Bishop Paul S. Loverde
...What was once the shameful and occasional vice of the few has become the mainstream entertainment for the many – through the Internet, cable, satellite and broadcast television, cell phones and even portable gaming and entertainment devices designed for children and teenagers. Never before have so many Americans been so tempted to view pornography. Never before have the accountability structures – to say nothing of the defenses which every society must build to defend the precious gift of her children – been so weak...
...This plague stalks the souls of men, women and children, ravages the bonds of marriage and victimizes the most innocent among us. It obscures and destroys people's ability to see one another as unique and beautiful expressions of God's creation, instead darkening their vision, causing them to view others as objects to be used and manipulated. It has been excused as an outlet for free expression, supported as a business venture, and condoned as just another form of entertainment. It is not widely recognized as a threat to life and happiness. It is not often treated as a destructive addiction. It changes the way men and women treat one another in sometimes dramatic but often subtle ways. And it is not going away...
...It is not surprising, then, that we find ourselves assuming secular attitudes and becoming confused about the true nature of sin. This confusion becomes deadly when we use it to justify our own sinfulness, or seek to “define away” the evil nature of sins that tempt us. This is nowhere more evident than in the confusion that some Christians experience about the true nature of pornography...
“You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
See full article here: http://www.arlingtondiocese.org/offices/communications/boughtprice.html
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Circumcision Reduces Risk of AIDS, Study Finds
December 13, 2006
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Circumcising African men may cut their risk of catching AIDS in half, the National Institutes of Health said today as it stopped two clinical trials in Africa, when preliminary results suggested that circumcision worked so well that it would be unethical not to offer it to uncircumcised men in the trials.
AIDS experts immediately hailed the result, saying it gave the world a new way to fight the spread of AIDS, and the directors of the two largest funds for fighting the disease said they would now consider paying for circumcisions.
“This is very exciting news,” said Daniel Halperin, an H.I.V. specialist at Harvard’s Center for Population and Development, who has argued in scientific journals for years that circumcision slows the spread of AIDS in the parts of Africa where it is practiced.
In an interview from Zimbabwe, Mr. Halperin added: “I have no doubt that, as word of this gets around, millions of African men will want to get circumcised and that will save many lives.”
But experts also cautioned that circumcision is no cure-all. It only lessens the chances that a man will catch the virus, it is expensive compared to condoms, abstinence or other methods, and the surgery has serious risks if performed by folk healers using dirty blades, as often happens in rural Africa.
Sex education messages to young men need to make it clear that “this does not mean that you have an absolute protection,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an AIDS researcher and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which sponsored the trials. Circumcision should be added to other prevention methods, not replace them, he said.
The two trials were carried out among nearly 3,000 men in Kisumu, Kenya, and nearly 5,000 men in Rakai, Uganda. None were infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS; they were divided into circumcised and uncircumcised groups. They were given safe sex advice — although many presumably did not take it — and retested regularly.
The trials were stopped by the National Institutes of Health’s Data Safety and Monitoring Board this week after data showed that the Kenyan men had a 53 percent reduction in new H.I.V. cases and the Ugandan men a 48 percent reduction.
In Kenya, 22 of the 1,393 circumcised young men in the study caught the disease, compared with 47 of the 1,391 uncircumcised men.
Those results echo the finding of a trial completed last year in the town of Orange Farm, South Africa, financed by the French government, which demonstrated a reduction of 60 percent among circumcised men.
Two agencies, one under the State Department and the other financed by a number of countries, said they now would be willing to pay for circumcisions, which they have not before, citing a lack of hard evidence that it works.
Dr. Richard G. A. Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said that if a country seeking money submitted plans to conduct safe, sterile circumcisions, “I think it’s very likely that our technical panel would approve it.”
Ambassador Mark Dybul, executive director of the $15 billion President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in the State Department, said his agency “will support implementation of safe medical male circumcision for HIV/AIDS prevention.”
He too warned that it was only one new weapon.
“Prevention efforts must reinforce the ABC approach — abstain, be faithful and correct and consistent use of condoms,” he said.
Uncircumcised men are thought to be more susceptible to AIDS because the underside of the foreskin is rich in Langerhans’ cells, which attach easily to the virus. The foreskin may also suffer small tears during intercourse, making it more susceptible to infection.
Researchers have long noted that parts of Africa where circumcision is practiced — particularly in the Muslim countries of West Africa — had much lower AIDS rates. But it was unclear whether other factors, such as religion or polygamy, played important roles.
Outside Muslim regions, circumcision is spotty. In South Africa, for example, the Xhosa people circumcise teen-age boys, while Zulus, whose traditional homeland abuts theirs, do not. AIDS is common in members of both tribes.
In recent years, as word has spread that circumcision might be protective, many African men have sought it out. A Zambian hospital offered $3 circumcisions last year, and Swaziland trained 60 doctors to give them at $40 each after its waiting lists grew.
“Private practitioners also do it,” Dr. Halperin said. “In some places, it’s $20, in others, much more. Lots of the wealthy elite have already done it. It prevents STD’s, it’s seen as cleaner, sex is better, women like it. I predict that a lot of men who can’t afford private clinics will start clamoring for it.”
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
An Insult to Humanity
An "insult to humanity" -- that's how a well-known Jewish group is describing a conference that got under way today in Iran involving people who question whether the Holocaust really occurred.
About 70 people have gathered in Tehran for the two-day conference to trade allegations that the death of six-million Jews at the hand of Adolf Hitler never really happened.
The charge gained prominence earlier this year when Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared the Holocaust a myth. He has used that charge to justify his position that the nation of Israel has no right to exist.
In Los Angelese, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is countering the Iranian event with a teleconference which will feature testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Spokesman Rabbi Marvin Hier says it is "an outrage" and "an insult to humanity" that any country would "stoop so low as to deny the greatest crime in the history of civilization."
He says his teleconference in Los Angeles will serve to "counter these bigots and revisionist claims" by giving first-hand accounts of what these Holocaust survivors actually experienced and witnessed and "how their lives were shattered."
About 70 people have gathered in Tehran for the two-day conference to trade allegations that the death of six-million Jews at the hand of Adolf Hitler never really happened.
The charge gained prominence earlier this year when Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared the Holocaust a myth. He has used that charge to justify his position that the nation of Israel has no right to exist.
In Los Angelese, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is countering the Iranian event with a teleconference which will feature testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Spokesman Rabbi Marvin Hier says it is "an outrage" and "an insult to humanity" that any country would "stoop so low as to deny the greatest crime in the history of civilization."
He says his teleconference in Los Angeles will serve to "counter these bigots and revisionist claims" by giving first-hand accounts of what these Holocaust survivors actually experienced and witnessed and "how their lives were shattered."
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Right and Wrong
Christians have standards of right and wrong because they accept that there is a Creator, and as Creator, He has direct ownership over His creation.
He owns us not only because He created us but because as the Scriptures say, “Know ye not that … ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
God created everything; therefore, He has absolute authority. Because humans are created beings, they are under total obligation to the One who has absolute authority over them. Our absolute authority has a right to set the rules.
It is in our own best interest to obey because He is Creator.
Thus, what is right and what is wrong is not a matter of anyone’s opinion, but must be in accord with the principles found in the Word of God, who has authority over us.
Just as a car designer provides a manual for correct maintenance of what he has designed and made, so too does our Creator supply His creation with all the instructions that are necessary to live a full, free, and abundant life.
God has provided His set of instructions, not out of some spiteful or killjoy design, but because He loves us and knows what is best for us.
He owns us not only because He created us but because as the Scriptures say, “Know ye not that … ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
God created everything; therefore, He has absolute authority. Because humans are created beings, they are under total obligation to the One who has absolute authority over them. Our absolute authority has a right to set the rules.
It is in our own best interest to obey because He is Creator.
Thus, what is right and what is wrong is not a matter of anyone’s opinion, but must be in accord with the principles found in the Word of God, who has authority over us.
Just as a car designer provides a manual for correct maintenance of what he has designed and made, so too does our Creator supply His creation with all the instructions that are necessary to live a full, free, and abundant life.
God has provided His set of instructions, not out of some spiteful or killjoy design, but because He loves us and knows what is best for us.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Holy Wisdom
by Bruce S. Thornton
...the West is supposed to respect and tolerate Muslims and Islam, all the while that no such respect is afforded to Christians and Jews. The West is supposed to feel guilty and obsess over its putative crimes against Islam, all the while that the longer chronicle of Islamic assault against the West is forgotten. Hence the ridiculous ignorance of those who think the Crusades were “holy wars” akin to jihadic aggression. Somehow it’s forgotten that the Holy Land was Greco-Roman and Hebraic and Christian for centuries before the armies of Allah destroyed that cultural continuity and imposed a new culture and religion at the point of a sword.
...The city of Istanbul, once known as Constantinople, this was one of the great cities of Classical and Christian culture, home to one of Christendom’s most magnificent churches, Hagia Sophia, the church of the Holy Wisdom. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople ceased to exist, falling to the armies of the Sultan Mehmet II: “By noon,” John Julius Norwich writes, “the streets were running red with blood. Houses were ransacked, women and children raped or impaled, churches razed, icons wrenched from their golden frames, books ripped from their silver bindings. . . . In the church of St. Saviour in Chora the mosaics and frescoes were miraculously spared, but the Empire’s holiest icon, the Virgin Hodegetria, said to have been painted by St. Luke himself, was hacked into four pieces and destroyed. The most hideous scenes of all, however, were enacted in the church of the Holy Wisdom. Matins were already in progress when the berserk conquerors were heard approaching. Immediately the great bronze doors were closed; but the Turks soon smashed their way in. The poorer and more unattractive of the congregation were massacred on the spot; the remainder were lashed together and led off to the Turkish camps, for their captors to do with as they liked. As for the officiating priests, they continued with the Mass as long as they could before being killed at the high altar.”
Ancient history, you say, irrelevant to the present? But do not the Muslims repeatedly invoke the historical crimes of the West to justify terrorism? Are not the sins of colonialism and imperialism continually cited, even though France and England’s 150 years in the Middle East and North Africa are dwarfed by Islam’s several centuries in Spain and the Balkans and the cradle of the West, Greece? Is there some statute of limitations on conquest and the transfer of territory that attends it, so that the conquests of Islam are legitimized by time, while those of the West can never be?
