purpose and my
life in my relationship with,
and contemplation of, the
eternal loving God.
22 May 2013, 09:26:41 PM |
Erin Migdol
If you thought it was tough
to organize a couple hundred
guests at your wedding, imagine
if 25,000 well-wishers decided
to drop by.
A wedding between two
members of one of the largest
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish
communities in the world
attracted 25,000 guests on
Tuesday, The Independent
reported.
The groom is 18-year-old
Shalom Rokeach, the grandson of
the Chief Rabbi of the Hasidic
Belz Rebbe community. Because
Rokeach is the only male
grandchild, it is assumed that
he will succeed his grandfather
as leader of Belz Rebbe.
The bride is 19-year-old
Hannah Batya Penet, who is
also a member of Belz Rebbe.
Hasidic Jews from around
the world descended on Jerusalem
to witness the event, which
lasted until dawn. Per
tradition, the bride's face was
covered by a veil throughout the
ceremony. The ceremony also
included ritual dancing and vows
recited under a chuppah.
According to The Daily
Mail, Belz Rebbe has its roots
in a
14th century Polish town of
the same name. The community was
officially founded in 1817, and
currently includes about 7,000
families around the world.
Watch a
video of the wedding above,
posted to YouTube Wednesday. You
can
see the bride in the video
below:
As huge as this wedding
was, it is dwarfed by the
nuptials of V.N. Sudhakaran and
N. Sathyalakshmi, who hosted
150,000 guests on their Big Day
in India in 1995.
Click through the
slideshow below to see photos
from Tuesday's Belz wedding.
Keep in touch! Check
out HuffPost Weddings on
Facebook,
Twitter and
Pinterest.
22 May 2013, 07:36:08 PM |
Amelia Hemphill
The abortion rate in New York
City is among the highest in the
U.S.; nearly double the national
average. The latest
department of health figures
show that 40 percent of all New
York pregnancies end in
termination. Among African
American women, the abortion
rate stands at
60 percent. These are
statistics that a group of young
nuns named the Sisters of Life,
are working to change.
"Women deserve better. They
shouldn't be pressured into
feeling like abortion is the
only way," says Sister
Magdalene, 39. "Fear makes
people do things very quickly,
without thinking. Women need to
know they have options," she
adds. "There are so many people
who want to provide and step in
to help them. We believe that
love is always stronger than
death."
Founded in 1991 after Cardinal
John O'Connor, the Archbishop of
New York, wrote an article in a
national Catholic newspaper, the
nuns provide support,
counselling and outreach to
women facing unplanned pregnancy
or trauma from past abortions.
As well as the traditional
commitments of poverty,
obedience and chastity, the
sisters take an additional vow
to protect and enhance the
sacredness of every human life.
They connect women with adoption
agencies and a network of
volunteer helpers, organize home
stays and even invite women to
live in their Sacred Heart
Convent in Midtown during
pregnancy and up to six months
after.
Along with Planned Parenthood,
NARAL (National Abortion and
Reproductive Rights Action
League) Pro Choice America,
advocate for easier access to
preventative measures.
Communications director for
NARAL Pro Choice, Tara Sweeney,
commented; "every woman's
situation is different and every
decision about whether to become
a parent is unique," asserting
that "the abortion rate in New
York should not be used as an
excuse to restrict abortion
rights, or as a factor in
women's decisions."
The sisters, however, offer an
alternative viewpoint. They
voice concern that more and more
frequently, termination is being
presented as the only choice.
Whether or not this is the case,
the nuns'
own records show that they
serve over 700 women throughout
the U.S. each year of every
race, religion and economic
background - many are college
students or young professionals.
Over 90 percent of the women the
sisters come into contact with
end up keeping their babies,
with only around two percent
opting for adoption. "We
surround them with a network of
people and make them feel safe,"
says Sister Magdalene.
One of the women who quickly
became part of their network was
Jasmine (who wished to withhold
her last name). Originally from
Central America, she was a
young, single mother with two
small children, struggling to
keep her apartment in the Bronx
when she found out she was
pregnant again with twins. She
called the sisters in
desperation. They found her a
doctor, a lawyer to help her
save the apartment, organized
volunteers to drive her to
appointments and linked her to
city programs where she could
receive financial aid. "They
changed my life," Jasmine
remembers. "I was in a bad
moment and they helped me though
everything." The sisters,
Jasmine says, have given her
continued strength, confidence
and a support network. Her twin
girls are named after two of
them.
The nuns depend entirely on
donations and goodwill to
perform their outreach but have
a database of over 5,000
volunteers signed up to assist
them with any services they can.
A downstairs storeroom at their
mission center is filled with
donated maternity wear, diapers
and assorted baby accessories,
all of which they give away. "It
can be emptied out in days,"
said Sister Maris Stella, 34,
picking out two embroidered,
white dresses for the
Christening celebration of
Jasmine's twins, "but it's
amazing how God always seems to
provide."
The 10 sisters describe their
mission as one of female
empowerment. "We want to help
women see their own goodness and
beauty and believe in their
ability to love and make the
right choices for themselves,"
says Sister Magdalene.
"Love is the most powerful force
in the world and to bring that
force to others is a beautiful
thing," adds Sister Maris
Stella.
16 May 2013, 06:38:02 PM | AP
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis
has denounced the global
financial system, blasting the
"cult of money" that he says is
tyrannizing the poor and turning
humans into expendable consumer
goods.In his first
major speech on the subject,
Francis demanded Thursday that
financial and political leaders
reform the global financial
system to make it more ethical
and concerned for the common
good. He said: "Money has to
serve, not to rule!"
It's a message Francis
delivered on many occasions when
he was archbishop of Buenos
Aires, and it's one that was
frequently stressed by retired
Pope Benedict XVI.
Francis, who has made
clear the poor are his priority,
made the comments as he greeted
his first group of new
ambassadors accredited to the
Holy See.
16 May 2013, 06:33:14 PM |
The Huffington Post
Regarding fitness,
Richard Simmons is a prophet in
his own right. He realized
that exercise is more effective
when you're having fun. Could
his vision be applied to
organized religion? One
Tennessee artist clearly thought
so.Reddit user
metamelomai found what is
probably the
greatest contribution to
religious art since the
Sistine Chapel ceiling in a
church in downtown Nashville.
Click photo to
enlarge. Story continues below

The Huffington Post
contacted the
Downtown Presbyterian Church
in Nashville and confirmed that
the Richard Simmons "trinity" is
in fact on display outside the
fellowship room, because it won
first prize in an art show held
by the church.
In a phone interview, a
representative of the church
told HuffPost that the church
buys the winning piece of art in
the contest, which has taken
place every year since 1998.
However, while the intricately
shaded drawing is church
property, the representative
said that the artist is not a
member of the congregation.
The Downtown Presbyterian
Church holds its art show every
year with an accompanying theme.
According to the the blog of of
Nashville's Twist Art Gallery,
the
2011 contest theme was
"Compassion Fatigue."
But wherever Richard
Simmons is concerned, fatigue
isn't a factor. Nor is lack of
compassion. Reddit user
GooseSlayer explained his
adoration for the fitness guru:
"Richard Simmons is a
saint if I have ever seen
one. He supports people
(mostly women) spirituality
and emotionally while trying
to help them achieve the
physical goals they have
set. He is nothing but
encouraging and positive
unless he is in tears with
the women. He is a man of
pure love. He is the Bob
Ross of fitness."
16 May 2013, 05:50:48 PM | AP
MOGADISHU, Somalia --
Hundreds of sweating Sufis chant
and sway as the lead sheik moves
into the middle of a circle of
worshippers and bursts into a
chant louder than anyone else's
Sufism, a mystical branch of
Islam, is having a major
comeback since al-Shabab, an
armed militant Islamic group,
was pushed out of Somalia's
capital in August 2011. The
Sunni insurgents had banned
Sufis from gathering and
prevented them from worshipping.
Sufi sheiks, or elders, were
attacked, graves of their saints
were desecrated and rituals and
celebrations became rare or
secretly performed.
Beyond the circle of
worshippers are dozens of women,
some of them so moved that they
are crying. Nearby is the grave
of a Sufi saint where the
worshippers go to pray to show
reverence. Free food, including
toasted coffee beans fried in
oil, is distributed in wooden
containers.
"With Allah's wish, we are
here free and worshipping
today," said Sheik Abdullahi
Osman, a 72-year-old Sufi
cleric, who has beads dangling
from his neck. Sufis in
Mogadishu spend hours feasting,
praying, and invoking Allah's
name. Traditionally Sufis used
sticks to protect their shrines
but now it's common to see a
guard with an AK-47 slung over
his shoulder in this seaside
capital.
"There's no choice other
than defending ourselves and our
faith," said Mohamed Ahmed, an
armed Sufi follower guarding the
gathering. The arrivals were
being checked and other guards
stood outside a gate.
Ruqiya Hussein, a veiled
woman, traveled from an al-Shabab-held
town 90 kilometers (55 miles)
away to get to a place of
worship.
"I am thrilled to see my
sheiks come back to lead us
again," she said, squeezing her
henna-tattooed fingers before
she joined a group of women
swaying and chanting rhymes.
Sufis were known for
spreading Islam across Somalia
through peaceful teaching and
practicing tolerance toward
other faiths. Some Sufis hope
that their style finds fertile
ground in a nation recovering
from the wounds of extremism and
war.
"Unlike others we don't
kill or harass people. Instead,
we provide examples of how to
live." said, Sheik Abdirizaq
Aden, the regional leader of the
faith.
Al-Shabab, a group of
al-Qaida-linked militants that
seeks to instill an
ultra-conservative brand of
Islam across Somalia, controlled
Mogadishu from roughly 2007 to
2011. The group still dominates
most of south-central Somalia
but has seen its territory
reduced after military pushes by
African Union and Somali forces.
The Sufis in the capital
now feel free to practice their
faith. In central Somalia, after
the graves of sheiks were
desecrated and killings
occurred, Sufis used weapons to
kick militants out of some key
towns. The conflict in that part
of the Horn of Africa nation
persists.
Somalia fell into chaos in
1991 when warlords overthrew
longtime dictator Siad Barre and
turned on each other. Two
decades of violence followed,
but the capital and some other
towns have seen strong security
gains during the last 18 months
that have allowed businesses and
even sports leagues to thrive.
16 May 2013, 05:34:55 PM |
Jaweed Kaleem
In his 36 years as a priest
in the Church of England, the
Rev. John Hall never thought he
would become best-known for
being part of a wedding.
But since officiating the
marriage of Prince William and
Kate Middleton two years ago, an
event watched by hundreds of
millions of people worldwide,
the dean of London's Westminster
Abbey has used his newfound
exposure to his advantage.
In the United States for a
three-city tour over the past
week to fundraise for the abbey,
and promote the famed London
tourist attraction and its
unique relationship to the royal
family, Hall visited The
Huffington Post's New York
office to discuss the popular
royal couple, his relationship
to the monarchy, and his views
on the Anglican church on both
sides of the Atlantic.
"There's certainly
something about the couple
strikes a chord and attracts
people. You could say it's the
height of celebrity culture, but
I think there's something
deeper," said Hall, who became
dean in 2006 after serving as
chief education officer of the
Church of England and, prior to
that, working in various
positions promoting Anglican
educational services and in
church assignments in London and
North West England.