Why do we accept this double standard? Why are the continuing persecution of Christians today, despicable anti-Semitic slanders, and the desecration of temples and churches in Muslim lands shrugged away in the West, while trivial cartoons and mere statements of historical fact are met with hysteria, violence, and threats? Why are churches disappearing throughout the lands of Christianity’s birth and growth, while huge mosques are going up in London and Milan? Why are Christians and Jews forbidden entry into Saudi Arabia, while Muslims in Europe demand special privileges and recognition of their faith?
Nowhere is this insane, groveling capitulation of the West more obvious than in its treatment of Israel. By all rights, when Israel recaptured Jerusalem from Jordan –– in a defensive war Israel did not want, a war Israel literally begged Jordan to stay out of –– Israel could have razed the Aqsa mosque and rebuilt the temple on the site it had stood on for centuries before Islam even existed. Instead, the Temple Mount is still controlled by Muslims, who are free to worship in the mosque all the while they allow the children of Allah to throw stones on the Jews who come to worship at the few scraps of the temple wall, all that is left to them of their holiest site. Meanwhile the countries of the West decry the “illegal occupation” of Jerusalem and Judea and Galilee, refuse to put their embassies in the capital of Israel, and continually demand more and more concessions to a people who have made it clear that their conquest of Jerusalem is legitimate, that Israelis, not they, are the interloper in the Jews’ historical homeland, and that violence against innocents is justified to undo a history deemed to violate Allah’s will.
When will we learn that this forbearance is not a testimony to our strength but rather a sign of our cultural sickness? Would that the Pope had stood in Hagia Sophia and asked the Turks to restore this Christian monument to the Orthodox Church, as a sign that Turkey is sincere about entering the modern world and accepting its canons of reciprocal tolerance, not to mention showing the sort of regret for its ancestors’ crimes that the West is continually dunned to show. What do you think the reaction would have been? How many Christians would have died in the ensuing riots by the adherents of the “religion of peace”? And how many Western commentators would have scourged the Pope for his blinkered intolerance and insensitivity?
No, the enemy knows that what we pretend to be “tolerance” and “respect” are merely the camouflage of spiritual exhaustion and fear. We have fewer and fewer men like those who created the West in the teeth of Islamic aggression, men like the Byzantine Greek Lucas Notaras. After the sack of Constantinople, the Sultan demanded Notaras’s beautiful 14-year-old son for the royal harem: “When Notaras still defied the Sultan,” Steven Runciman writes, “orders were given for him and the two boys [his son and son-in-law] to be decapitated on the spot. Notaras merely asked that they should be slain before him, lest the sight of his death should make them waver. When they had both perished, he bared his neck to the executioner.” As Nestor says in the Iliad, “Men like those I have not seen again, nor ever will.”
excerpts from http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/thornton120706PF.htmlWednesday, December 06, 2006
Incoming Congress Prepares to Launch 'Operation Surrender'
by Ann Coulter
The "bipartisan" Iraq panel has recommended that Iran and Syria can help stabilize Iraq. You know, the way Germany and Russia helped stabilize Poland in '39.
Now that Democrats have won the House, they can concentrate on losing the war.
Despite all the phony conservative Democrats who got elected as gun-totin' hawks, the Democrats will uniformly vote to dismantle every aspect of the war on terrorism. They've started a runaway train and can't stop it now.
The Democratic base is at a fever pitch with visions of storm troopers listening to their phone calls and ruthlessly torturing innocent accountants at Guantanamo, where the average inmate has his own lawyer, his own prayer rug and is wondering what to do about that extra weight -- known as the "Gitmo 20" -- he's put on since being captured.
They are oddly copacetic about actual storm troopers' daily harassment of actual citizens at airport security checkpoints. Liberals have no problem with government oppression as long as it's mandatory and applied equally to all Americans.
In a broadcast on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, NBC's Matt Lauer tried to nail down the Manhattan portion of his audience by aggressively questioning President Bush about the possible use of "waterboarding" against terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Lauer said ominously, "It's been reported that with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he was what they call 'waterboarded.'"
At NBC, they apparently expected most Americans to react to this fact by exclaiming: They did WHAT to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Wait -- are you sure about that? OK, that's it. I will never vote Republican again!
President Bush refused to discuss techniques used on terrorists, saying, "We don't want the enemy to adjust." But Americans "need to know," he said, "we're using techniques within the law to protect them."
While normal people would be happy if we were using cattle prods on the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Lauer was testy about the possible use of waterboarding against him. "I don't want to let this 'within the law' issue slip," he said.
"I mean, if, in fact, there was waterboarding used with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- and for the viewers, that's basically you strap someone to a board, and you make them feel as if they're going to drown. You put them under water. If that was legal and within the law, why couldn't you do it at Guantanamo? Why'd you have to go to a secret location around the world?"
In point of fact, we strap people to wooden boards and make them feel like they're drowning all the time in this country. Mostly at theme parks like Six Flags.
Bush again said he wasn't going to talk about techniques. But Lauer's relentless grilling was getting to him. If he'd been at Gitmo, at this point Bush would have demanded a lawyer, another copy of the Koran and a couple of chocolate eclairs.
Lauer continued to pester the president, demanding to know whether these "alternative techniques you use ... if they are used, are you at all concerned that at some point, even if you get results, there's a blurring the lines of -- between ourselves and the people we're trying to protect us against?"
Hey, I forget: When did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed use aggressive interrogation techniques against a known mass murderer in an effort to thwart another 9/11-style attack on thousands of innocent civilians?
There are few better examples of how out of touch liberals are. They go right to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and expect Americans to be outraged that he may have been waterboarded.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks and is believed to have played a role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Bali nightclub bombings, the filmed beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a thwarted 2002 attack on a bank tower in Los Angeles, and Operation Bojinka, a plot to blow up 11 commercial airliners simultaneously. Oh, and he took home the coveted "world's craziest terrorist" prize at al Qaeda's end-of-season office party last year.
I think waterboarding should be a reward for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: OK, you've been good, Mohammed, we're only going to waterboard you today. Let's get you out of those cold electrodes and onto a nice, warm waterboard, OK?
Now that they're our new best friends, how about we turn to Iran and Syria for help on our interrogation techniques?
Full article at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18365
The "bipartisan" Iraq panel has recommended that Iran and Syria can help stabilize Iraq. You know, the way Germany and Russia helped stabilize Poland in '39.
Now that Democrats have won the House, they can concentrate on losing the war.
Despite all the phony conservative Democrats who got elected as gun-totin' hawks, the Democrats will uniformly vote to dismantle every aspect of the war on terrorism. They've started a runaway train and can't stop it now.
The Democratic base is at a fever pitch with visions of storm troopers listening to their phone calls and ruthlessly torturing innocent accountants at Guantanamo, where the average inmate has his own lawyer, his own prayer rug and is wondering what to do about that extra weight -- known as the "Gitmo 20" -- he's put on since being captured.
They are oddly copacetic about actual storm troopers' daily harassment of actual citizens at airport security checkpoints. Liberals have no problem with government oppression as long as it's mandatory and applied equally to all Americans.
In a broadcast on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, NBC's Matt Lauer tried to nail down the Manhattan portion of his audience by aggressively questioning President Bush about the possible use of "waterboarding" against terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Lauer said ominously, "It's been reported that with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he was what they call 'waterboarded.'"
At NBC, they apparently expected most Americans to react to this fact by exclaiming: They did WHAT to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Wait -- are you sure about that? OK, that's it. I will never vote Republican again!
President Bush refused to discuss techniques used on terrorists, saying, "We don't want the enemy to adjust." But Americans "need to know," he said, "we're using techniques within the law to protect them."
While normal people would be happy if we were using cattle prods on the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Lauer was testy about the possible use of waterboarding against him. "I don't want to let this 'within the law' issue slip," he said.
"I mean, if, in fact, there was waterboarding used with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- and for the viewers, that's basically you strap someone to a board, and you make them feel as if they're going to drown. You put them under water. If that was legal and within the law, why couldn't you do it at Guantanamo? Why'd you have to go to a secret location around the world?"
In point of fact, we strap people to wooden boards and make them feel like they're drowning all the time in this country. Mostly at theme parks like Six Flags.
Bush again said he wasn't going to talk about techniques. But Lauer's relentless grilling was getting to him. If he'd been at Gitmo, at this point Bush would have demanded a lawyer, another copy of the Koran and a couple of chocolate eclairs.
Lauer continued to pester the president, demanding to know whether these "alternative techniques you use ... if they are used, are you at all concerned that at some point, even if you get results, there's a blurring the lines of -- between ourselves and the people we're trying to protect us against?"
Hey, I forget: When did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed use aggressive interrogation techniques against a known mass murderer in an effort to thwart another 9/11-style attack on thousands of innocent civilians?
There are few better examples of how out of touch liberals are. They go right to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and expect Americans to be outraged that he may have been waterboarded.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks and is believed to have played a role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Bali nightclub bombings, the filmed beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a thwarted 2002 attack on a bank tower in Los Angeles, and Operation Bojinka, a plot to blow up 11 commercial airliners simultaneously. Oh, and he took home the coveted "world's craziest terrorist" prize at al Qaeda's end-of-season office party last year.
I think waterboarding should be a reward for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: OK, you've been good, Mohammed, we're only going to waterboard you today. Let's get you out of those cold electrodes and onto a nice, warm waterboard, OK?
Now that they're our new best friends, how about we turn to Iran and Syria for help on our interrogation techniques?
Full article at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18365
Terrorists rejoicing over new Iraq 'plan'
Reaction to Study Group: 'Allah and his angels' responsible, 'era of Islam and of jihad' declared
Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – A high level U.S. commission's recommendations for an eventual withdrawal from Iraq and for dialogue with Iran and Syria proves "Islamic resistance" works and America will ultimately be defeated, according to senior terrorist leaders interviewed by WND.
The militants, from the largest Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, welcomed the policies outlined by the Iraq Study Group, which they claim recognizes Islam is the "new giant of the world."
The group is led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker.
"The report proves that this is the era of Islam and of jihad," said Abu Ayman, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin.
The Islamic Jihad terror group is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel during the past two years.
"[With the Iraq Study Group report], the Americans came to the conclusion that Islam is the new giant of the world and it would be clever to reduce hostilities with this giant. In the Quran the principle of the rotation is clear and according to this principle the end of the Americans and of all non-believers is getting closer," Abu Ayman said.
According to Abu Abdullah, a senior leader of Hamas' so-called military wing, Baker's report is a victory for Islam brought about by "Allah and his angels."
"It is not just a simple victory. It is a great one. The big superpower of the world is defeated by a small group of mujahedeen (fighters). Did you see the mujahedeens' clothes and weapons in comparison with the huge individual military arsenal and supply that was carrying every American soldier?" exclaimed Abu Abdullah, who is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.
"It is no doubt that Allah and his angels were fighting with them (insurgents) against the Americans. It is a sign to all those who keep saying that America, Israel and the West in general cannot be defeated on the ground so let us negotiate with them," Abu Abdullah said.
Abu Abdullah said following a withdrawal from Iraq, the U.S. will be defeated on its own soil.
"America must understand that with anti-American governments in Latin America and with Islam growing and reinforcing, including in the U.S. itself, the next step would be a total defeat on their (American) land, not a relative one like they are facing in Iraq," he said.
Abu Nasser, the second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the West Bank, called the Iraq Study Group report a "great victory" from which other jihadist organizations can learn.
"The Iraqi victory is a great message and lesson to the revolutionary and freedom movements in the world. Just to think that this resistance is led by hundreds of Sunni fighters who defeated hundreds of thousands of Americans, British and thousands of soldiers who belong to the puppet regime in Baghdad. What would be the situation if the Shiites will decide to join the resistance?" commented Abu Nasser.
The Al Aqsa leader said his group learned from the "Iraqi resistance" that jihad will ultimately destroy Israel.
The Al Aqsa Brigades is the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
"If Israel will not start negotiating its withdrawal we are ready to launch the new stage of the intifada," Abu Nasser said.
Islamic Jihad's Abu Ayman said after the U.S. "defeat" in Iraq is finalized, insurgents there should move to the West Bank and Gaza to help destroy Israel.
"We hope that after chasing the occupation from Iraq, these jihad efforts and experiences will be transferred to Palestine, and yes, I mean that we expect these fighters will come to Palestine as part of a big Islamic army."
The Iraqi Study Group's report called the U.S. position in Iraq "grave and deteriorating," and recommended the withdrawal of most combat troops from Iraq by 2008.
It warned, "The ability of the United States to influence events within Iraq is diminishing."
The report stated the U.S. should engage Iran, Syria and insurgent leaders in Iraq, and said Israel should be pressured into withdrawing from the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
The West Bank runs alongside Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Israel's international airport. The Heights is strategic mountainous territory that looks down in Israeli and Syrian population centers.
President Bush received the report at the White House this morning. Flanked by Baker and other commission members, Bush pledged to treat each proposal seriously and act in a "timely fashion."
The White House said Bush will make key decisions within weeks.
Some terror leaders, though, were unsure whether the Baker report would actually be implemented. They claimed Israel controls U.S. foreign policy and would ultimately block changes in American actions in the Middle East.
"The problem is that I think the political structure of the U.S. and the role of the Zionists in the U.S. turns impossible the possibility that this report would be implemented," said Abu Ayman.
Still the terror leader said the report shows insurgent actions are working.
"It is the dawn of the real Islam what we are seeing now, young people who are leaving everything in their countries and are coming to fight in Iraq," said Abu Ayman.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53290
Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – A high level U.S. commission's recommendations for an eventual withdrawal from Iraq and for dialogue with Iran and Syria proves "Islamic resistance" works and America will ultimately be defeated, according to senior terrorist leaders interviewed by WND.
The militants, from the largest Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, welcomed the policies outlined by the Iraq Study Group, which they claim recognizes Islam is the "new giant of the world."
The group is led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker.
"The report proves that this is the era of Islam and of jihad," said Abu Ayman, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin.
The Islamic Jihad terror group is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel during the past two years.
"[With the Iraq Study Group report], the Americans came to the conclusion that Islam is the new giant of the world and it would be clever to reduce hostilities with this giant. In the Quran the principle of the rotation is clear and according to this principle the end of the Americans and of all non-believers is getting closer," Abu Ayman said.
According to Abu Abdullah, a senior leader of Hamas' so-called military wing, Baker's report is a victory for Islam brought about by "Allah and his angels."
"It is not just a simple victory. It is a great one. The big superpower of the world is defeated by a small group of mujahedeen (fighters). Did you see the mujahedeens' clothes and weapons in comparison with the huge individual military arsenal and supply that was carrying every American soldier?" exclaimed Abu Abdullah, who is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.
"It is no doubt that Allah and his angels were fighting with them (insurgents) against the Americans. It is a sign to all those who keep saying that America, Israel and the West in general cannot be defeated on the ground so let us negotiate with them," Abu Abdullah said.
Abu Abdullah said following a withdrawal from Iraq, the U.S. will be defeated on its own soil.
"America must understand that with anti-American governments in Latin America and with Islam growing and reinforcing, including in the U.S. itself, the next step would be a total defeat on their (American) land, not a relative one like they are facing in Iraq," he said.
Abu Nasser, the second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the West Bank, called the Iraq Study Group report a "great victory" from which other jihadist organizations can learn.
"The Iraqi victory is a great message and lesson to the revolutionary and freedom movements in the world. Just to think that this resistance is led by hundreds of Sunni fighters who defeated hundreds of thousands of Americans, British and thousands of soldiers who belong to the puppet regime in Baghdad. What would be the situation if the Shiites will decide to join the resistance?" commented Abu Nasser.
The Al Aqsa leader said his group learned from the "Iraqi resistance" that jihad will ultimately destroy Israel.
The Al Aqsa Brigades is the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
"If Israel will not start negotiating its withdrawal we are ready to launch the new stage of the intifada," Abu Nasser said.
Islamic Jihad's Abu Ayman said after the U.S. "defeat" in Iraq is finalized, insurgents there should move to the West Bank and Gaza to help destroy Israel.
"We hope that after chasing the occupation from Iraq, these jihad efforts and experiences will be transferred to Palestine, and yes, I mean that we expect these fighters will come to Palestine as part of a big Islamic army."
The Iraqi Study Group's report called the U.S. position in Iraq "grave and deteriorating," and recommended the withdrawal of most combat troops from Iraq by 2008.
It warned, "The ability of the United States to influence events within Iraq is diminishing."
The report stated the U.S. should engage Iran, Syria and insurgent leaders in Iraq, and said Israel should be pressured into withdrawing from the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
The West Bank runs alongside Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Israel's international airport. The Heights is strategic mountainous territory that looks down in Israeli and Syrian population centers.
President Bush received the report at the White House this morning. Flanked by Baker and other commission members, Bush pledged to treat each proposal seriously and act in a "timely fashion."
The White House said Bush will make key decisions within weeks.
Some terror leaders, though, were unsure whether the Baker report would actually be implemented. They claimed Israel controls U.S. foreign policy and would ultimately block changes in American actions in the Middle East.
"The problem is that I think the political structure of the U.S. and the role of the Zionists in the U.S. turns impossible the possibility that this report would be implemented," said Abu Ayman.
Still the terror leader said the report shows insurgent actions are working.
"It is the dawn of the real Islam what we are seeing now, young people who are leaving everything in their countries and are coming to fight in Iraq," said Abu Ayman.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53290
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Blatant Anti-Christian Bigotry
Also, now that we are in the full-swing of the Christmas season, we are hearing more and more reports of blatant anti-Christian bigotry. For example:
--A church in New Mexico was banned from including
songs with the name of Jesus as part of its
Christmas parade float;
--A New York elementary school changed the words
"Silent Night" to "Candle Light" for a school program;
--Teachers in a Tennessee public school were told to keep
"Christmas" out of their plans this year
--Chicago city officials have asked that a downtown
Christmas festival not include any promotions for the
upcoming moving "The Nativity Story" because it would be
"insensitive to the many people of different faiths."
The only way to stop such hostile attacks is to get the truth out to as many local leaders as possible.
--A church in New Mexico was banned from including
songs with the name of Jesus as part of its
Christmas parade float;
--A New York elementary school changed the words
"Silent Night" to "Candle Light" for a school program;
--Teachers in a Tennessee public school were told to keep
"Christmas" out of their plans this year
--Chicago city officials have asked that a downtown
Christmas festival not include any promotions for the
upcoming moving "The Nativity Story" because it would be
"insensitive to the many people of different faiths."
The only way to stop such hostile attacks is to get the truth out to as many local leaders as possible.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The left is on a mission against God
The left is on a mission against God. It correctly perceives Christianity (more broadly, the Judeo-Christian ethic) as the principal obstacle to the attainment of its utopian vision. Thus, it is determined to stigmatize, marginalize and ghettoize Christians – to increasingly circumscribe their influence and to confine their values to a designated building on a chosen day of the week.
The left has declared war on Christians. Even if evangelicals laid down their arms, the fighting would continue. Besides 1.3 million abortions a year in this country, and the relentless push for gay marriage (mandated by an imperial judiciary) the left is:
• Sexualizing children (including those from Christian families) in the guise of sex education – teaching teen-aged girls to put condoms on bananas and offering how-to training on acts the average prostitute would refuse to perform
• Teaching kids (starting in kindergarten) that homosexuality is a normal, healthy and perfectly acceptable lifestyle. Try it; you’ll like it.
• Distributing condoms to adolescents
• Working to ensure that 14-year-old girls can get an abortion without the knowledge – let alone the consent – of their parents
• Pushing taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research – cloning-to-kill
• Moving toward assisted suicide and euthanasia
• Fighting any attempt to counter the torrent of filth and graphic violence pouring out of Hollywood to inundate the nation in visual sewage
• Using the news and entertainment media to demonize Christians – hence movies like “V for Vendetta,” “Saved” and “The DaVinci Code” – ergo smears like talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell’s recent charge that “Radical (Bible-believing) Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like the United States”
• Passing hate crimes laws which will criminalize speech – especially speech that’s critical of homosexuality
• Getting Christian groups thrown off college campuses because they’re “non-inclusive” – i.e., won’t allow homosexuals in leadership positions
• Laboring diligently to keep our borders open and pass another amnesty -- thus facilitating new waves of illegal immigration with the ultimate goal of deconstructing America
• Purging the public sector of religious manifestations, including banning stand-alone Ten Commandments displays and removing “One nation under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance
• Working to adopt an anti-terrorism policy which will consist of sensitivity training, multiculturalism and inculcating an appreciation for the religion of peace.