"There's a certain
mystique of the monarchy, and of
course, a religious underlying
and significance to it. But the
renewal of it with a new
generation of people has really
put a new spotlight on it. We
symbolize the closeness -- in
the English sense understanding
-- of church and state."
The church gets millions
of visitors every year who come
to see its historic Gothic
architecture and learn about its
role in British history. Dozens
of kings and queens have been
crowned in the abbey, which also
has hosted 16 royal weddings and
is the burial site for several
monarchs and famed citizens. The
abbey, which is part of the
Church of England but operates
separately for the most part,
has a $15 million yearly budget
and is financed almost entirely
by admission costs and
fundraising by groups such as
the New York-based American Fund
for Westminster Abbey. Hall
visited there this week, in
addition to Chicago, and will
head to Washington next.
The church staff reports
to the monarchy, instead of the
local bishop like other London
churches, and in addition to at
least four daily worship
services, Westminster regularly
hosts events for the royals. On
June 4, Hall will host Queen
Elizabeth II, the Duke of
Edinburgh and royal family
members for a service to
celebrate the 60th anniversary
of the queen's coronation. The
unique relationship to the royal
family also means Hall for the
most part has stayed clear of
church controversies such as
infighting over the ordination
of women bishops.
This is your third
visit to the U.S. to promote the
church. What brings you back?
I came here in 2011 and again in
2012. It seems to me that
fundraising isn't the main
thing, to me it's more
"friend-raising." The abbey has
a huge number of American
visitors, which is wonderful,
and I think it's important to
reach out reciprocally. It began
in 2010, when St. Thomas Church
on Fifth Avenue invited me to
come give the prizes at their
commencement at the end of the
year, but I couldn't come that
year. So I came back in 2011,
and made some time for a small
vacation and we realized that
there is this growing interest
in America in the abbey because
of the wedding.
In the U.S., we don't
have a state church, or a church
such as Westminster Abbey that
has the role of serving the
monarchy. How do you balance
running a church while being
available to the queen and
welcoming millions of tourists?
Because the abbey is such
a visited place, we have a real
opportunity there to ensure they
are understanding the religious
character of the building they
are visiting so they are not
just visiting an attraction. We
have a fundamental question: How
do we balance our life as a
religious community between our
purpose of worshipping the
almighty God and, on the other
hand, welcoming visitors and
trying to make them pilgrims to
a degree as much as we can?
The connection with the
monarchy has gone back to the
beginning. Westminster Palace,
next to the abbey, was
originally where Edward the
Confessor lived in the 11th
century. Westminster became the
center of rule in the Kingdom
from that time on. William the
Conqueror was crowned in
Westminster Abbey in 1066 and
every monarch who has been
crowned has had the coronation
ceremony since then there.
Is there a regular
congregation?
We see between 200 and
1,200 regular worshippers each
day, but our focus is not on
building a congregation in the
traditional sense.
You have been dean
for seven years and a priest for
many more, but interest in your
work has peaked since the royal
wedding. Does that bother you?
No. It goes deeper than
celebrity, I think. Of course,
there is at the heart of the
monarchy the monarch herself,
who is one of the best-known
figures in the world and one of
the longest serving, so many
people know of the queen. But
this new generation is
fascinating to people. The story
of Catherine Middleton getting
to know Prince William and them
coming into each others' life is
itself majestic and legendary.
But for me it was wonderful that
at the heart of the wedding was
not just celebrity or splendor
but a deep, central core of a
couple coming together in the
presence of God, and asking for
God's gift of love and
commitment throughout their
lives.
There's also a baby
on the way for the couple. Will
you a play a role when he or she
is born?
There is no expectation
that I will be involved in the
baptism. I imagine the
Archbishop of Canterbury will be
the one to pour the water and
pray for the child's baptism,
but where that will happen I
don't know yet. All we are doing
for the moment is praying for
the pregnancy and birth to go
well, and that the child is born
safe and well. And when he or
she is born, we will ring a full
peal of the church bells, which
lasts more than three hours.
The Episcopal church
here is part of the Anglican
communion, as is the Church of
England, but the church here is
also different. It has ordained
gay bishops, blesses same-sex
unions and has approved
ordaining transgender priests.
The presiding bishop of the
Episcopal Church is a woman.
Meanwhile, the Church of England
recently voted against allowing
women bishops. What's your
impression of Episcopalians?
What is predominant in my
mind is the similarities we have
in the communion around the
world. There are clear
similarities and also different
issues people are engaged with.
We have clear traditions of
worship and the focus on hymns
and prayer, and you feel that
wherever you go.
For me, the experience of
preaching on a couple of
occasions at St. Thomas in New
York and St. James in Chicago
this week showed me a tradition
of worship with which I am
extremely familiar. You simply
feel that we are one.
We live in a complex and
difficult world and we engage
with the world as we see and we
want to share the gospel with
the world in which we are. That
may lead us to take different
views about some marginal issues
from Anglicans in other parts of
the world. But on the core
issues of belief in God as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and
God's revelation of himself in
Jesus Christ, we are the same.
I am glad that we wrestle
publicly with issues, and I'm
glad that with that we have this
community that keeps us
together. I long for the unity
and reconciliation of all
Christians so we can give a more
powerful, united message to the
world of God's love in Christ. I
certainly don't want to see the
Anglican Communion broken up.
Nobody does.
What was your
reaction to the
votes against women bishops
in the Church of England?
The ordination of women to
the episcopacy is something the
great majority of people in the
Church of England want. It
completes a process, which seems
to have been right, to include
women in the leadership. We have
very much to be thankful for
from women deacons and priests,
and there will be women bishops.
My guess is that there were as
many people surprised as I was
by the outcome of the vote. It
was a very small number of
people in the House of Laity who
voted against it. This issue
will be re-addressed and there
has been a speedy process of
getting people together to find
ways through this dilemma.
Exactly how this will work, I
don't know, and I have not been
involved personally. I hope it
can be resolved quickly.
There's also a
relatively new archbishop of
Canterbury,
Justin Welby. What's your
relationship to him and his
predecessor, Archbishop Rowan
Williams?
Rowan Williams was one of
the finest archbishops one can
imagine. His deep spiritual
life, his absolute devotion to
God, his extraordinary learning
and breadth of knowledge, and
his power of interpretation,
there are things we have
benefited enormously from at
Westminster Abbey. Justin Welby
brings a new perspective and new
experience to the extraordinary
task of being the archbishop of
Canterbury. I didn't know Justin
Welby very well, and I have met
him now a few times. He is an
extraordinarily gifted
communicator, he has a very
strong faith and a very hopeful
outlook. His experience in
finance and the oil industry is
probably also a great blessing
to us in the church. We shall
look forward to seeing how he
brings to bear those many gifts
on the future of the church.
This interview has been edited
and condensed for clarity.
16 May 2013, 03:22:08 PM |
Simon McCormack
The younger
Boston bombing suspect allegedly
penned a note on the inside
of the boat where he was found
hiding from authorities, sources
told CBS News senior
correspondent John Miller.
The scrawling explained his
rationale for his part in the
deadly explosion, sources said.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
allegedly wrote that his actions
were retaliations for the U.S.
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"When you attack one
Muslim, you attack all Muslims,"
the note said, according to CBS'
sources who were granted
anonymity.
The report would seem to
add credence to a
Washington Post story last
month which cited anonymous
"U.S. officials" who said
Tsarnaev provided a similar
rationale for the bombing
when he was interrogated from
his hospital bed.
In his reaction to the
Post's story,
Guardian columnist Glenn
Greenwald noted that similar
reasons have been given by other
Muslims who have attempted or
carried out recent attacks in
America:
In the last several
years, there have been four
other serious attempted or
successful attacks on US
soil by Muslims, and in
every case, they
emphatically all say the
same thing: that they were
motivated by the continuous,
horrific violence brought by
the US and its allies to the
Muslim world - violence
which routinely kills and
oppresses innocent men,
women and children:
Greenwald lists attempted
"underwear bomber" Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab, attempted Times
Square bomber Faisal Shahzad,
attempted New York City subway
bomber Najibullah Zazi and Fort
Hood shooter Nidal Hasan as
examples.
"If the United States does
not get out of Iraq, Afghanistan
and other countries controlled
by Muslims,
Shahzad said during his guilty
plea. "We will be attacking
[the] U.S."
16 May 2013, 09:12:42 AM |
Meredith Bennett-Smith
Pat Robertson has many
opinions on subjects including
homosexuality,
politics and the
coming of the Mark of the Beast,
but it was the famous
televangelist's opinion on
marriage that took center stage
during
Wednesday's episode of his
daily television program, "The
700 Club."Responding
to a question from a viewer,
Robertson said that married men
"have a tendency to wander"
and it is the spurned wife's job
to focus on the positive and
make sure the home is so
enticing, he doesn't want to
stray.
"I've been trying to
forgive my husband for cheating
on me," the viewer writes. "We
have gone to counseling, but I
just can't seem to forgive, nor
can I trust. How do you let go
of the anger? How do you trust
again?"
While Robertson's co-host
hedged on the question, calling
forgiveness "difficult" and
spousal infidelity "one of the
ultimate betrayals," Robertson
got right to the point.
"Here's the secret," the
famous evangelical said. "Stop
talking the cheating. He cheated
on you, well, he's a man."
The wife needs to focus on
the reasons she married her
spouse, he continued.
"Does he provide a home
for you to live in," Robertson
said. 'Does he provide food for
you to eat? Does he provide
clothes for you to wear? Is he
nice to the children... Is he
handsome?"
Robertson also offered a
little advice on the "tendency
of man."
"Recognize also, like it
or not, males have a tendency to
wander a little bit," Robertson
said. "What you want to do is
make a home so wonderful that he
doesn't want to wander" or give
in to the "salacious" magazine
pictures and Internet filled
with porn.
This is certainly not
Robertson's first foray into
anecdotal marital counseling,
however.
In January, Robertson told
viewers that
"awful-looking" women can cause
marriages to lose their spark.
"It just isn't something
to just lie there, 'Well, I'm
married to him so he's got to
take me slatternly looking,'" he
said. "You've got to fix
yourself up, look pretty."
Similarly, in 2010 the
host advised a
woman complaining about her
husband's flirtatious ways
not to "hassle him about it" and
just make herself as attractive
as possible.
He also once told a
husband upset that his wife
didn't respect him that
he could always just "become a
Muslim and you could beat her."
(h/t
Right Wing Watch)
Click through this
slideshow for Pat Robertson's
Greatest Hits
16 May 2013, 08:09:44 AM |
Shoshana Friedman
This
week, Jews all over the world
will be celebrating the festival
of Shavuot. Like Passover and
Sukkot (The Feast of
Tabernacles), Shavuot is one of
our three main pilgrimage
festivals. Our religious
imaginations conjure up images
of thousands of pilgrims from
all over ancient Israel bringing
their offerings to Jerusalem. We
can hear the bleating of goats,
smell the baskets of freshly
harvested grain, hear the voices
of families calling out to one
another in the crowd. These
holidays were ancient
agricultural festivals, moments
in the year when our community
rose up in gratitude for the
harvest. We rose up with the
most basic human emotions:
gratitude for food we received
and hope for continued food
abundance.When
Israelites lived in the
highlands of Canaan, the bounty
of food was a sign we were doing
fine in our relationship with
God, that we were keeping our
end of the covenant with the One
who took us out of Egypt. The
festivals celebrated
agricultural bounty as a sign of
the enduring covenantal
relationship. But in exile after
70 CE, Judaism changed. The
festivals lost their connection
to land and food. Today, Jews
learn that Sukkot celebrates
traveling in the desert in huts,
but we do not learn about the
harvest at the start of the
rainy season. We learn that
Passover is the celebration of
leaving Egypt, but we do not
learn about lambing season and
preparation for the spring
harvest. We learn that Shavuot
is the celebration of the giving
of Torah on Mount Sinai, not
about the first fruits and
barley harvest of the spring.
In her book "Scripture,
Culture and Agriculture," Ellen
F. Davis describes agrarianism
as "a way of thinking and
ordering life in community that
is based on health of the land
and of living creatures." She
argues persuasively that the
Hebrew Bible is, at its heart,
agrarian literature; it is the
story of a particular people who
live in a particular fragile
ecosystem and who struggle to
maintain intimacy with God
through their care of local,
family-held lands that produce
food over generations.
In the midst of our global
ecological crisis, Jews -- and
indeed all people who hold the
Hebrew Scriptures as canon --
must turn our attention to the
deep connection among Judaism,
agriculture and healthy
communities. Today, I want to
turn to the Book of Ruth,
traditionally read on Shavuot.
Here, we find a story of
reconnection with land that is,
perhaps, the very Torah we need
to receive this year.
Ruth tells the story of a
family swept off its fields in
Israel by famine. When they flee
to Moab for food, the men in the