• Assuring the eventual destruction of Israel with a Palestinian state
• Undermining democracy. Replacing popular sovereignty with judicial autocracy – making elections irrelevant. Having civilizational issues like the definition of marriage decided by unelected officials, answerable to no one – a law (pardon the pun) unto themselves.
A Nov. 17 Associated Press story (“Liberals Aim To Ram Measures Past Congress”) is coming attractions for a horror movie of epic proportions -- “Nightmare On Capitol Hill”.
AP reports: “After years of playing defense, liberal advocacy groups see the Democrats’ takeover of Congress as a long-awaited chance to convert some of their broader goals into law. Their wish list includes workplace protections for gays, a broader hate-crimes law, and a multi-pronged push to reduce unplanned pregnancies” – that is to say: forcing religious employers to hire flaming homosexuals (and provide benefits for their same-sex partners), repealing the First Amendment (at least as far as criticism of buggery is concerned) and eliminating the modest restrictions on abortion we’ve worked so hard to achieve (like the federal ban of partial-birth abortion and Unborn Victims of Violence Act).
The left has declared war on Christians. Even if evangelicals laid down their arms, the fighting would continue. Besides 1.3 million abortions a year in this country, and the relentless push for gay marriage (mandated by an imperial judiciary) the left is:
• Sexualizing children (including those from Christian families) in the guise of sex education – teaching teen-aged girls to put condoms on bananas and offering how-to training on acts the average prostitute would refuse to perform
• Teaching kids (starting in kindergarten) that homosexuality is a normal, healthy and perfectly acceptable lifestyle. Try it; you’ll like it.
• Distributing condoms to adolescents
• Working to ensure that 14-year-old girls can get an abortion without the knowledge – let alone the consent – of their parents
• Pushing taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research – cloning-to-kill
• Moving toward assisted suicide and euthanasia
• Fighting any attempt to counter the torrent of filth and graphic violence pouring out of Hollywood to inundate the nation in visual sewage
• Using the news and entertainment media to demonize Christians – hence movies like “V for Vendetta,” “Saved” and “The DaVinci Code” – ergo smears like talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell’s recent charge that “Radical (Bible-believing) Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like the United States”
• Passing hate crimes laws which will criminalize speech – especially speech that’s critical of homosexuality
• Getting Christian groups thrown off college campuses because they’re “non-inclusive” – i.e., won’t allow homosexuals in leadership positions
• Laboring diligently to keep our borders open and pass another amnesty -- thus facilitating new waves of illegal immigration with the ultimate goal of deconstructing America
• Purging the public sector of religious manifestations, including banning stand-alone Ten Commandments displays and removing “One nation under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance
• Working to adopt an anti-terrorism policy which will consist of sensitivity training, multiculturalism and inculcating an appreciation for the religion of peace.
• Assuring the eventual destruction of Israel with a Palestinian state
• Undermining democracy. Replacing popular sovereignty with judicial autocracy – making elections irrelevant. Having civilizational issues like the definition of marriage decided by unelected officials, answerable to no one – a law (pardon the pun) unto themselves.
A Nov. 17 Associated Press story (“Liberals Aim To Ram Measures Past Congress”) is coming attractions for a horror movie of epic proportions -- “Nightmare On Capitol Hill”.
AP reports: “After years of playing defense, liberal advocacy groups see the Democrats’ takeover of Congress as a long-awaited chance to convert some of their broader goals into law. Their wish list includes workplace protections for gays, a broader hate-crimes law, and a multi-pronged push to reduce unplanned pregnancies” – that is to say: forcing religious employers to hire flaming homosexuals (and provide benefits for their same-sex partners), repealing the First Amendment (at least as far as criticism of buggery is concerned) and eliminating the modest restrictions on abortion we’ve worked so hard to achieve (like the federal ban of partial-birth abortion and Unborn Victims of Violence Act).
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Editing Christianity Out of History
Pennsylvania photo altered to fog Ten Commandments
Smithsonian cites 'ancient religious text' as editing of Christianity escalates
Posted: November 16, 2006
By Bob Unruh
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
The politically correct version of American history has Apollo 8 astronauts reading from "an ancient religious text" and a photo editor busy making alterations to reality for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, according to WND readers.
There was considerable outrage expressed – but little surprise – from WND's series of articles this week on efforts to edit America's history to eliminate references to Christianity, and Christians.
The series detailed how guides at the U.S. Supreme Court say the frieze representation of a stone tablet represents the Ten Amendments, instead of the Ten Commandments, and how guides at Jamestown say the settlement was founded for business interests, and how Monticello guides announce that Thomas Jefferson was a strict deist who dedicated his life to keeping the separation of church and state.
Now come responses from WND readers, who note the problem extends far beyond a few guides at a few historic sites.
"While I was in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, I was reading a placard regarding the trip of the Apollo 8 flight, which looped around the moon on Christmas Eve," wrote Paul Hardy. "They showed a photo of the Earth from the moon, and the placard said (and I'm not kidding, you can read it yourself), 'the astronauts had brought an ancient religious text with them and began to read, 'In the beginning, God created heaven and earth…'' AN ANCIENT RELIGIOUS TEXT? Why is it that they couldn't even say the BIBLE, as everyone knows what that is. My only surprise was that they actually printed the word 'God' on the placard. My wife and I laughed at this PC silliness."
However, he noted the "history" of the Bible, in which God repeatedly lets alone a people who abandon him. "He will not allow this country to do this and still stand free," he wrote.
Rich Campbell said the U.S. Supreme Court hypersensitivity to the nation's religious history reminded him of a situation that developed in the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court a year earlier.
"Every part of the frame is clear and in focus, except for the words of the Ten Commandments. They electronically blurred out that portion of the photograph!" wrote Family Institute President Michael Geer.
"Apparently, those words are simply too offensive to be published in the same photo with Pennsylvania's Supreme Court Justices!" he said. The photograph was from a free brochure handed out by the court, he noted.
Rob Hajicek told WND he had been visiting Boston during a recent outing to historical locations, and there was little eventful until a tour of the downtown Boston area began, and the tour guide announced that the Puritans were just an earlier version of the Taliban.
"Basically what he shared was that the town of Boston loved riots, and John Hancock, as the richest man in the area, was paying men to do these things," he said. Essentially, "the people who fought at Bunker Hill, Lexington, Concord were displaced people who left Boston because English soldiers took their jobs."
"[He said] displaced workers were leading the revolution, that kind of thing," he told WND.
Hajicek was concerned enough that he got "The Light and The Glory – Did God have a plan for America?" by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.
"They just present a totally different picture from the source documents," he said.
William Dudek said he visited Monticello with his family.
"I found myself constantly hanging back with my three daughters, explaining, embellishing, and correcting the information presented by the guide," he wrote. "What a sad state of affairs; the historical re-write is going deeper than we ever thought possible."
"Americans must learn to read original documents and study history for themselves to get the truth," wrote Martha Barley. "As we are told, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We seem to be fulfilling that prophecy."
Another historical site visitor, this one to Plymouth, Mass., said the guides "love to use the word 'myth' in relation to the 'First Thanksgiving,' and – to make matters short – the Pilgrims are now the 'bad guys' and the Indians are the 'good guys.'"
Still another said one shouldn't worry about erasing Christian influence and witness from history.
"Christians will get beheaded in the end, according to the Bible, unless they get raptured first. Everything's going perfectly according to a plan," wrote Anthony Rose. "I'll tell you who should be worried. The people who think they can erase God and his people from the world He created. Lying, cheating and stealing may overcome honesty, fairness and love for a time, but they lose in the end – real bad. I've read the end of the book."
"I love it when a plan comes together," he said.
Deb Smith suggested the works of Katherine Millard, who wrote "The Rewriting of America's History" a few years ago, and since then has produced other books about such revisionism.
"It was shocking then, and getting worse," she said.
The definitive work was produced by Jim Henderson, senior counsel with The American Center for Law and Justice.
"The Bill of Rights was promulgated to the States by Congress, and contained twelve articles of amendment. The third article of amendment was the amendment we commonly think of as the First Amendment. The reason we think of it is as the First Amendment is that the two amendatory articles preceding it were not ratified during the founding era, and one of them still has not been ratified. But if you go to the National Archives and examine the 'Bill of Rights' you will find that document, the one with twelve amendatory articles and in which our 'First Amendment' is the third article of amendment."
"Once we understand this, the nonsensical explanation offered by the Court's docents (that the tablets represent the Ten Amendments) is eviscerated," he told WND.
One other reader, who was much shorter in his critique, noted that it appeared that the U.S. was acknowledging Moses, but replacing the Ten Commandments with the Ten Amendments.
"Why would Moses be carrying the Ten Amendments? That would be like saying Moses was carrying a copy of the Wall Street Journal, the NY Times, or Time magazine," wrote Marc Bryant. "Ridiculous."
His recollection was, he said, that history told him Moses died "a few years" before the Bill of Rights was written.
The issue arose when Todd DuBord, pastor of the Lake Almanor Community Church in California was traveling with his wife, Tracy, and was more than startled during recent visits to the U.S. Supreme Court and two other historic locations to discover the stories of the nation's heritage had been sterilized of Christian references.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52978
Smithsonian cites 'ancient religious text' as editing of Christianity escalates
Posted: November 16, 2006
By Bob Unruh
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
The politically correct version of American history has Apollo 8 astronauts reading from "an ancient religious text" and a photo editor busy making alterations to reality for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, according to WND readers.
There was considerable outrage expressed – but little surprise – from WND's series of articles this week on efforts to edit America's history to eliminate references to Christianity, and Christians.
The series detailed how guides at the U.S. Supreme Court say the frieze representation of a stone tablet represents the Ten Amendments, instead of the Ten Commandments, and how guides at Jamestown say the settlement was founded for business interests, and how Monticello guides announce that Thomas Jefferson was a strict deist who dedicated his life to keeping the separation of church and state.
Now come responses from WND readers, who note the problem extends far beyond a few guides at a few historic sites.