family die of illness. Years
later, when the famine lifts,
Naomi and her daughter-in-law
Ruth, a Moabite, return to
Naomi's village of origin. They
return during the barley
harvest.
Too poor to afford food,
Ruth goes to glean barley in the
field of a wealthy farmer named
Boaz. Boaz turns out to be a
close relative of Naomi's late
husband, and he is therefore a
family redeemer who can marry
Ruth. Often overlooked as part
of his role, Boaz is also the
person who can reclaim the land
Naomi's family had to sell in
the famine (see Leviticus
25:23-28 for laws on relatives
redeeming land for each other).
In marrying each other and
reacquiring the family's land,
Boaz and Ruth reunite the land
with its family.
Boaz and Ruth are the
great-grandparents of King
David, from whose line,
tradition says, will come the
messianic age. The reuniting of
a family with its land, the
rejoining of an individual with
his own food production, the
sense of belonging and
membership in land community --
these are the tenets of an
agrarian mindset. In agrarian
language, the remembering of
people and land -- literally
becoming members again of each
other -- is the seed of our
collective redemption.
In an ideal agrarian
mindset, families care for land
because their children and the
land itself depend on it. Davis
points out that this concept of
generational family landholding
is "nahala" in Biblical Hebrew.
Boaz uses the word nahala when
he describes redeeming the
fields for Naomi.
But in our time, all over
the world, small farmers are
losing and have lost their land,
their nahalot. Large
corporations and poor government
policies have broken the local
economies of family
landholdings. We, like Naomi's
family, have become vulnerable
to famine caused not only by
climate change, but also by poor
policies that allow
concentration of food production
in the hands of multinational
food corporations and a
shockingly small number of
crops. Like Naomi's family,
millions of people worldwide are
losing their family farms and
land. Like Naomi's family,
millions will be environmental
refugees.
Those of us whose families
haven't been farmers for
generations are divorced from
our local food systems, sent
into a strange world of food
that comes in plastic, where we
do not feel connected to our
soil, our farms, our seasons,
our droughts. We live in a
society where it is now possible
for a child to tell a teacher
friend of mine, "I don't eat
food that comes from dirt."
The story of Ruth is a
story of home, family and land,
and the relationship among these
three life-sustaining concepts.
It is a story that says health,
well-being and, ultimately,
collective redemption will come
from home, family and land being
part of a sacred system where
each feeds the others. This is
the heart of an agrarian Torah.
This Shavuot, what will
your pilgrimage to Jerusalem be?
How will you connect to the
season and harvest? Consider
joining a CSA and shopping at
farmers' markets this summer to
support your local farms. Or
donating to an organization that
supports food justice,
indigenous rights and land
stewardship. Ask your
legislators and congressmen to
support food policy that
protects small farmers and puts
limits on big agrobusiness. And
go outside in your neighborhood
to see what is growing. Call the
land you live on home, and not
just a house. Play Boaz and Ruth
to your own life and reunite
with the land.
ON Scripture -- The Torah is
a weekly Jewish scriptural
commentary, produced in
collaboration with
Odyssey Networks and
Hebrew College. Thought
leaders from the United States
and beyond offer their insights
into the weekly Torah portion
and contemporary social,
political, and spiritual life.
16 May 2013, 07:49:18 AM |
Jahnabi Barooah
By Debra Rubin
Religion News Service
(RNS) The Rev. Morris G.
Henderson wasn’t sure what do
with a vacant city block of land
behind his 31st Street Baptist
Church in Richmond, Va. The
church had purchased the plots,
but didn’t have the funding to
build a planned family life
center.
Then, he had a vision.
“Why not build a garden
and people can learn to be
self-sufficient and we can grow
food?” Henderson said.
With an 80-year-old
congregant heading the project,
the congregation planted its
first garden in 2008:
watermelons, tomatoes, okra,
squash, strawberries and
blueberries.
By the second year, even
after the gardening chief had
passed away, congregants were
getting guidance from the
Virginia Cooperative Extension;
this year, the church has at
least two dozen raised beds,
with the bulk of the harvest
used for the church’s
Monday-Friday soup kitchen.
The nutrition program
serves at least 70, rising to
250 people in the summer when
kids don’t have access to school
lunch programs, Henderson said.
Extras are available for
congregants, food program
participants and the community,
for a donation. A flower garden
provides pollination for the
plants and flowers for the
sanctuary.
Henderson’s congregation
is one of a growing number
throughout the country that are
raising fruits and vegetables
for soup kitchens and food
pantries in what are often
called food justice programs; in
some synagogues they’re known as
mitzvah gardens.
The gardens serve a
multifold purpose. In addition
to providing fresh food to those
who might not otherwise have
access, the gardens are
educational tools; they increase
awareness of land
sustainability; they teach
congregants about farming and
remind them of religious
imperatives to care for the
land.
One of the largest is at
Chicago’s KAM Isaiah Israel
synagogue, with a food program
that supports gardens in its own
yard as well as in that of two
churches just blocks away.
The food program began in
2009 when Robert Nevel, the
synagogue’s social justice
coordinator, and a group of
volunteers ripped out much of
the synagogue’s lawn to create
the Star of David vegetable
garden in the shape of a
six-pointed Star of David, with
produce grown in each
30-square-foot point.
The congregation has since
planted a second vegetable
garden and an herb garden on
other sides of its 1923
building, which sits directly
across the street from the Hyde
Park home of the nation’s
gardeners-in-chief, President
and Michelle Obama.
In 2011, with a grant from
the community group One Chicago,
One Nation, KAM helped Kenwood
United Church of Christ
establish its garden, and last
year assisted St. Paul and the
Redeemer Episcopal Church in
creating one.
“We think of all the
gardens in the neighborhood as
one farm for purposes of plant
rotation and harvesting,” Nevel
said. “Together, we remain a
network for the harvesting and
distribution of the food.”
The produce is distributed
to six different hot-meal
programs, four of them
affiliated with houses of
worship and all of them within a
mile and a half of KAM, Nevel
said.
Through the combined
5,000-square-foot-plus gardens,
KAM’s food justice and
sustainability program last year
donated — within an hour or two
of harvest — 4,500 pounds of
produce. This year’s plantings
include six or seven varieties
of tomatoes, collards, kale,
chard, squash, okra, lettuces,
carrots, peas, pole and bush
beans, radishes, herbs, onions,
cucumbers and peppers.
“We are probably the sole
source of fresh food for four or
five months of the year for a
significant number of people in
Chicago,” Nevel says.
At Chicago’s Living Room
Cafe, a nonprofit that provides
dinners twice weekly and
breakfast on weekends, chef
Royal Green calls the produce a
“big plus.”
“They’re saving us a lot
of money; it’s fresh and it’s
more nutritious” than canned
goods that otherwise would be
used, he said.
Citing a line from
Leviticus 25, “for the land is
mine; for ye are strangers and
settlers with me,” Nevel said,
“The synagogue doesn’t own that
land, the church doesn’t own
that land, no one really owns
it; we need to be stewards of
the land.”
Nan Onest, the pastoral
associate at Holy Name of Jesus
Catholic Church in Cedar Lake,
Ind., which began its garden
last year, makes similar
comments.
“Some of the key
principles of Catholic social
teaching speak to importance of
caring for God’s creations,” she
said, also noting that its food
program deals with “proper use
of the land, food distribution
justice issues and human dignity
issues all at once.”
The congregation, which
donates its harvest through its
own ministry for shut-ins, as
well as to a local soup kitchen,
food bank and a home for unwed
mothers, more than doubled its
garden from 1,300 square feet
last year, which yielded 1,000
pounds of produce, to 3,000
square feet this year. The
number of volunteers also has
tripled from about a dozen to
35.
“It’s been an amazing
experience,” says Anita Torok,
the garden’s organizer. “Some
like the spiritual solitude of
seeing the plants grow and
working with soil. Some like the
family experience; a grandmother
brings her grandchild and they
hunt for the food to harvest.
Some like the sense of purpose
they’re involved with a good
cause.”
Organizers at all the
gardens say it’s not just
congregants who volunteer to do
the farming, but members of the
larger community.
“The thing I feel most
proud of about the garden is
that a true marker and measure
of a buy-in by our community is
we have no fence around our
garden. People watch it and keep
us from being robbed blind,”
Henderson, of Richmond, said.
“The community has allowed us to
keep our garden for the needy.”
16 May 2013, 06:34:22 AM |
Jahnabi Barooah
By Krista Kapralos
Religion News Service
(RNS) A German family seeking
asylum in the U.S. so they can
home-school their children lost
their appeal in federal court on
Tuesday (May 14), but their
lawyers say they’re prepared to
petition the U.S. Supreme Court
to take the case.
The German government
persecuted the Romeike family
for their faith, said Mike
Donnelly, a lawyer with the Home
School Legal Defense
Association, a religious
organization that is
representing the Romeike family.
“It is treating people who
home-school for religious or
philosophical reasons
differently,” he added.
The Cincinnati-based 6th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
disagrees. The U.S. grants safe
haven to people who have a
well-founded fear of
persecution, but not necessarily
to those under governments with
laws that simply differ from
those in the U.S., Judge Jeffrey
Sutton wrote in the court’s
decision.
“The German authorities
have not singled out the
Romeikes in particular or
homeschoolers in general for
persecution,” he wrote for the
three-judge panel in the case,
Uwe Romeike v. Eric Holder, Jr.
Uwe Romeike said in an
email on Wednesday that his
family began home schooling to
protect their children from
bullying and teachings they
didn’t agree with.
“As we were confronted
with opposition to our choice we
began to feel more and more that
our faith required us to
homeschool our children,” he
said.
Uwe and Hannelore Romeike
moved their five children to
Tennessee (a sixth child has
since been born) in 2008 to
escape thousands of dollars in
fines and increasing pressure
from local police and education
officials to enroll their
children in school. All German
parents are required by law to
send their children to a
state-recognized school, whether
public or private.
The Romeikes are
evangelical Christians, and say
they should be allowed to keep
their children home to teach
them Christian values. Before
they left Germany, the police
forcibly escorted the older
Romeike children to school one
day. Other German families have
lost custody of their children
because they persist in home
schooling.
An immigration judge in
Tennessee granted the Romeikes’
bid in 2010, but the Board of
Immigration Appeals tossed that
ruling in 2012, arguing that
religious home-schoolers don’t
face any special consequences
that aren’t applied to other
families whose children don’t
attend school.
The 2012 decision sparked
an outpouring of support for the
Romeike family among
conservative U.S. Christians.
More than 120,000 people signed
an online petition urging
President Obama to let the
family stay. Conservative talk
show host Glenn Beck described
the case as evidence of
crumbling religious freedom.
The Romeikes’ legal team
plans to request an en banc
hearing, which would present the
case before the 6th Circuit’s
entire 15-judge panel. Approval
for such a hearing is unlikely,
Donnelly said, adding that the
Romeikes are already preparing
to fight for asylum in the U.S.
Supreme Court.
16 May 2013, 05:13:14 AM | AP
FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- An expert
in Afghan culture testified
Wednesday that pornography found
on the computer of a U.S. Army
general then deployed to the
Muslim country would be highly
offensive to local residents.
Former Defense Intelligence
Agency adviser Morwari Zafar
made the comments at a pre-trial
hearing for Brig. Gen. Jeffery
Sinclair. A court-martial for
the former deputy commander of
the 82nd Airborne is set to
begin June 25 on charges that
include forcible sodomy,
indecent acts, violating orders
and adultery.
Among the orders Sinclair
is accused of violating is a
prohibition against U.S. troops
in Afghanistan possessing
pornography.
Called as a witness by
prosecutors, Zafar's eyes
widened when a prosecutor showed
her printed photos investigators
pulled from Sinclair's hard
drive.
"They would be absolutely
offensive to Afghans in
general," said Zafar, who was
born in the country and is now
earning a doctorate in
anthropology. "Pornography is
illegal in Afghanistan."
The military pornography
ban, and a similar order barring
possessing alcohol, are in place
in an attempt to keep soldiers
and Marines from offending the
socially conservative country
where U.S. troops have been
stationed since 2001.
Lawyers for Sinclair asked
a military judge this week to
drop the charge against the
general, arguing this week the
military porn ban violates his
First Amendment rights to free
speech.
On cross-examination,
Zafar agreed with defense lawyer
Richard Scheff that pornography
is available for sale in some
Afghan markets and on the
Internet, despite its illegal
status in the country.
The defense has not
provided an explanation for how
pornography got on Sinclair's
personal computer. He has not
yet entered a plea on any of the
charges he faces.
Earlier in the case,
military lawyers for Sinclair
suggested in court that someone
else could have downloaded the
images, possibly even the female
aide he is charged with
assaulting.
This week, new civilian
lawyers added to the defense
team made the constitutional
argument without directly saying
the pornography had been stored
on the computer by their client.
Additionally, there was no
evidence any Afghan ever saw the
images or had the opportunity to
be offended, Scheff said.
Sinclair's former
commander in Afghanistan, Maj.
Gen. James Huggins, testified
Tuesday that he issued the order
to "maintain good order and
discipline."
"It is against the stated
policy because of the cultural
sensitivity of the Afghan
people," Huggins said, adding
that if anyone had found the
images it would have hurt
Sinclair's effectiveness.
Sinclair was deputy
commander in charge of logistics
and support for the 82nd
Airborne in Afghanistan last
spring before being relieved
during the criminal
investigation. He has been on
special assignment at Fort Bragg
since May 2012.
A 27-year Army veteran and
married father of two, Sinclair
faces life in prison if
convicted on the sexual assault
charge.
A female captain who
worked for Sinclair on
deployments to Afghanistan and
Iraq says she carried on a
three-year sexual relationship
with Sinclair. Adultery is a
crime under military law, and
the admission could end her
career.
She testified at the
evidentiary hearing last year
that she repeatedly tried to
break off the affair but that on
two occasions after they had
argued he exposed himself and
physically forced her to perform
oral sex. The woman says the
general also threatened to kill
her and her family if she told
anyone about their relationship.
The Associated Press does
not publicly identify victims of
alleged sexual assaults.
Two other female officers
who served with Sinclair also
testified that they had given
the general nude photos at his
request.
Military judge Col. James
Pohl agreed Tuesday to a request
to drop a charge that Sinclair
violated an order by possessing
alcohol while in Afghanistan. An
unopened bottle of scotch was
found in his quarters – a gift
defense lawyers said came from a
top Pentagon official on a
goodwill visit.
Pohl also granted a
defense motion to compel
testimony from former Fort Brag
commander Gen. Dan Allyn and
current base commander Maj. Gen.
Jeffrey Colt.
Sinclair's legal team
alleges that high-ranking
Pentagon officials may have
placed improper pressure on
Allyn to refer charges against
Sinclair as the military
struggles to deal with a string
of embarrassing sex scandals.
It was not immediately
clear when Allyn and Colt will
be available to testify.
Officials said both aren't on
the base this week.
___
Follow Associated Press
writer Michael Biesecker at
twitter.com/mbieseck.
16 May 2013, 05:08:05 AM |
Jahnabi Barooah
By Ron Csillag
Religion News Service
TORONTO (RNS) A new national
study shows that while Canada
remains overwhelmingly
Christian, Canadians are turning
their backs on organized
religion in ever greater
numbers.
Results from the 2011
National Household Survey show
that more than two-thirds of
Canadians, or some 22 million
people, said they were
affiliated with a Christian
denomination.
At 12.7 million, Roman
Catholics were the largest
single Christian group,
representing 38 percent of
Canadians; the second largest
was the United Church,
representing about 6 percent;
while Anglicans were third,
representing about 5 percent of
the population.
Observers noted that among
the survey’s most striking
findings is that one in four
Canadians, or 7.8 million
people, reported they had no
religious affiliation at all.
That was up sharply from 16.5
percent from the 2001 census,
and 12 percent in 1991.
The Canadian trend seems
to mirror but even exceed levels
of non-affiliation in the United
States. A 2012 survey from the
Pew Forum on Religion & Public
Life pegged the ratio of
religiously unaffiliated
Americans at just under 20
percent.
But Pew also has found
that more than one-quarter of
American adults (28 percent)
have left the faith in which
they were raised in favor of
another religion — or no
religion at all.
The Canadian study showed
that just more than 7 percent of
the country was Muslim, Hindu,
Sikh or Buddhist, an increase
from 5 percent a decade earlier.
The Muslim population
exceeded the 1 million mark,
according to the survey, almost
doubling in size for the third
consecutive decade, and
recording the biggest increase
in growth of any religion, at 60
percent since 2001.
Muslims now represent 3.2
percent of Canada’s population,
nudging up from the 2 percent
recorded in 2001. Immigration
has largely fueled the increase,
with the largest share of
Muslims coming from Pakistan
over the past five years,
according to Statistics Canada.
Hindus made up 1.5 percent
of the population (up 51
percent); and Sikhs 1.4 percent
(a rise of 54 percent).
Both Christians and Jews
declined as a share of the
population.
Officials in Ottawa
stressed that the NHS results,
which also examined trends in
immigration and ethnic
diversity, could be unreliable.
Because it was a voluntary
survey, it is “subject to
potentially higher non-response
error than those derived from
the census long form,”
Statistics Canada cautioned.
Prime Minister Stephen
Harper’s Conservative government
abolished the long-form census
in 2010 as too intrusive.
Reginald Bibby, a
sociologist at the University of
Lethbridge and one of Canada’s
foremost trackers and
interpreters of religious
trends, said the NHS findings
“do not point to the demise of
religion in Canada. But the
findings document the tendency
of Canadians to reflect the
pattern of people across the
planet in variously embracing or
rejecting religion.”
16 May 2013, 03:23:45 AM |
The Huffington Post
A North Carolina legislative
committee on Wednesday advanced
a bill that would ban the
consideration of "foreign laws,"
including Sharia, in the state's
court system in certain cases.
The Republican-controlled
House Judiciary Committee voted
out legislation that could make
North Carolina the eighth state
to ban use of foreign laws,
WRAL.com reports. The bill
advanced only after the
committee tweaked the language
to apply only to family law and
child custody issues and not to
disputes involving the business
community.
State Rep. Tim Moore
(R-Cleveland)
told WRAL.com that he does
not know of any instances of
foreign law being used in his
state's courts but that a
statute is needed to prevent it
from happening.
North Carolina's move
comes a week after the
Republican-controlled Missouri
state Legislature
advanced a similar bill.
The text of the North
Carolina legislation does not
specifically mention the Islamic
legal code known as Sharia,
although it would be covered, to
avoid a potential court
challenge for singling out one
religion. An Oklahoma ban that
specified Sharia
was blocked as likely to be
found unconstitutional by a
federal court last year.
The kinds of cases covered
by the North Carolina bill was
narrowed due to concerns that
the broader legislation could
have caused issues for local
companies that do business
internationally and have
contracts with foreign
companies, according to WRAL.com.
A
similar argument was made
unsuccessfully during the
Missouri House debate last week.
Foreign law bans have
become popular with conservative
lawmakers in recent years. Seven
states -- Arizona, Idaho,
Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma,
South Dakota and Tennessee --
have passed such bans, according
to
data compiled by the Pew Forum
on Religion and Public Life.
Pew noted that another 24 states
have considered similar bills.
The North Carolina
Legislature has taken on a host
of conservative proposals in
recent weeks, including an
unsuccessful bill last month
that would opened the door
to an official state religion.
"I suppose since
instituting an official state
religion failed, passing anti-Sharia
law legislation is the next best
thing," state Democratic Party
spokesman Micah Beasley told The
Huffington Post. "It's
unfortunate that North Carolina
Republican leaders continue to
waste taxpayers' resources with
fringe policy proposals such as
this. North Carolinians deserve
a legislature focused on jobs,
not potentially unconstitutional
power grabs."
16 May 2013, 01:18:47 AM |
Jahnabi Barooah
By David Gibson
Religion News Service
(RNS) News that scientists
had for the first time recovered
stem cells from cloned human
embryos prompted dire warnings
from religious leaders who say
the research crosses a moral red
line and could lead to designer
babies.
Boston Cardinal Sean
O’Malley, point man for the U.S.
Catholic bishops on bioethical
issues, said Wednesday (May 15)
that “this means of making
embryos for research will be
taken up by those who want to
produce cloned children as
’copies’ of other people.”
Human cloning “treats
human beings as products,”
O’Malley said on behalf of the
bishops, “manufactured to order
to suit other people’s wishes. …
A technical advance in human
cloning is not progress for
humanity but its opposite.”
Critics argue there are
other ethical techniques for
creating stem cells that may
help cure illnesses like
Parkinson’s disease and diabetes
and that the alternatives do not
require cloning human embryos or
destroying them. The most
popular alternative is
harvesting adult stem cells from
the same patient.
“Given that science has
passed cloning by for stem cell
production, this announcement
seems simply a justification for
making clones, and makes
reproductive cloning and birth
of human clones more likely,”
said David Prentice of the
Family Research Council.
The cloning breakthrough
was accomplished by scientists
at Oregon Health & Science
University and was announced
Wednesday in the journal Cell.
It followed 15 years of failed
experiments and the infamous
case of fraud when a South
Korean biologist falsely claimed
to have cloned human embryos.
To achieve their
breakthrough, researchers had to
refine techniques that had been
used on monkey embryos: This
time they were able to take DNA
from a human patient and splice
it into a human egg that had its
DNA removed. The egg then grew
into an early-stage embryo whose
stem cells — a virtual genetic
copy of the original patient —
were then harvested.
Many Christian experts,
especially Catholic bioethicists
who believe life begins at
conception, object to the
destruction of human embryos for
any purpose.
But they also say the new
technique could lead to the
cloning of replica human beings
because it is similar to the
process used to produce the
cloned sheep named Dolly in
1996. That technique has since
been used to clone a dozen other
animal species.
The lead researcher on the
team, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, said
he does not believe the new
technique could lead to cloned
babies, in part because
scientists have not yet been
able to do that with cloned
monkey embryos. The cloned
primate embryos do not develop
sufficiently to implant into the
uterine wall.
But others say the
innovation opens the door to
human cloning scenarios that
were once confined to the realm
of science fiction.
“The reasons why
primate-cloned embryos won’t
implant are probably just
technical barriers,” William
Hurlbut, a consulting professor
at Stanford University and
former member of George W.
Bush’s Presidential Council on
Bioethics, told Christianity
Today. “Science is clever at
figuring out what goes wrong and
fixing it.”
Hurlbut, who has worked
with Mitalipov on developing
ethically acceptable adult stem
cell techniques, said the
breakthrough will “mark the
beginning of a whole new chapter
of moral scientific
controversy.”
16 May 2013, 12:23:02 AM | AP
WASHINGTON — Two conservative
religious groups say they were
also the subject of unusual
scrutiny from the Internal
Revenue Service.The
son of the Rev. Billy Graham as
well as leaders of Z Street, a
conservative Jewish
organization, have said they
believe they were pressed by the
IRS for more information because
they advocated for conservative
causes.
In a letter Tuesday to
President Barack Obama and Vice
President Joe Biden, the Rev.
Franklin Graham said charities
built by his father may have
received extra scrutiny from the
IRS because they advocated
against gay marriage and the
elder Graham appeared in ads
urging support for candidates
who oppose abortion.
"I do not believe that the
IRS audit of our two
organizations last year is a
coincidence – or justifiable,"
Franklin Graham wrote. "I am
bringing this to your attention
because I believe that someone
in the administration was
targeting and attempting to
intimidate us. This is morally
wrong and unethical – indeed
some would call it
`un-American.'"
Franklin Graham said his
Boone, N.C.-based charity
Samaritan's Purse and the Billy
Graham Evangelistic Association,
which is based in Charlotte,
received IRS notices last
September that their 2010
activities would be reviewed.
In the letter to Obama and
Biden, Graham noted that the
evangelistic association named
for his father waded into a
North Carolina election by
running full-page newspaper
advertisements urging support
for a state constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage.
Both Franklin Graham and the
94-year-old Billy Graham
supported Republican nominee
Mitt Romney in last year's
presidential election. Billy
Graham also appeared in national
newspaper ads and newspaper ads
in Ohio urging voters to back
candidates who base their
decisions on biblical
principles, oppose gay marriage
and abortion, and defend
religious freedoms.
After the November
election, Franklin Graham said,
the two organizations received
official notices that they
continued to qualify for
exemption from federal income
taxes.
Members of Z Street, a
group based in Merion Station,
Pa., filed suit in 2010 after
its application for tax-exempt
status stalled. The group's
president, Lori Lowenthal
Marcus, told Fox News that she
believes her organization – it
advocates a staunch, pro-Israel
position – was scrutinized in a
way similar to tea party groups
that the IRS has now
acknowledged were
inappropriately targeted.
In its suit, Z Street says
it was told by the IRS that it
was "scrutinizing" groups
connected with Israel and that
its case was being referred to a
special IRS unit. Z Street's
application for status as a
tax-exempt, 501 (c) 3
organization has not yet been
approved. A hearing on its suit
is scheduled for July 2 in U.S.
District Court in Washington.
Lowenthal said she
believes Z Street was targeted
because of her group's views on
Israel.
"We knew that this is
classic viewpoint
discrimination," she said.
Dean Patterson, a
spokesman for the IRS, said he
could not comment on either Z
Street or Franklin Graham's
claims.
"Federal law prohibits the
IRS from discussing specific tax
payers," Patterson said.
___
Associated Press writer
Emery Dalesio in Raleigh, N.C.,
contributed to this report.
15 May 2013, 11:39:37 PM |
Stephanie Hallett
Former Victoria's Secret
model Kylie Bisutti stopped by
HuffPost Live Wednesday and
opened up about her decision to
quit modeling to protect her
marriage and her relationship
with God.Bisutti told
host Alicia Menendez that while
her husband never asked her to
stop modeling, she did feel that
her flirtatious model persona
hurt his feelings.
"He did not [ask me to
stop modeling], he was very
supportive. He just prayed, and
his prayers have been answered,"
Bisutti said.
She also said that God
spoke to her during her modeling
career, telling her to leave the
industry because she "wasn't
being the right kind of role
model."
Watch the video above to
learn more, then
click here to see the full
segment on HuffPost Live.
Click through the
slideshow below to see photos of
Bisutti over the years.
Keep in touch! Check
out HuffPost Weddings on
Facebook,
Twitter and
Pinterest.
|
|