"While I was in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, I was reading a placard regarding the trip of the Apollo 8 flight, which looped around the moon on Christmas Eve," wrote Paul Hardy. "They showed a photo of the Earth from the moon, and the placard said (and I'm not kidding, you can read it yourself), 'the astronauts had brought an ancient religious text with them and began to read, 'In the beginning, God created heaven and earth…'' AN ANCIENT RELIGIOUS TEXT? Why is it that they couldn't even say the BIBLE, as everyone knows what that is. My only surprise was that they actually printed the word 'God' on the placard. My wife and I laughed at this PC silliness."
However, he noted the "history" of the Bible, in which God repeatedly lets alone a people who abandon him. "He will not allow this country to do this and still stand free," he wrote.
Rich Campbell said the U.S. Supreme Court hypersensitivity to the nation's religious history reminded him of a situation that developed in the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court a year earlier.
"Every part of the frame is clear and in focus, except for the words of the Ten Commandments. They electronically blurred out that portion of the photograph!" wrote Family Institute President Michael Geer.
"Apparently, those words are simply too offensive to be published in the same photo with Pennsylvania's Supreme Court Justices!" he said. The photograph was from a free brochure handed out by the court, he noted.
Rob Hajicek told WND he had been visiting Boston during a recent outing to historical locations, and there was little eventful until a tour of the downtown Boston area began, and the tour guide announced that the Puritans were just an earlier version of the Taliban.
"Basically what he shared was that the town of Boston loved riots, and John Hancock, as the richest man in the area, was paying men to do these things," he said. Essentially, "the people who fought at Bunker Hill, Lexington, Concord were displaced people who left Boston because English soldiers took their jobs."
"[He said] displaced workers were leading the revolution, that kind of thing," he told WND.
Hajicek was concerned enough that he got "The Light and The Glory – Did God have a plan for America?" by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.
"They just present a totally different picture from the source documents," he said.
William Dudek said he visited Monticello with his family.
"I found myself constantly hanging back with my three daughters, explaining, embellishing, and correcting the information presented by the guide," he wrote. "What a sad state of affairs; the historical re-write is going deeper than we ever thought possible."
"Americans must learn to read original documents and study history for themselves to get the truth," wrote Martha Barley. "As we are told, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We seem to be fulfilling that prophecy."
Another historical site visitor, this one to Plymouth, Mass., said the guides "love to use the word 'myth' in relation to the 'First Thanksgiving,' and – to make matters short – the Pilgrims are now the 'bad guys' and the Indians are the 'good guys.'"
Still another said one shouldn't worry about erasing Christian influence and witness from history.
"Christians will get beheaded in the end, according to the Bible, unless they get raptured first. Everything's going perfectly according to a plan," wrote Anthony Rose. "I'll tell you who should be worried. The people who think they can erase God and his people from the world He created. Lying, cheating and stealing may overcome honesty, fairness and love for a time, but they lose in the end – real bad. I've read the end of the book."
"I love it when a plan comes together," he said.
Deb Smith suggested the works of Katherine Millard, who wrote "The Rewriting of America's History" a few years ago, and since then has produced other books about such revisionism.
"It was shocking then, and getting worse," she said.
The definitive work was produced by Jim Henderson, senior counsel with The American Center for Law and Justice.
"The Bill of Rights was promulgated to the States by Congress, and contained twelve articles of amendment. The third article of amendment was the amendment we commonly think of as the First Amendment. The reason we think of it is as the First Amendment is that the two amendatory articles preceding it were not ratified during the founding era, and one of them still has not been ratified. But if you go to the National Archives and examine the 'Bill of Rights' you will find that document, the one with twelve amendatory articles and in which our 'First Amendment' is the third article of amendment."
"Once we understand this, the nonsensical explanation offered by the Court's docents (that the tablets represent the Ten Amendments) is eviscerated," he told WND.
One other reader, who was much shorter in his critique, noted that it appeared that the U.S. was acknowledging Moses, but replacing the Ten Commandments with the Ten Amendments.
"Why would Moses be carrying the Ten Amendments? That would be like saying Moses was carrying a copy of the Wall Street Journal, the NY Times, or Time magazine," wrote Marc Bryant. "Ridiculous."
His recollection was, he said, that history told him Moses died "a few years" before the Bill of Rights was written.
The issue arose when Todd DuBord, pastor of the Lake Almanor Community Church in California was traveling with his wife, Tracy, and was more than startled during recent visits to the U.S. Supreme Court and two other historic locations to discover the stories of the nation's heritage had been sterilized of Christian references.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52978
Friday, September 29, 2006
Court upholds Nazi-era ban on homeschooling
Decision: State must avoid dissent, 'separate philosophical convictions'
September 29, 2006
September 29, 2006
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
A new ruling from the European Human Rights Court has affirmed the German nation's Nazi-era ban on homeschooling, concluding that society has a significant interest in preventing the development of dissent through "separate philosophical convictions."
The Strasburg-based court addressed the issue on appeal from a Christian family whose members alleged their human rights to educate their own children according to their own religious beliefs are being violated by the ban.
The specific case addressed in the opinion involved Fritz and Marianna Konrad, who filed the complaint in 2003 and argued that Germany's compulsory school attendance endangered their children's religious upbringing and promotes teaching inconsistent with the family's Christian faith.
The court said the Konrads belong to a "Christian community which is strongly attached to the Bible" and rejected public schooling because of the explicit sexual indoctrination programs that the courses there include.
The German court already had ruled that the parental "wish" to have their children grow up in a home without such influences "could not take priority over compulsory school attendance." The decision also said the parents do not have an "exclusive" right to lead their children's education.
The family had appealed under the European Convention on Human Rights statement that: "No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions."
But the court's ruling said, instead, that schools represent society, and "it was in the children's interest to become part of that society.
"The parents' right to education did not go as far as to deprive their children of that experience," the ruling said.
"Not only the acquisition of knowledge, but also the integration into and first experience with society are important goals in primary school education," the court said. "The German courts found that those objectives cannot be equally met by home education even if it allowed children to acquire the same standard of knowledge as provided for by primary school education.
"The (German) Federal Constitutional Court stressed the general interest of society to avoid the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions and the importance of integrating minorities into society," the ruling said.
The court noted it was a similar argument that arose in Holland earlier, where a politician, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, sought to close down all religious schools because only the state could properly teach children "tolerance."
The U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association has confirmed that nearly 40 homeschooling families are embroiled in legal battles over the issue in Germany. The group, which has quickly growing influence around the globe on the issue of homeschooling, said the German families are facing persecution for trying to educate their children in a Christian atmosphere without exposing them to the state’s harmful secular values, especially sex education.
In fact, the HSLDA just recently announced a campaign to address the persecution Christians in Germany are facing from education authorities.
Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the HSLDA, said it was launched after a mother was arrested and jailed on criminal homeschooling counts.
A report in the conservative Brussels Journal said Katharina Plett was arrested and ordered to jail while her husband fled to Austria with the family's 12 children.
Slatter said just a few days into the campaign, there already has been a large response from American homeschoolers, with e-mails and telephone calls pouring in to the German embassy.
A website for the Practical Homeschool Magazine noted one of the first acts by Hitler when he moved into power was to create the governmental Ministry of Education and give it control of all schools, and school-related issues.
In 1937, the dictator said, "The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."
The HSLDA said the German embassy can be reached by e-mail through its website, by telephone at 202-298-4000 or by mail at: Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador, German Embassy, 4645 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC, 20007-1998.
"It is beyond belief that Germany is still enforcing a law that was written for one reason only – to be used by Hitler to control and indoctrinate German youth. It had no other redeeming value," said Shoshona Bat-Zion on a homeschoolers' blog.
The Pletts are part of a group of seven Baptist homeschool families who have been targeted frequently by authorities. Two families have left Germany and five others have enrolled their children in a Christian school, but their court cases remain pending.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Using PG-13 to Groom Kids for an R-rated World
RE: My Super Ex-Girlfriend and John Tucker Must Die
by Marc T. Newman, Ph.D.
agapepress.org
Barna Research in 2002 revealed that less than 10% of teens believe that there are such things as moral absolutes to guide their actions. These teens were initiated into this "value-free" environment by their parents – adults who believed in moral absolutes made up only 22% of the research sample. So perhaps it is fitting that My Super Ex-Girlfriend and John Tucker Must Die were released as this summer's one-two PG-13 punch. If we are going to encourage a new generation of morally ambivalent teens, after all, we need to make sure they can attend the instruction.
Neil Postman, in The Disappearance of Childhood, notes that unrestricted access to sexuality by children and adolescents blurs the line between kids and adults, and may irreparably damage children in the process. Some may argue that what is on the screen is no different than the material these kids are exposed to on cable television, but that begs the question: Should children be exposed to a mechanistic view of sex before they are of an age to discern its moral quality?
Adults Behaving Badly
All of the "adults" in My Super Ex-Girlfriend are in their 30s. The male characters are portrayed as adolescent boys in men's jobs, whose time is spent looking for girls to seduce. Matt Saunders is encouraged by his friend, Vaughn Haige, to introduce himself to a stranger, Jenny Johnson, on a subway because even though she looks like a shy librarian she is probably sexually pent up. Matt makes an effort and is turned down immediately, but since you know the title of the film, you know things will work out and they do – just about immediately. Within two dates, Jenny is literally tearing Matt's clothes off and they are having Olympian, bed-breaking sex. Immediately Vaughn tells Matt that it is time to move on to the next one, but Matt says, "No." Not because he loves this woman that he barely knows, but because she is, in his mechanistic description – the best roller coaster ride ever.
Later, when he recognizes Jenny's instability (and superhero alter ego) he tries to break free and lands directly in the arms of his co-worker, Hannah Lewis. He has adored Hannah from afar, but as soon as she becomes available to him he immediately has sex with her. No one in the film can seem to get beyond the second date without engaging in intercourse. All of this activity, of course, is played for laughs. And all of it takes place in a theater that any child can enter, as no actual restriction accompanies a PG-13 rated film. What young children will see in this film is a series of adult sexual encounters as people use each other. Even the vengeance angle is a poor substitute for the actual broken hearts, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases that accompany this behavior in the real world.
Like Father, Like Son
The older men in My Super Ex-Girlfriend appear as impotent trailblazers compared to the title character in John Tucker Must Die. John Tucker is the teen realization of the immorality championed by the characters of My Super Ex-Girlfriend. John Tucker Must Die tries to follow in the footsteps of Mean Girls, but at least Mean Girls contained an object lesson about the way teenage girls tear each other apart. John Tucker Must Die is the most "morality-free" PG-13-rated film in recent memory. The teenage girls, Beth, Carrie, and Heather, initially clueless to the fact that they are all dating the same guy, eventually form a pact to destroy him – the benchmark for which is to make him undateable. But Tucker manages to turn every humiliation into an advantage that gives him greater access to girls. Finally they decide to get Tucker to fall in love with newcomer Kate so that she can dump him.
So far, this sounds like just about every other teen comedy. But instead of pointing out the damage done when girls call other girls ugly names, this film revels in it – turning a common term for a sexually promiscuous woman into a winking honorific. Beth blithely talks about "break-up sex" – which apparently has taken the place of a handshake at the end of a relationship. Two girls engage in "kissing practice," which is nothing more than a cover for voyeuristic bisexuality. Tucker is caught trying to sneak into Kate's hotel room at an away game, and other than a sore ear pinched by the cheerleader's chaperone, no suspension or consequence of any kind follows. There is no moral authority evident anywhere in the film. Even Kate's mother serves as nothing more than a poster child for promiscuity. Her lame attempt to lecture Kate on her behavior lacks example.
Most films of this type will try to tack on some kind of moral at the end of the story as if to justify the immorality that precedes it. Someone needs to learn a lesson. John Tucker is a sneak and a liar, so he needs to learn to be honest. But all that happens in John Tucker Must Die is that John learns to be honestly immoral. He openly confesses that he is rampantly promiscuous. Rather than causing him to be shunned, however, girls go along, surprised, but willingly. The film ends with him walking away with a new girlfriend on either arm, and the girls feeling chastened for trying to stop him.
Tearing Our Hair Out is Not Enough
It is easy to become discouraged when we see a glut of this kind of "entertainment" filling our multiplexes. It is even sadder when we see the action in these films imitated on high school and college campuses throughout America. It is hard to know whether the culture drives the films or the films drive culture, but one thing is certain: the films are products created by someone.
Michael Warren, in Seeing Through the Media, reminds us that movies are, above all, an intentional product. Rather than getting upset about the content of our culture, Warren suggests that we talk about it, exposing the motivations that create it. He comments on young people who complain that older folks are constantly harping on them about "their culture" – as if this culture is spontaneously generated by the young.
It might be interesting for young women to know that John Tucker Must Die, a film written from the girls' point of view, which gives a free pass to the young man and makes girls feel bad about wanting to get even with a guy who has been using them, was written by a man, Jeff Lowell. While his age is not revealed in his Intenet Movie Data Base bio, his filmography indicates that he is at least in his 30s. Additionally, the film is directed by Betty Thomas, who also directed the exploitative Howard Stern's Private Parts and introduced Marcia Brady to lesbianism in The Brady Bunch Movie.
Films do not come out of thin air. They are products that are created and honed, often over years of development, shooting, and post-production. Movies are intentional, not accidental. By uncovering the people behind the curtain who are producing these films, perhaps we can begin to ask important questions like, "Why would a 30+ year-old man want to make a film that made female promiscuity seem fun, and funny, and which gives a pass to young men who abuse young women's affections?" Hmmm? Additionally, since millions of people will see this film, over 75% of them female and most of those under 25 (according to studio estimates), some follow-up questions about content are due. Are the behaviors represented in these films likely to result in long-term happiness? What are the real-world results of a life of promiscuity? Does it seem odd to you that not a single female in the film appears to uphold anything remotely resembling a traditional morality, particularly Kate's mother?
So rather than throw our hands up, we need to recognize that we are in a moral battle. Don't rely on MPAA ratings to tell you what is appropriate. ScreenIt.com provides a very accurate assessment of the content of movies. Also, we need not patronize these films in order to ask questions about their content. If our pre-teen and teenage children ask to see them, we need to be prepared to explain why these films are inappropriate. Our children's friends and classmates will see movies like My Super Ex-Girlfriend and John Tucker Must Die and we need to prepare our own teens to be unashamed in questioning them about the moral worldview of their movie choices and exposing the creepy nature of adults using movies about teens to groom them for later sexual exploitation
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/8/42006c.asp
by Marc T. Newman, Ph.D.
agapepress.org
Barna Research in 2002 revealed that less than 10% of teens believe that there are such things as moral absolutes to guide their actions. These teens were initiated into this "value-free" environment by their parents – adults who believed in moral absolutes made up only 22% of the research sample. So perhaps it is fitting that My Super Ex-Girlfriend and John Tucker Must Die were released as this summer's one-two PG-13 punch. If we are going to encourage a new generation of morally ambivalent teens, after all, we need to make sure they can attend the instruction.
Neil Postman, in The Disappearance of Childhood, notes that unrestricted access to sexuality by children and adolescents blurs the line between kids and adults, and may irreparably damage children in the process. Some may argue that what is on the screen is no different than the material these kids are exposed to on cable television, but that begs the question: Should children be exposed to a mechanistic view of sex before they are of an age to discern its moral quality?
Adults Behaving Badly
All of the "adults" in My Super Ex-Girlfriend are in their 30s. The male characters are portrayed as adolescent boys in men's jobs, whose time is spent looking for girls to seduce. Matt Saunders is encouraged by his friend, Vaughn Haige, to introduce himself to a stranger, Jenny Johnson, on a subway because even though she looks like a shy librarian she is probably sexually pent up. Matt makes an effort and is turned down immediately, but since you know the title of the film, you know things will work out and they do – just about immediately. Within two dates, Jenny is literally tearing Matt's clothes off and they are having Olympian, bed-breaking sex. Immediately Vaughn tells Matt that it is time to move on to the next one, but Matt says, "No." Not because he loves this woman that he barely knows, but because she is, in his mechanistic description – the best roller coaster ride ever.
Later, when he recognizes Jenny's instability (and superhero alter ego) he tries to break free and lands directly in the arms of his co-worker, Hannah Lewis. He has adored Hannah from afar, but as soon as she becomes available to him he immediately has sex with her. No one in the film can seem to get beyond the second date without engaging in intercourse. All of this activity, of course, is played for laughs. And all of it takes place in a theater that any child can enter, as no actual restriction accompanies a PG-13 rated film. What young children will see in this film is a series of adult sexual encounters as people use each other. Even the vengeance angle is a poor substitute for the actual broken hearts, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases that accompany this behavior in the real world.
Like Father, Like Son
The older men in My Super Ex-Girlfriend appear as impotent trailblazers compared to the title character in John Tucker Must Die. John Tucker is the teen realization of the immorality championed by the characters of My Super Ex-Girlfriend. John Tucker Must Die tries to follow in the footsteps of Mean Girls, but at least Mean Girls contained an object lesson about the way teenage girls tear each other apart. John Tucker Must Die is the most "morality-free" PG-13-rated film in recent memory. The teenage girls, Beth, Carrie, and Heather, initially clueless to the fact that they are all dating the same guy, eventually form a pact to destroy him – the benchmark for which is to make him undateable. But Tucker manages to turn every humiliation into an advantage that gives him greater access to girls. Finally they decide to get Tucker to fall in love with newcomer Kate so that she can dump him.
So far, this sounds like just about every other teen comedy. But instead of pointing out the damage done when girls call other girls ugly names, this film revels in it – turning a common term for a sexually promiscuous woman into a winking honorific. Beth blithely talks about "break-up sex" – which apparently has taken the place of a handshake at the end of a relationship. Two girls engage in "kissing practice," which is nothing more than a cover for voyeuristic bisexuality. Tucker is caught trying to sneak into Kate's hotel room at an away game, and other than a sore ear pinched by the cheerleader's chaperone, no suspension or consequence of any kind follows. There is no moral authority evident anywhere in the film. Even Kate's mother serves as nothing more than a poster child for promiscuity. Her lame attempt to lecture Kate on her behavior lacks example.
Most films of this type will try to tack on some kind of moral at the end of the story as if to justify the immorality that precedes it. Someone needs to learn a lesson. John Tucker is a sneak and a liar, so he needs to learn to be honest. But all that happens in John Tucker Must Die is that John learns to be honestly immoral. He openly confesses that he is rampantly promiscuous. Rather than causing him to be shunned, however, girls go along, surprised, but willingly. The film ends with him walking away with a new girlfriend on either arm, and the girls feeling chastened for trying to stop him.
Tearing Our Hair Out is Not Enough
It is easy to become discouraged when we see a glut of this kind of "entertainment" filling our multiplexes. It is even sadder when we see the action in these films imitated on high school and college campuses throughout America. It is hard to know whether the culture drives the films or the films drive culture, but one thing is certain: the films are products created by someone.
Michael Warren, in Seeing Through the Media, reminds us that movies are, above all, an intentional product. Rather than getting upset about the content of our culture, Warren suggests that we talk about it, exposing the motivations that create it. He comments on young people who complain that older folks are constantly harping on them about "their culture" – as if this culture is spontaneously generated by the young.
It might be interesting for young women to know that John Tucker Must Die, a film written from the girls' point of view, which gives a free pass to the young man and makes girls feel bad about wanting to get even with a guy who has been using them, was written by a man, Jeff Lowell. While his age is not revealed in his Intenet Movie Data Base bio, his filmography indicates that he is at least in his 30s. Additionally, the film is directed by Betty Thomas, who also directed the exploitative Howard Stern's Private Parts and introduced Marcia Brady to lesbianism in The Brady Bunch Movie.
Films do not come out of thin air. They are products that are created and honed, often over years of development, shooting, and post-production. Movies are intentional, not accidental. By uncovering the people behind the curtain who are producing these films, perhaps we can begin to ask important questions like, "Why would a 30+ year-old man want to make a film that made female promiscuity seem fun, and funny, and which gives a pass to young men who abuse young women's affections?" Hmmm? Additionally, since millions of people will see this film, over 75% of them female and most of those under 25 (according to studio estimates), some follow-up questions about content are due. Are the behaviors represented in these films likely to result in long-term happiness? What are the real-world results of a life of promiscuity? Does it seem odd to you that not a single female in the film appears to uphold anything remotely resembling a traditional morality, particularly Kate's mother?