|
23 May 2013, 02:22:38 AM
BOSTON (AP) — A Boston church
official who claimed in an
autobiography he was a
leg-breaker for reputed gangster
James "Whitey" Bulger faces
accusations that he looted the
church's assets for personal
financial gain.
22 May 2013, 11:35:21 PM
PHOENIX
(AP) — An atheist lawmaker's
decision to give the daily
prayer at the Arizona House of
Representatives triggered a
do-over from a Christian
lawmaker who said the previous
day's prayer didn't pass muster.
22 May 2013, 10:33:30 PM
The
Vatican took another step
Wednesday to show greater
financial transparency by
publishing the first annual
report from its financial
watchdog agency and announcing
new regulations to fight money
laundering ...
22 May 2013, 09:25:57 PM
ACCOUNTABILITY: The Vatican
published the first annual
report from its financial
watchdog agency and announced
new regulations to fight money
laundering and terror financing.
DETAILS: The report from the ...
22 May 2013, 08:18:05 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - The Vatican's new
financial watchdog said on
Wednesday it had detected six
possible attempts to use the
Holy See to launder money last
year, citing this as proof of
its commitment to transparency.
The head of the Vatican's
Financial Intelligence Authority
(FIA), presenting its first
annual report, also said it
would soon have stronger
supervisory powers over the
Vatican's scandal-plagued bank,
the Institute for Works of
Religion (IOR), dubbed the
world's most secretive bank by
Forbes magazine. ...
22 May 2013, 08:16:34 PM
QUEBEC - The Quebec
government is turning to public
opinion as it seeks to set
guidelines for minority rights.
22 May 2013, 05:08:33 PM
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis'
fascination with the devil took
on remarkable new twists
Tuesday, with a well-known
exorcist insisting Francis
helped "liberate" a Mexican man
possessed by four different
demons despite the Vatican's
insistence that no such papal
exorcism took place.
22 May 2013, 04:41:06 PM
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope
Francis has issued his first
appeal directed at Catholics in
China, long the source of
concern for his predecessor
Benedict XVI.
22 May 2013, 02:25:49 PM
ROME
(Reuters) - Pope Francis on
Wednesday urged Catholics in
China to remain loyal to the
Vatican, whose authority is
challenged by China's Communist
rulers. China's Catholics number
between 8 and 12 million and are
divided between the
state-sanctioned Catholic
Patriotic Association, which has
installed bishops without
Vatican approval, and an
"underground" wing loyal to the
Vatican that rejects state
control. Francis's predecessor,
Pope Benedict XVI, made May 24 a
day dedicated to prayer for
China's Catholics. Francis said
at his weekly audience in St.
...
22 May 2013, 12:31:11 AM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — Pope Francis'
fascination with the devil took
on remarkable new twists
Tuesday, with a well-known
exorcist insisting Francis
helped "liberate" a Mexican man
possessed by four different
demons despite the Vatican's
insistence that no such papal
exorcism took place.
21 May 2013, 10:59:48 PM
By
Maria Tsvetkova MOSCOW (Reuters)
- Russian lawmakers on Tuesday
took a step toward imposing jail
terms for offending religious
feelings, approving legislation
proposed after punk band Pussy
Riot performed a raucous protest
song in Moscow's main Orthodox
Christian cathedral. Critics say
the bill will give
government-approved religious
groups protection others lack
and blur the line between church
and state under President
Vladimir Putin, who has
advocated a strong societal role
for the Russian Orthodox Church.
...
21 May 2013, 10:13:27 PM
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Christian
music singer Sandi Patty will
perform the national anthem at
Sunday's Indianapolis 500 for a
record sixth time.
21 May 2013, 09:03:30 PM
VATICAN
CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis
criticized what he called
"savage capitalism" on a visit
to a food kitchen on Tuesday, in
an address in which he called
for the values of generosity and
charity to be revived. "A savage
capitalism has taught the logic
of profit at any cost, of giving
in order to get, of exploitation
without thinking of people...
and we see the results in the
crisis we are experiencing," the
pope said. Francis greeted the
men and women coming to the
'Gift of Maria' food kitchen,
located at the walls of the
Vatican. ...
21 May 2013, 06:53:06 PM
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope
Francis has expressed his
"closeness to the families of
all who died in the Oklahoma
tornado," with special concern
for "those who lost young
children."
21 May 2013, 05:02:05 PM
PARIS - Paris police say
Notre Dame Cathedral has been
evacuated after a man committed
suicide in the 850-year-old
monument and tourist site.
21 May 2013, 04:54:57 PM
Paris police say Notre Dame
Cathedral evacuated after
suicide inside the famed church.
21 May 2013, 03:46:03 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Forty-one years ago,
a crazed Hungarian named Laszlo
Toth jumped an altar railing in
St. Peter's Basilica and dealt
12 hammer blows to
Michelangelo's Pieta, severely
damaging the Renaissance
masterpiece. To mark the attack
on May 21, 1972, the Vatican
Museums held a day-long seminar
on Tuesday on the statue, the
incident, and what subsequently
became one of the most delicate
and controversial art
restorations in history. ...
21 May 2013, 01:31:05 PM
VATICAN CITY - Is Pope
Francis an exorcist?
20 May 2013, 11:03:06 PM
LONDON (AP) — Senior members
of the Church of Scotland voted
Monday to let some congregations
choose ministers who are in
same-sex relationships — an
important compromise that must
still pass further hurdles
before it can become church law.
20 May 2013, 10:06:40 PM
LONDON (AP) — Senior members
of the Church of Scotland have
voted to let some congregations
have openly gay ministers, a
compromise first step that could
lead to the church allowing gay
clergy.
20 May 2013, 09:40:33 PM
NEW
YORK (AP) — Amid the purveyors
of belly casts and placenta
pills, sonogram art and cord
banks at a recent baby gear
extravaganza stood a smiling
Rosie Pope, pregnancy advice
guru, mommy concierge to the
rich and, with any luck, the
Martha Stewart of maternity.
20 May 2013, 09:22:33 PM
By Tim Bross ST. LOUIS, Mo
(Reuters) - Five people were
killed and six were injured
Monday morning when a van
carrying them home from a
religious gathering in
California rolled over off of
Interstate 70 near Vandalia in
southern Illinois, police said.
Fayette County Sheriff's
Department Deputy Shawn Carter
said the van had Maryland
plates, but the van's
destination is as yet
undetermined. Carter said the
van was eastbound about four
miles west of Vandalia, which is
about 70 miles northeast of St.
...
19 May 2013, 06:14:35 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is
calling for renewal in the
Catholic church as he wrapped up
two days of mass gatherings in
St. Peter's Square aimed at
energizing the faithful.
19 May 2013, 03:31:21 PM
By
Catherine Hornby VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Pope Francis warned
the Catholic Church to not close
in on itself at a Mass to mark
Pentecost Sunday attended by
more than 200,000 people, urging
the faithful to be open and
present in a new and changing
world. The Church should ask
itself daily whether it is
resisting new challenges and
remaining "barricaded in
transient structures which have
lost their capacity for openness
to what is new," he said. ...
19 May 2013, 01:26:21 AM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — Pope Francis
lamented that investment losses
by banks trigger more alarm in
the economic crisis than the
struggle of people to feed their
families, as he led a huge rally
Saturday to invigorate the
church's moral conscience, hours
after he held talks at the
Vatican about the economic
crisis with Germany's leader.
18 May 2013, 11:16:37 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Pope Francis shared
personal moments with 200,000
people on Saturday, telling them
he sometimes nods off while
praying at the end of a long day
and that it "breaks my heart"
that the death of a homeless
person is not news. Francis, who
has made straight talk and
simplicity a hallmark of his
papacy, made his unscripted
comments in answers to questions
by four people at a huge
international gathering of
Catholic associations in St.
Peter's Square. ...
18 May 2013, 06:01:41 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, mindful of the
importance of Christian voters
in September elections, met with
Pope Francis on Saturday during
a quick trip to Rome that
focused on helping victims of
Europe's economic crisis and
emphasizing the continent's
Christian roots.
18 May 2013, 05:26:48 PM
By
James Mackenzie VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - German Chancellor
Angela Merkel met Pope Francis
on Saturday and, apparently
responding to his criticism of a
heartless "dictatorship of the
economy", called for stronger
regulation of financial markets.
On Thursday, Francis appealed in
a speech for world financial
reform, saying the global
economic crisis had made life
worse for millions in rich and
poor countries. Merkel visited
Rome for a few hours
specifically to meet the pontiff
and spoke with him privately in
his library for 45 minutes,
unusually long for a private
papal audience. ...
18 May 2013, 05:16:23 PM
VATICAN CITY - German
Chancellor Angela Merkel,
mindful of the weight of
Christian voters in September
elections, made a quick trip to
Rome Saturday for a private
meeting with Pope Francis,
focusing on how Europe's
struggling economy should be at
the service of the people.
18 May 2013, 03:11:11 PM
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian
security officials say clashes
between Muslims and Christians
in the Mediterranean port city
of Alexandria left one man dead
of a heart attack.
|
17 May 2013, 06:05:17 AM
By Sharon Begley NEW YORK
(Reuters) - The long-awaited,
controversial new edition of the
bible of psychiatry can be
characterized by many numbers:
its 947 pages, its $199 price
tag, its more than 300 maladies
(from "dependent personality
disorder" and "voyeuristic
disorder" to "delayed
ejaculation," "kleptomania" and
"intermittent explosive
disorder"), each limning the
potential woes of being human.
...
17 May 2013, 01:26:47 AM
ATLANTA (AP) — When Ed
Buckner and his family went to a
north Georgia state park to
celebrate his son's birthday, he
was surprised and concerned to
find Bibles in the state-owned
cabin he had rented.
16 May 2013, 06:23:59 PM
Pope Francis has denounced
the global financial system,
blasting the "cult of money"
that he says is tyrannizing the
poor and turning humans into
expendable consumer goods. In
his first major ...
16 May 2013, 02:42:28 PM
By Philip Pullella VATICAN
CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican
Bank, a center of scandals for
decades, is to launch its own
website and publish its annual
report in an effort to increase
transparency, its new president
said. Ernst von Freyberg told
the bank's employees of the
changes, which should be in
place by the end of the year,
this week, according to Vatican
Radio. ...
16 May 2013, 12:13:17 PM
By Philip Pullella VATICAN
CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican
Bank, a center of scandals for
decades, is to launch its own
website and publish its annual
report in an effort to increase
transparency, its new president
said. Ernst von Freyberg told
the bank's employees of the
changes, which should be in
place by the end of the year,
this week, according to Vatican
Radio. ...
16 May 2013, 09:00:59 AM
The first thing visitors will
see when they enter the Vatican
Pavilion at the Venice
Biennale—an art show dedicated
to the modern and cutting
edge—will be a nod to the past:
a three-paneled triptych on
which the 20th-century Italian
artist Tano Festa reproduced
details from Michelangelo’s
Sistine Chapel. The paintings,
in tones of tan and ocher, serve
two functions. They remind
viewers of the Vatican’s past
importance as a sponsor of art,
and they serve as a frame for
the rest of the show inside.
16 May 2013, 12:22:46 AM
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is
getting back into its
centuries-old tradition of arts
patronage with its first-ever
exhibit at the Venice Biennale,
commissioning a biblically
inspired show about creation,
destruction and renewal for one
of the world's most prestigious
contemporary arts festivals.
15 May 2013, 11:56:40 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two
conservative religious groups
say they were also the subject
of unusual scrutiny from the
Internal Revenue Service.
15 May 2013, 09:26:08 PM
BUENOS
AIRES, Argentina (AP) — You can
see the streets where he grew up
and played soccer, the church
where Jorge Bergoglio prayed as
a teenager and the cathedral
where the man who would become
Pope Francis said Mass. You can
even visit the stand where he
bought his newspapers every
weekend and where he went for a
haircut.
15 May 2013, 08:22:48 PM
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - You
can see the streets where he
grew up and played soccer, the
church where Jorge Bergoglio
prayed as a teenager and the
cathedral where the man who
would become Pope Francis said
Mass. You can even visit the
stand where he bought his
newspapers every weekend and
where he went for a haircut.
15 May 2013, 05:11:00 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Disgraced Cardinal
Keith O'Brien, who resigned as
head of the Roman Catholic
Church in Scotland after
admitting to sexual misconduct,
will leave his country for
months of "prayer and penance",
the Vatican said on Wednesday. A
brief Vatican statement did not
say where O'Brien, once
Britain's most senior Catholic
cleric, was going, or spell out
why he was quitting Scotland.
...
15 May 2013, 02:36:36 PM
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican
says the Scottish cardinal who
resigned as archbishop after
admitting to sexual misconduct
will leave Scotland for several
months of prayer and atonement.
15 May 2013, 02:32:33 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — Two doves celebrated
their freedom with a soaring
flight over St. Peter's Square
on Wednesday, all thanks to Pope
Francis.
15 May 2013, 10:13:35 AM
SINGAPORE
(AP) — Singapore opened a
long-anticipated corruption
trial Wednesday of six church
leaders accused of embezzling
more than $40 million to fund
the pop music career of the wife
of their evangelical movement's
founder.
14 May 2013, 11:04:52 PM
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's
prosecutors on Tuesday referred
a Christian schoolteacher to
trial on charges of insulting
Islam, judicial sources said.
Dimiana Abdel-Nour, who was
arrested on Wednesday, was
accused by her Muslim students'
parents of insulting Islam and
comparing it to Christianity by
saying that the late Coptic Pope
Shenouda was better than the
Prophet Mohammad. ...
14 May 2013, 09:30:49 PM
The Vatican bank, long a
source of secret and scandal for
the Holy See, plans to publish
its annual report online as part
of its efforts to be more
financially transparent. Vatican
Radio said Tuesday that ...
14 May 2013, 07:38:31 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — The Vatican is
getting back into its
centuries-old tradition of arts
patronage with its first-ever
exhibit at the Venice Biennale,
commissioning a biblically
inspired show about creation,
destruction and renewal for one
of the world's most prestigious
contemporary arts festivals.
14 May 2013, 05:37:43 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - For most people, the
relationship between
contemporary art and the Vatican
- home of some of the world's
greatest old masterpieces - is
like oil and water - they just
don't mix. The Vatican's
"culture minister," Cardinal
Gianfranco Ravasi, wants to
change that perception and so
for the first time the Holy See
will have its own pavilion this
year at the 55th edition of the
Venice Biennale, a sacred cow of
modern art. ...
14 May 2013, 05:14:28 PM
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — An
Egyptian Christian teacher
detained over charges of
insulting Islam has been
released on bail on Tuesday, her
lawyer said.
14 May 2013, 02:35:01 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — The Vatican is
getting back into its
centuries-old tradition of arts
patronage with its first-ever
exhibit at the Venice Biennale,
commissioning a biblically
inspired show about creation,
destruction and renewal for one
of the world's most prestigious
contemporary arts festivals.
14 May 2013, 09:37:07 AM
By
Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - When
Hungarian radical right-wingers
rallied against a Jewish
conference in Budapest in early
May, a well-known Protestant
pastor hid behind the stage
while his wife stepped up to the
podium to denounce Jews and
Israel. Lorant Hegedus could
have preached the same
anti-Semitism as his wife, a
deputy for the populist Jobbik
party in parliament. But his
part in launching the rally may
cost him his role as the
far-right's favorite clergyman.
...
13 May 2013, 06:36:27 PM
By
Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala DAR ES
SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania has
released three Emiratis and one
Saudi held in connection with
the bombing of a church this
month and charged a local man
with murder, Tanzanian police
said. Three people were killed
in the attack on the Catholic
church in Arusha, north
Tanzania. More than 60 were
injured. Tanzania police said in
a statement on Monday that the
four had been released without
charge after investigations
proved they were not involved in
the bombing. ...
13 May 2013, 10:18:56 AM
RIYADH (Reuters) - A court in
Saudi Arabia has sentenced two
men to lashes and prison terms
for converting a woman to
Christianity and helping her
flee the conservative Islamic
kingdom, the Saudi Gazette
reported on Monday. A Lebanese
man was sentenced to six years
in prison and 300 lashes for
converting the woman, while a
Saudi man was sentenced to two
years and 200 lashes for aiding
her escape abroad, the
English-language daily said. It
added that the pair had
challenged the verdict and would
appeal. A spokesman at the
justice ministry could not
immediately be reached for
comment. ...
13 May 2013, 01:59:04 AM
Pope
Francis's first canonization
ceremony was a record-breaking
one. The new pontiff named over
800 new saints on Sunday. That's
already almost double the number
of saints declared by Pope John
Paul II, whose 480-odd
canonizations were, at the time,
more than those of all of his
predecessors since 1588,
combined. But the latest
canonization bonanza is notable
for another reason: most of the
800 new saints are 15th-century
martyrs, who were approved as a
group for sainthood by Francis's
predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
...
12 May 2013, 07:47:33 PM
JERUSALEM (AP) — A dozen
senior church leaders in the
Holy Land say Israeli police
"ill-treated" clergy, including
a Coptic Egyptian cleric, during
Orthodox Easter services.
12 May 2013, 03:15:42 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on
Sunday gave the Catholic Church
new saints, including hundreds
of 15th-century martyrs who were
beheaded for refusing to convert
to Islam, as he led his first
canonization ceremony Sunday in
a packed St. Peter's Square.
12 May 2013, 02:58:38 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has
made hundreds of new saints at
his first canonization ceremony
in St. Peter's Square. Here is a
look at the people receiving the
Catholic Church's highest honor:
12 May 2013, 02:45:25 PM
ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian
security officials say a Coptic
Christian who stabbed his wife
for converting to Islam has
killed himself by jumping out of
a fourth-story courthouse
window.
12 May 2013, 01:12:17 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Pope Francis on
Sunday proclaimed as saints some
800 Italians killed in the 15th
century for refusing to convert
to Islam, and said many
Christians were still being
persecuted for their faith. The
Vatican seemed at pains not to
allow the first canonizations of
Francis' two-month-old papacy to
be interpreted as anti-Islamic,
saying the deaths of the
'Otranto Marytrs' must be
understood in their historical
context. ...
12 May 2013, 05:22:14 AM
SPENCERTOWN,
N.Y. (AP) — At last, it is
written.
03 May 2013, 05:57:26 PM
Ireland's
Roman Catholic leaders appealed
to the public Friday to lobby
their lawmakers to reject a bill
that would permit abortions
deemed necessary to save the
life of the pregnant woman, a
measure long ...
02 May 2013, 09:14:31 PM
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Emeritus
Pope Benedict XVI came home to
the Vatican on Thursday for the
first time since he resigned
Feb. 28, beginning an
unprecedented era for the
Catholic Church of having a
retired pontiff living alongside
a reigning one.
02 May 2013, 09:06:37 PM
More than 500 years after
Christopher Columbus set foot on
the shores of the New World,
what may be the first ever
depiction of the native
Americans he encountered has
been discovered hidden in a
Vatican painting.
02 May 2013, 06:11:47 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Benedict XVI moved
back to the Vatican on Thursday,
opening an uncertain era in
Catholic Church history where an
"emeritus pope" and a ruling
pontiff will live as neighbors
for the first time. Benedict,
the first pope to abdicate in
600 years, will live out his
retirement in a restored convent
in the Vatican gardens with a
view of the dome of St. Peter's
Basilica and just a short walk
from the residence of his
successor, Francis. ...
02 May 2013, 05:28:02 PM
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Benedict
XVI returns to Vatican for first
time since resignation, Pope
Francis greets him.
02 May 2013, 04:36:18 PM
Church & Dwight Co., which
makes consumer products
including Arm & Hammer and other
cleaning products, said Thursday
that its first-quarter net
income rose 12 percent because
of cost-cutting and strong ...
02 May 2013, 03:53:57 PM
By
Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO
(Reuters) - For years, headlines
about Catholic schools in the
United States have told gloomy
tales of falling enrollment and
multiple closings. Between 2000
and 2013, 2,090 U.S. Catholic
schools closed or consolidated
and enrollment fell 24.5
percent, according to the
National Catholic Educational
Association (NCEA). In places
like Chicago's Leo Catholic High
School for boys, student numbers
have plummeted from 1,200
students in the 1950s to 157
this year. In New York, the
Catholic Archdiocese plans to
close 24 schools. ...
02 May 2013, 12:09:39 PM
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Emeritus
Pope Benedict XVI comes home on
Thursday to a new house and a
new pope, as an unprecedented
era begins of a retired pontiff
living side-by-side with a
reigning one inside the Vatican
gardens.
02 May 2013, 04:49:34 AM
By
Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - The
European Union is considering
trade action against Bangladesh,
which has preferential access to
EU markets for its garments, to
pressure Dhaka to improve safety
standards after a building
collapse killed more than 400
factory workers. Pope Francis
condemned the conditions of
workers who died in the disaster
as "slave labor", while in Dhaka
several thousand workers rallied
to mark Labour Day, some calling
for capital punishment for those
responsible for the tragedy.
"The owner of the building ...
...
01 May 2013, 09:14:33 PM
By Philip Pullella VATICAN
CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on
Wednesday condemned the
conditions of workers who died
in the Bangladesh factory
collapse as "slave labor,"
saying unjust salaries and the
unbridled quest for profits were
"against God". His words were
his toughest yet on workers'
rights since his election on
March 13, and another indication
that the former archbishop of
Buenos Aires was intent on
making social justice a major
plank of his pontificate.
"Living on 38 euros ($50) a
month - that was the pay of
these people who died. ...
01 May 2013, 12:05:31 AM
By
Paulo Prada RIO DE JANEIRO
(Reuters) - The Catholic Church
has excommunicated a Brazilian
priest after he defended
homosexuality, open marriage and
other practices counter to
Church teaching in online
videos. In a statement released
late on Monday, the priest's
diocese said Father Roberto
Francisco Daniel, known to local
parishioners as Padre Beto, had
"in the name of 'freedom of
expression' betrayed the promise
of fealty to the Church." The
priest "injured the Church with
grave statements counter to the
dogma of Catholic faith and
morality. ...
30 April 2013, 10:49:19 PM
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. (AP) — A man charged with
stabbing three people at an
Albuquerque Catholic church
because he thought a choir
leader was a Mason vandalized a
Masonic lodge hours before his
attack, police said.
30 April 2013, 08:38:46 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Pope Francis urged
Israelis and Palestinians to
resume talks and make
"courageous decisions" to bring
peace after his first meeting
with Israel's President Shimon
Peres on Tuesday and accepted an
invitation to visit the Holy
Land. The two discussed the
civil war in Syria, tensions in
Iran and the scourge of
anti-Semitism during half an
hour of private talks in the
Vatican's Apostolic Palace. ...
30 April 2013, 07:21:05 PM
CINCINNATI
(AP) — The Roman Catholic
archbishop of Cincinnati
expressed sadness and offered
prayers Tuesday for a wounded
student, his family and those in
the school community in the
aftermath of a classroom suicide
attempt.
30 April 2013, 05:24:24 PM
A gay teacher who said she
was fired by an Ohio Catholic
school after her mother's
published obituary included the
name of her partner is fighting
to get her job back. Carla Hale
said she was told she ...
30 April 2013, 03:23:41 PM
By
Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Israeli President
Shimon Peres invited Pope
Francis on Tuesday to visit
Israel, at his first meeting
with the new pontiff who has
appealed for peace in the Middle
East. The pope accepted the
invitation "with willingness and
joy," a Vatican spokesman said,
but there was no indication when
a trip would be made. "I am
expecting you in Jerusalem, not
just me but the whole country of
Israel," Peres told the pope in
the presence of reporters after
30 minutes of private talks in
the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
...
30 April 2013, 02:33:06 PM
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI will move
back to the Vatican on Thursday
to live out his retirement in a
restored convent close to where
his successor now leads the
Roman Catholic Church, the
Vatican said. Benedict has been
living at the papal summer
residence south of Rome since
February 28 when he became the
first pope in modern times to
abdicate. He stayed there while
work was being done on the
convent inside the Vatican where
he is expected to live out the
rest of his days. ...
30 April 2013, 02:26:35 PM
VATICAN
CITY (Reuters) - Israeli
President Shimon Peres invited
Pope Francis on Tuesday to visit
Israel, at his first meeting
with the new pontiff who has
appealed for peace in the Middle
East. "I am expecting you in
Jerusalem, not just me but the
whole country of Israel," Peres
told the pope in the presence of
reporters after 30 minutes of
private talks in the Vatican's
Apostolic Palace. Francis, the
former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio
of Argentina, made an appeal for
peace between Israelis and
Palestinians in his Easter
address last month. ...
30 April 2013, 02:22:35 PM
VATICAN
CITY (AP) — Retired Pope
Benedict XVI is coming home.
30 April 2013, 11:00:00 AM
Cardinal
Timothy Dolan, the head of the
U.S. Catholic Bishops'
conference, just hired
conservative activist Kim
Daniels as his spokeswoman
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The
Beautiful Side of Evil -
Johanna Michaelsen