So rather than throw our hands up, we need to recognize that we are in a moral battle. Don't rely on MPAA ratings to tell you what is appropriate. ScreenIt.com provides a very accurate assessment of the content of movies. Also, we need not patronize these films in order to ask questions about their content. If our pre-teen and teenage children ask to see them, we need to be prepared to explain why these films are inappropriate. Our children's friends and classmates will see movies like My Super Ex-Girlfriend and John Tucker Must Die and we need to prepare our own teens to be unashamed in questioning them about the moral worldview of their movie choices and exposing the creepy nature of adults using movies about teens to groom them for later sexual exploitation
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/8/42006c.asp
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Pro-Homosexual Marriage Proponents Go Public With Their Agenda
We have repeatedly said the agenda of those pushing homosexual marriage will lead to polygamy and a total devaluation of marriage. Not content with "the narrow terms of the marriage debate," the pro-homosexual advocates are now declaring, "Legal recognition for a wide rage of relationships, households and families - regardless of kinship or conjugal status." They also demand, "Access for all, regardless of marital or citizenship status, to vital government support programs, including but not limited to health care, housing, Social Security and pension plans, disaster recovery assistance, unemployment insurance, and welfare assistance."
In short, they want to totally redefine our society by eliminating the very concepts of marriage and family, and the battle to redefine traditional marriage is just the beginning. The proponents of homosexual "marriage" admit it and they have posted their manifesto online. Read, in their own words, what their real agenda is by clicking here.
The following are issues that are already covered under existing programs and policy, or may perhaps need an extension to existing policy but do not require redefining or destroying marriage.
· Single parent households
· Senior citizens living together and serving as each other’s caregivers
· Blended and extended families
· Children being raised in multiple households or by unmarried parents
· Adult children living with and caring for their parents
· Senior citizens who are the primary caregivers to their grandchildren or other relatives
· Close friends or siblings living in non-conjugal relationships and serving as each other’s primary support and caregivers
· Care-giving relationships that provide support to those living with extended illness such as HIV/AIDS.
And here's where they are really pushing at:
· Households in which there is more than one conjugal partner (translated: bigamy and poligamy)
www.afa.net
In short, they want to totally redefine our society by eliminating the very concepts of marriage and family, and the battle to redefine traditional marriage is just the beginning. The proponents of homosexual "marriage" admit it and they have posted their manifesto online. Read, in their own words, what their real agenda is by clicking here.
The following are issues that are already covered under existing programs and policy, or may perhaps need an extension to existing policy but do not require redefining or destroying marriage.
· Single parent households
· Senior citizens living together and serving as each other’s caregivers
· Blended and extended families
· Children being raised in multiple households or by unmarried parents
· Adult children living with and caring for their parents
· Senior citizens who are the primary caregivers to their grandchildren or other relatives
· Close friends or siblings living in non-conjugal relationships and serving as each other’s primary support and caregivers
· Care-giving relationships that provide support to those living with extended illness such as HIV/AIDS.
And here's where they are really pushing at:
· Households in which there is more than one conjugal partner (translated: bigamy and poligamy)
www.afa.net
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Shielding Children from Obscenity 'Common Sense,' Not Censorship
Oklahoma Legislation Would Restrict Sexually Explicit Material to Adults-Only Access
By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
April 7, 2006
(AgapePress) - State representatives in Oklahoma have approved proposed legislation that would require public libraries to place sexually explicit materials in a separate section and to distribute such materials only to adults.
Should House Bill 2158 become law, it would keep tax dollars from libraries that refuse to protect children from sexually explicit library materials. Representative Sally Kern's bill passed 60-33 and now heads to the Oklahoma Senate.
The bill states that unless a library has taken action to place "all children and young adult materials that contain homosexual or sexually explicit subject matter" in an area apart from the children and young adult sections, the state's Department of Libraries Board will not allocate state funds to that library. Says Kern, children deserve a period of "protected innocence" during which they are shielded from such material. Associated Press earlier quoted Kern as observing that contemporary advertisers apparently "can't sell toothpaste without sex," and that even the American Library Association is "out to sexualize our children."
The measure is opposed by the American Library Association, which argues that the legislation is contrary to two of the Association's four legislative goals -- supporting unrestricted access and preserving local library control.
Erik Stanley is chief counsel with Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which consulted in drafting the language for HB 2158. Stanley says the proposed legislation is a "common-sense thing" -- and does not impose censorship, as some have suggested.
"We're not asking for these books to be banned from the library, or to take them out and burn them," the attorney explains. "Obscenity laws protect children from seeing obscene things until over the age of 18. Libraries are not exempt from that -- and libraries should not be exempt. We're just simply asking that these books be placed in an area of the library where only parents [and adults] can get hold of them if they want to."
And lest some think their community does not have to worry about this issue, Stanley says the problem is not limited to the Sooner State.
"This is a major problem ... in libraries across the country," he says, "where parents have been exposed to and have seen books [in children's sections] containing sexually explicit instructions on how to perform sex acts [in] language that sailors would not even use."
Liberty Counsel cites a situation in Arkansas in which a parent brought to light children's books in the public school libraries that graphically depicted sexual intercourse, rape, sadomasochism, group sex, and incest. Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver says the content of many books that are written for children is "disturbing," as is the fact that those same materials are easily accessible to children without parents' knowledge.
"Exposing children to graphic sexual material at taxpayer expense is a serious problem that needs to be addressed," says Staver in a press release. He adds that federal, state, and local governments are not required to fund libraries that refuse to implement "reasonable protections" that are designed to shield children from books that contain "obscene or pornographic language or images."
Stanley expresses his firm's hope that the push behind Representative Kern's bill will encourage similar movements in other states to pass similar legislation.
Associated Press says prior to the House vote, Kern distributed to her fellow legislators several excerpts from books she said were found in local libraries. The excerpts were from books that contained homosexual or sexually explicit references, and the state representative remarked, "The average citizen does not have a clue what is in the library."
News from Agape Press
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Networks' Ad Campaign No Solution to Indecency Violations
Fri, 28 Apr 2006 03:52:43 -0400
By Jody Brown
April 26, 2006
(AgapePress) - Family-friendly media watchdogs say the television industry is merely trying to dodge its responsibility to police itself and its content. And the head of the FCC says the multi-million-dollar ad campaign just announced by the industry won't be enough to satisfy his agency's mandate to patrol the airwaves for indecency.
At their annual convention on Monday, the National Association of Broadcasters heard a pitch from the former head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) about an upcoming ad campaign designed to inform parents about V-chip technology and television program ratings. "We want to tell parents that they, and they alone, have total power to control every hour of television programming," said Jack Valenti in announcing the $330 million ad campaign.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has his own translation of Valenti's statement. The "avalanche" of ads, he says, is designed to persuade parents it is their sole responsibility to monitor what their children watch on TV. "In other words," says the FRC president, "the MPAA wants to continue to pump out the sewage and make you [parents] responsible for the cleanup."
"How noble. How empowering for you," Perkins says tongue-in-cheek. "And how ridiculous."
The announced ad campaign comes in the wake of a $3.6 million fine recently proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against CBS for what the agency determined to be indecent programming, and the FCC's decision to uphold another half-million-dollar fine against the network for the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" debacle during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. At the same time, the federal agency cited several TV programs -- but did not fine the originating networks -- for violating the standards for broadcasting indecent language. (See earlier article)
Since the FCC's announcement in mid-March, the four major networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox -- have sued the FCC over the indecency rulings. The networks claim the FCC "overstepped its authority" in making rulings that are "unconstitutional and inconsistent with "¦ previous FCC decisions."
Some media watchdogs claim that lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt by the networks to obtain the right to indiscriminately broadcast foul language in violation of current law. One of those who feels that way is L. Brent Bozell of the Parents Television Council (PTC) -- and he has a similar response to the ad campaign being promoted by Valenti and the MPAA. Bozell says his group's research has shown that the V-chip and the ratings system -- the core elements promoted by the ad campaign -- have failed.
"We have found that most television programs airing foul language, violence, and inappropriate sexual dialogue do not use the appropriate descriptors that would warn parents about the presence of offensive content," the PTC president notes. "Without accurate descriptors, the V-chip fails -- and thus, the ratings system is rendered meaningless."
According to Bozell, the only solution is for the industry to "clean up its act," rather than to try to make the public more aware of technology and ratings that have been proven to be ineffective. The ad campaign, he asserts, will not solve the problem.
"They're spending $300 million to defend themselves against their wretched excesses," he says. "Why don't they just stop airing their wretched excess?"
Someone else agrees with Bozell's assessment of the multi-million-dollar advertising blitz -- and that someone is Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. "I'm not sure that's the complete answer," Martin said of the campaign Tuesday in Las Vegas. He noted that live sports programming, such as the Super Bowl, is among the type of programs not rated.
In addition, Reuters reports, Martin observed that his agency's research indicates that upwards of 40 percent of the TV sets in the U.S. do not have V-chips or other blocking technology. He believes that other initiatives -- such as family-tier options or "a la carte" offerings by cable companies -- would give consumers more choice. Consequently, parents would have more control over what they allow into their homes.
Networks' Ad Campaign No Solution to Indecency Violations, Say Critics
They Ask: Instead of Pumping 'Sewage,' Why Not Just Clean It Up?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
STRANGE ENCOUNTERS WITH ANOTHER WORLD
Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:28:37 -0400
For years Cathy Land was plagued by an unsettling sense of being "visited." When she realized what was happening, she turned to God to end her abduction experiences.
The pieces started to fit together the night they dropped her. For years Cathy Land had been plagued by the sense that something wasn't quite right. There were periods of unaccounted missing time, mornings when she felt heavy and lethargic despite a full night's sleep, an unsettling sense of somehow having been visited.
Then she woke up with an alien's face inches from hers.
"He had dropped me. I could feel his breath on my face. It startled him that I woke up. He had this confused--'That's not supposed to happen'--look on his face. The second one still had hold of my legs. I rolled over into a fetal position and went right back to sleep."
In the morning she told her son what had happened. Usually the family dismissed her recollections as a joke. This time he told her: "Those were not aliens; they were demons."
"It finally all made sense," she recalls.
Her son's comment propelled her to the Internet, where she found some Christians who didn't dismiss her experiences as nonsense. Her faith was enriched and deepened as she discovered that God's power could free her from her years of torment.