1.06.47

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22 May
2013, 08:40:12 PM | Peter
Stanford
The new
Pope is much more open in
speaking about the Devil, says
Peter Stanford
22 May
2013, 01:51:37 AM | Auslan Cramb
THE first
openly homosexual clergyman
appointed by the Church of
Scotland has welcomed a vote by
the Kirk that could see liberal
parishes choosing gay men and
women as their ministers.
21 May
2013, 09:01:04 PM | John Bingham
Hopes of a
"fast-track" solution to the
Church of England's women
bishops crisis have been dealt a
blow after it emerged there will
be no final decision for at
least two years.
21 May
2013, 02:53:09 PM | Telegraph
Staff
Pope
appears to have performed an
exorcism on a wheelchair-bound
young man who believers claim
was possessed by evil.
19 May
2013, 11:00:52 PM | John Bingham
Hundreds
of thousands of Christian young
people will be put off becoming
teachers, doctors, nurses or
other public servants once gay
marriage becomes law, a
coalition of church leaders
claims.
19 May
2013, 08:47:22 PM | John Bingham
Jesus
managed to feed 5,000 people
with five loaves and two fishes
and turn water into wine but the
Archbishop of Canterbury admits
he is struggling to get a decent
vindaloo.
19 May
2013, 10:44:34 AM | John Bingham
More than
500 imams have joined forces to
protest against David Cameron's
plans for gay marriage in an
unprecedented intervention from
the British Muslim community.
18 May
2013, 10:30:00 PM | Cole Moreton
The
coronation of the next monarch
will break with a thousand years
of history, The Sunday Telegraph
has learnt.
18 May
2013, 10:00:47 PM | David
Burrowes
Ordinary
Conservatives cannot understand
why the leadership is being
distracted by the issue of gay
marriage, and are being treated
as "pariahs" for expressing
their doubts about a change in
the law, says David Burrowes
18 May
2013, 10:00:35 PM | David
Barrett
Officials
working for the Mayor accused of
misleading court when he
personally intervened to ban a
Christian group's poster
campaign.
18 May
2013, 10:00:06 PM | David
Barrett
More than
600 married couples renewed
their vows in a special mass
amid warnings the institution
will be undermined by plans to
allow gay couples to wed.
18 May
2013, 10:00:55 AM | John Bingham
It will
soon be "too late" to save
marriage as it has been
understood for centuries, the
leader of the Roman Catholic
church in England and Wales will
say tomorrow.
18 May
2013, 08:00:52 AM | Charles
Moore
Jonathan
Ruffer donated £25m to secure
the future of Auckland Castle -
the historic home of bishops -
and its bounty of priceless
paintings. Now he plans to tell
the story of religion in Britain
- and bring in the crowds, says
Chalres Moore.
18 May
2013, 08:00:18 AM | John Bingham
Top public
schools have put it in their
curricula and David Cameron has
even set out to measure it, now
churches are embarking on a
drive to teach "happiness" to
the nation.
17 May
2013, 08:56:21 PM | Christopher
Howse
A
larger-than-life 18th-century
archdeacon intrigues Christopher
Howse
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THE CATHOLICS
Abuse
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Main Page
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Weathering the Coming
Storm

Price R399.00

Description
Dr. Chuck
Missler, an
internationally known
business executive,
outlines our current
economic predicament and
defensive steps you can
take to lessen the
impact of the impending
economic crisis. As a
Bible teacher for over
30 years with a ministry
reaching over 40
countries, Chuck shares
some key strategies to
prepare yourself
spiritually and
practically.
Is the World facing
another major economic
upheaval?
What is the best
strategy to protect your
family in times of
economic uncertainty?
The Church has enjoyed a
relatively peaceful
existence in the West
for a few centuries but
the with the coming
persecution, how do we
go about organizing home
study and home-church?
Soul Survival – Keeping
your “lamp full” during
the hard times ahead.
Join Dr. Chuck Missler
and Ron Matsen in the
Executive Brie fing Room
of
The River Lodge, New
Zealand, in an intensive
summary outlining what
lies
ahead and how we can
prepare for the coming
storm.
Runtime: Approx. 5 hours
© 2012 Koinonia House
Inc.
Available in the
following formats:
DVD:
•3 Disks
•5 M4A Files
•1 PDF Notes File
•Color, 16:9, Dolby
Digital 2.0 stereo,
Region encoding (This
DVD will be viewable in
other countries WITH the
proper DVD player and
television set.)
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2012
Strategic Trends
by Chuck
Missler
 |
DVD
PRICE R 299.00

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END TIMES SCENARIO
DVD
3
set DVD

End Times
Scenario
Chuck Missler
Session Listing
Session 1
Introduction.
Eschatological Hermeneutics. Preview of the
Sessions. Daniel’s 70 Weeks.
Session 2
The
Harpazo (“The Rapture”). Its
Biblical Basis. Alternative Views. Old Testament
Allusions.
Session 3
Pre-Rapture
Events. The 70th Week of Daniel 9: Definition;
the Abomination of Desolation; the AntiChrist;
the First Beast and the False Prophet; the Mark
of the Beast.
Session 4
Babylon. Kings of
the East. Armageddon (The Refuge in Edom; The
Sequence). The Second Coming. The Kingdom.
Session 5
The Millennium:
Satan bound. Amillennialism. The Final Rebellion
(Magog #2). The Great White Throne. The
Millennial Temple. The New Jerusalem. Recap and
Overview.
Session 6
Post-Rapture
Events (for the Redeemed). The Bema Seat. The
Wedding of the Bride. The Kingdom (from) Heaven.
The Overcomers: the
Metachoi.
Letters to 7
Churches.
African Missionary’s Notice
I’m
part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have
Holy Spirit power.
The die has been cast.
I have stepped over the line.
The decision has been made.
I’m a disciple of His.
I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away,
or be still.
My
past is redeemed, my present makes sense,
my future is secure.
I’m
finished with low living,
sight walking, small planning,
smooth knees, colourless dreams,
tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living,
and dwarfed goals.
I no
longer need pre-eminence,
prosperity, position, promotions,
plaudits, or popularity.
I
don’t have to be right,
first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or
rewarded.
I now live by faith,
lean on His presence,
walk by patience, lift by prayer,
and labour by power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is
heaven,
my road is narrow, my way rough,
my companions few,
my
guide reliable, my mission clear.
I cannot be bought,
compromised, detoured, lured away,
turned back, deluded or delayed.
I
will not flinch in the face of sacrifice,
hesitate in the presence of the adversary,
negotiate at the table of the enemy,
ponder at the pool of popularity,
or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I
won’t give up,
shut up,
or let up,
until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up,
paid up, and preached up for the cause of
Christ.
I
am a disciple of Jesus.
I
must go till He comes, give till I drop,
preach till all know, and work till He stops me.
And
when He comes for His own,
He will have no problems recognizing me
—my banner will be clear!
— by an Anonymous
African Pastor —nailed to his wall prior to his
execution

Price
R399.00
This DVD includes notes in PDF format
and M4A files.
3 Disc
6 M4A Files
Color, Fullscreen 16:9, Dolby
Digital 2.0 stereo, Region This DVD will
be viewable in other countries WITH the proper
DVD player and television set.)
+ 6 Hours
|
END TIMES SCENARIO
DVD |
Many
people are becoming
increasingly conscious
that we are entering a
unique phase of human
history. Some are
terrified. Some are
predicting cosmic doom
on the near horizon.
Others are making
astonishing predictions.
What does the Bible
really say?
Eschatology (the Study
of “Last Things”) is
among the most
challenging avenues of
study, even for the most
sophisticated.
-
What
are the “real” End
Time events?
-
What
is the most
preposterous
doctrine in
Christianity?
-
Does
the Church go
through the Great
Tribulation?
-
Which
Kingdom do we pray
for in the Lord’s
Prayer?
-
Is
there really a
“Battle of
Armageddon”? Why?
-
What
Scripture did Jesus
deliberately leave
out in Nazareth?
-
Who
is the “AntiChrist”?
Is he alive today?
-
Should we expect a
literal Babylon on
the horizon?
Join Dr. Chuck Missler
in the Executive
Briefieng Room of The
River Lodge, in New
Zealand, for an
intensive summary of the
entire fabric of
controversies and
insights in this most
provocative area.
©
2012 Koinonia House Inc.
This briefing pack
collection contains 6
hours of teaching
Available in the
following formats
DVD:
-
3
Disks
-
6 M4A
Files
-
Color, 16:9, Dolby
Digital 2.0 stereo,
All Region This DVD
will be viewable in
other countries WITH
the proper DVD
player and
television set.)
- 6 M4A Files
- PDF Notes File
- Files play in iTunes and any iOS player (iPhone, iPad, iPod, iPod Touch)
- Audio will play on most digital audio players and many MP3 players
- Includes embedded slideshow
|
|
Death of Discernment
by Ron Matsen


In this segment, Ron Matsen discusses signs of the
end times. This segment comes from the "Death of
Deiscernment" briefing pack published by Koinon...
Of all the end-time themes
discussed in the Bible—such as global disasters
(Mt 24), the rise of the global super-state, the
identity of the Antichrist, the mark of the
beast, and the Magog invasion (Ezek
38-39)—“deception and apostasy in the church” is
listed more times than any other end-time “sign
of the times.”
Are we currently living in the Age of Apostasy?
Ron Matsen explores the evidence and causes of
apostasy and provides an antidote for apostasy
in this timely study
DVD PRICE R 159.00

DVD:
-
1 Disc
-
2 M4A
Files
-
Color,
Fullscreen
16:9,
Dolby
Digital
2.0
stereo,
Region 0
encoding
(NTSC
only.
This DVD
will be
viewable
in other
countries
WITH the
proper
DVD
player
and
television
set.)
M4A Audio
With
Embedded
Slideshow:
-
2 M4A
Files
-
2 MP3
Files
-
PDF
Notes
File
-
Files
play in
itunes
and any
IOS
player
(iPod,
iPhone,
iPod
Touch)
-
Audio
will
play on
most
digital
audio
players
and many
MP3
players
-
Includes
embedded
slideshow
|
|

Price R 159.00

Has God abandoned Israel?
Has the Church “replaced” Israel?
What does the Bible say?
As we watch the world events, it is clear that Israel is following her prophetic scenario, and a new chapter is about to be written—and there may be a big surprise on our near horizon!
|
|
THE 4 MOST
CHALLENGING
DVD's
ANY
"CHRISTIAN"
COULD EVER WISH
TO VIEW
|
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|
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|
|
22 May 2013,
04:33:49 PM |
Victoria Hawkins
The Church of
Scotland has
voted to allow
practising
homosexual men
and women to
become
ministers. The
Kirk’s ruling
assembly voted
on Monday in
favour of a
proposal to
allow liberal
congregations to
opt out of the
church’s
traditionalist
stance on
homosexuality.
It followed a
report by the
church’s
theological
commission which
set out
traditional
[...]

22 May 2013,
12:41:05 PM |
Sam Wylie
The push to
redefine
marriage has
been branded a
‘crazy,
vote-losing
obsession’, an
“embarrassment”,
and “bad
politics”, by
three national
newspapers. The
Sun said the
Conservatives
were in “a
wilderness of
dismal poll
ratings and
vicious Tory
civil war”,
triggered by
David Cameron’s
“own
lily-livered
leadership,
casual arrogance
and suicidal
political
instincts”. The
Daily Telegraph
[...]

21 May 2013,
06:00:14 PM |
Victoria Hawkins
A Tory
Councillor says
redefining
marriage is not
conservative and
not in step with
the Party’s core
values. Cllr
Mary Douglas
told BBC
Breakfast: “The
majority of Tory
MPs are against
this and that is
where the
Conservative
grassroots is
coming from,
actually David
Cameron is out
of step with his
own Party.” She
added, [...]

21 May 2013,
03:19:39 PM |
Victoria Hawkins
Grassroots
Tories are “mad,
swivel-eyed
loons”,
according to one
of the Prime
Minister’s
closest allies.
The comment
emerged as the
Conservative
Party faces
uproar over its
plans to
redefine
marriage – with
many local
activists
leaving over the
issue. Lord
Feldman strongly
denied making
the comments
after internet
rumours linked
them to him.
Representative
But [...]

21 May 2013,
12:35:59 PM |
Victoria Hawkins
David Cameron
grabbed Labour’s
£4bn lifeline to
save his
redefinition of
marriage Bill in
the House of
Commons last
night. The deal
to stave off a
rebellion means
the Prime
Minister had to
cave in to
Labour’s demands
for an immediate
review of civil
partnerships.
That review will
include the
possibility of
opening civil
partnerships
[...]

20 May 2013,
04:55:08 PM |
Victoria Hawkins
Thousands of
young Christians
who believe in
traditional
marriage will
think twice
before taking
public sector
jobs, a group of
church leaders
has warned. In a
letter to The
Daily Telegraph,
17 ministers and
one archbishop
expressed their
concern about
the consequences
if the Marriage
(Same Sex
Couples) Bill is
passed in its
current state.
[...]

17 May 2013,
05:25:37 PM |
Sam Wylie
The Government
has said it will
consider whether
to allow
heterosexual
couples to have
a civil
partnership
rather than a
marriage, at a
cost of up to
£4bn. Equalities
Minister Maria
Miller hopes the
promise of a
review will buy
off votes and
give a smoother
ride for the
same-sex
marriage Bill.
Allowing
heterosexuals to
[...]

17 May 2013,
05:12:18 PM |
Victoria Hawkins
An American
group working to
protect
traditional
marriage has
been targeted by
the country’s
tax service – in
a set of
circumstances
described as
“chilling”. The
National
Organization for
Marriage (NOM)
is planning to
sue the Internal
Revenue Service
(IRS) after it
leaked their tax
return to its
political rival,
the Human Rights
Campaign (HRC).
[...]

17 May 2013,
04:32:18 PM |
Sam Wylie
The Defence
Secretary has
criticised the
Government for
focusing on
redefining
marriage, and
said the plans
“upset vast
numbers of
people”. Philip
Hammond, a
senior cabinet
minister, warned
that same-sex
marriage would
change the
meaning of
marriage for
millions of
people. And he
said there was
no big demand
for the change.
Focus Mr Hammond
[...]

17 May 2013,
03:47:57 PM |
Jane Leung
Children start
watching
pornography
online from age
six and start
flirting on
social media
websites as
young as eight,
a worldwide
survey of 19,000
parents has
revealed. Almost
a quarter of the
children
accounted for in
the study had at
least one social
network account
by the time they
reached 12, and
17 per cent
[...]

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Homosexuality
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
All Your Queeries from Wikipedia
|
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|
AS IN THE DAY'S OF NOAH
SLIDE SHOW

 |
Timothy/Titus/Philemon - DVD
Chuck Missler
Price: R 399.00
Media Type: DVD
Chuck Missler examines the 'pastoral epistles' of I & II Timothy, Titus and Philemon messages not just to pastors, but to all believers.

|
|
 |
1
& 2 Peter
With
New
CD Rom/MP3
which includes
Multi media
Slide Show & PDF
Notes
Price: R 399.00

Media Type: DVD
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REVELATION

DVD Series -
R 799.00
(
8 Discs)
|
|
Video
ITV London Tonight's report from on the synthetic ice rink installed in Woking United
Reformed Church's sanctuary to raise money for The Children With
Special Needs Foundation and Woking Hospice.
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