"I stopped being so scared, and I got mad," she says. "I finally understood. These things were trying to get the world's attention away from God, and how better to do that than make people think they are being invaded from outer space? These are not benevolent little E.T.s come to clean up the environment, fix the hole in the ozone layer. They are not from a distant galaxy. They are raping women, they are murdering animals, they are terrifying children."
An office manager for a medical supply company, and one-time stock-car racer and singer-musician, Land began to read all she could to learn more about what had troubled her for so long. She had been fascinated by UFOs since early childhood, one time reporting a seashore sighting to the police.
"Many times I would have a strange feeling just before going to bed," she says, adding that precise memories were hazy when she awoke. "I would feel like something had happened during the night--but nothing I could put my finger on."
One time her son told of a frightening encounter he'd had with "a tall man." She admits that his account had scared her.
But she continued to devour books and TV shows on alien phenomena. She told family members about her experiences and talked about UFOs with friends, though most laughed her off.
"Sometimes it made me feel like I was losing my mind. Maybe I did dream this all up. But there were too many things over and over and over again," she says.
As she read all the Christian material she could find on the subject after her spiritual awakening, she began to see how she had been so deceived for so long. "Everything started to make sense," she says. "I realized that everything I had read had probably been happening to me all along, and it scared me. Then it made me mad. How dare they mess with me and my children?"
Land's anger over the years her life was "held" has spurred her to tell her story to others caught in the UFO mesh.
"This is war. It's the most ingenious hoax there is. It's a plan to get the world's attention away from the gospel of Christ, and it's working."
She says many exploring the UFO world are, as she was, "searching for love."
"That's what they are looking for, really, in their beliefs about aliens. But there's only one place they will find unconditional love, and they are looking in the wrong place."
An active part of her local Baptist church in Jacksonville, Florida, Land says that she now has a peace she never knew before. "I didn't know it for years.," she says. "It was a miserable existence from day to day. Nobody should be victimized like that. If I can save one person from being harmed, then I have to do this for God. It's my offering to Him.
"It's not the mission field I would choose for myself," she adds. "I would rather be feeding hungry people in India because maybe people wouldn't laugh at me. [But] who else is going to go and tell them, 'You are all being so deceived?'"
ALIENS, FALLEN ANGELS AND THE BIBLE
Evangelist Chris Ward has an unusual theory about the true identity of extraterrestrials.
In his ministry to the UFO world, Chris Ward boldly goes where few other Christians do. And his studies of the Bible and the UFO phenomenon have led him to an understanding that for many demands a radically deeper, if not new, look at Scripture.
Ward has no doubt UFOs are real and that people have had encounters with the beings in them. Where Ward disagrees with UFO believers, and where his explanation differs from many Christians, is what the aliens really are.
They are not from another planet, he maintains. But they are not demons, either, as many Christians are inclined to identify them, he contends. Rather, they are fallen angels.
That is not theological hairsplitting, he says. It is important both for everyday ministry to people in the scene and for understanding its crucial importance, he says.
"The people who are involved in this scene know the difference [between angels and demons], yet the church dismisses them as though they are ignorant," Ward says. "Many of the people we have met are also involved in Wicca or paganism or whatever, and they conjure up demons all the time. But these people think they are dealing with beings from another planet."
While most UFO apologists believe Earth is being visited from other planets, the perspective held by Ward--that aliens are extradimensional rather than extraterrestrial--is being considered more widely. A few respected secular figures in the UFO world have raised the idea of a spiritual dimension to the phenomenon.
Ward's studies have taken him not only back to Scripture but also to other ancient texts highly respected by early church leaders, such as the books of Enoch, Jasher and Jubilee. These writings, some of which are referred to in the Bible or appear in the Apocrypha, shed further light on what can be gleaned from the Old and New Testaments, he says. Among his conclusions:
* Demons are not angels that have fallen. The two are different entities. Although spiritual beings, angels can manifest in human or other physical form. Demons seek embodiment.
* Extraterrestrials are the fallen angels variously named in the Bible as "watchers," "wicked hosts in high places," and "principalities and powers." They want to divert worship from God.
* Demons were not created by God. They are the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim--the hybrids created when the angels who fell with Satan had intercourse with humans, as recounted in Genesis 6.
* The fallen angels wanted to mate with humans to pollute the genes of humankind so that it would be impossible for Jesus to be born. Some translations of the Genesis 6 account describe Noah as being found "blameless in his generations," a reference to his pure DNA.
* Old Testament accounts of Israel's wiping out idolatrous tribes make more sense if they were doing so to rid the Earth of the last of the Nephilim, some of whom were still to be found after the Flood.
* The rising number of alien abduction accounts is consistent with Jesus' warning in Matthew 24 that the time of His return will be "just like the days of Noah"--when the Nephilim roamed the Earth.
* Reproductive experiments and sexual encounters often reported by abductees are part of an attempt to produce a new generation of angel-human hybrids, from which the Antichrist will arise.
While referencing texts in addition to the Bible is considered approvingly by non-Christians who reject the authority of Scripture, it is viewed suspiciously by some believers. "I do look at extraneous material, but I prove it all through the Bible," Ward says. "You don't have to refer to any of these other books, but they are standard texts...broadly accepted."
Ward admits that his perspective seems unbelievable to some. "[But] I do not speculate. I only synthesize what I read. There is no need to speculate because the information is sensational enough on its own."
Complete article at:
Aliens Among Us - Charisma Magazine
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
No Denying, Abortion Harms Women
Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:04:51 -0400
By AFA Journal
April 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - A self-described pro-choice atheist and rationalist set out to prove that abortion does not have any psychological consequences. He found the opposite, and the results were so profound that they cannot be ignored in the scientific field or the political arena.
Professor David Fergusson, New Zealand researcher at Christchurch School of Medicine and Health, said, "[F]rom a personal point of view, I would have rather seen the results come out the other way -- but they didn't. And as a scientist you have to report the facts, not what you'd like to report."
Fergusson and his colleagues were surprised by the study that followed 500 women from birth to age 25 and revealed that abortive women were one-and-a-half times more likely to suffer mental illness.
"Those having an abortion had elevated rates of subsequent mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviors and substance use disorders," according to the research published in the Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology.
Numerous journals refused to publish the research, but Fergusson defended its relevance saying it would be "scientifically irresponsible" to overlook the findings. "To provide a parallel to this situation, if we were to find evidence of an adverse reaction to medication, we would be obligated ethically to publish that fact," he explained.
"Fergusson's study underscores the fact that evidence-based medicine does not support the conjecture that abortion will protect women from 'serious danger' to their mental health," added Dr. David Reardon, a seasoned researcher of abortion's impact on women. "Physicians who ignore this study may no longer be able to argue that they are acting in good faith and may therefore be in violation of the law."
As a result, the study is heating up the political debate over abortion in the United States while having a more profound effect on countries such as New Zealand and Great Britain where abortions are certified based on what was once thought to be in the best interest of the woman's health.
"If we were talking about an antibiotic or an asthma risk, and someone reported adverse reactions, people would be advocating further research to evaluate risk," Fergusson explained. "I can see no good reason why the same rules don't apply to abortion."
News from Agape Press
Massachusetts Elementary School Shows Its Rainbow Colors
Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:02:56 -0400
By Jim Brown
April 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - Some parents in Massachusetts are fed up with Lexington school officials who are defending a second-grade teacher's decision to read students a book about homosexual romance and "marriage" in class.
Estabrook Elementary School teacher Heather Kramer read her students the book King & King, a story about a prince who spurns a number of eligible princesses to marry another prince. The story ends with the two men marrying and sharing a kiss. When parents Rob and Robin Wirthlin complained about what took place, the school's principal told them no parental notification was required, nor would it be given before future discussion on homosexual "marriage."
Read AgapePress' March 2004 story about King & King
Brian Camenker with the Article 8 Alliance in Massachusetts says Kramer and school officials violated the state's parental notification law, which he wrote. "At this meeting the teacher and the principal were rather insulting," he says. Camenker contends the school officials basically told the Wirthlins "We're not going to give you notification on this -- we're not even going to tell you after it happened, and you can't opt your child out."
The Alliance spokesman says the approach being taken by the school toward the law is ridiculous.
"The law talks about human sexuality issues," he explains. "[School officials are] saying 'Well, homosexuality isn't a human sexuality issue, it's a human rights issue.' So they're saying it doesn't apply here, 'and so we're not going to notify you.'
"It's monstrous that they can just blatantly redefine the English language like that," he says.
According to Camenker, Kramer attend a presentation last year conducted by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) on promoting homosexuality in the classroom.
One year ago, Estabrook Elementary School was the site of an arrest of the father of a kindergarten student who had been attempting for several months to get his son opted-out from discussions portraying homosexuality as acceptable. Last April, following a meeting with the school principal, David Parker was handcuffed, spent the night in jail, and appeared before a judge the next morning. Trespassing charges were eventually dropped against Parker, but a ban preventing the six-year-old's father from school property remained in effect.
News from Agape Press
Believers need to Prepare for Da Vinci Code Fallout
Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:45:48 -0400
By Allie Martin
April 21, 2006
(AgapePress) - An upcoming movie based on a best-selling book that questions Christ's divinity can be challenged with fact and reason, says a Christian author. James Garlow advises Christians to be prepared to refute untruths that will be conveyed in Sony Pictures' The Da Vinci Code.
The movie, due to be released in the U.S. on May 19, is directed by Ron Howard and stars Tom Hanks. The film is based on the best-selling by Dan Brown, which asserts that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had children, and questions the divinity of Christ. The movie is rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, nudity, thematic material, brief drug references, and sexual content.
James Garlow is co-author of Cracking Da Vinci's Code, and he also compiled The Da Vinci Code Breaker. Garlow says Christians have an opportunity to counter the lies in Brown's novel with the historical truths found in scripture. He is convinced the Church must take seriously the challenge posed by the film.
"It'll either be catastrophic for the Church in terms of the unbelieving public losing a great deal of whatever confidence they may have left in the scriptures or in the person of Jesus," he says, "or if the Church is ready -- if we're able, as Peter writes, to give an answer for the hope that lies within us -- we can seize this opportunity and have fabulous evangelistic fruit ... or what I call pre-evangelism."
Christians, says the California pastor, must be willing and equipped to answer questions that will arise in the minds of non-believers about the reliability of the New Testament.
"If a person equips themselves on how to refute [the lies], they can just simply [say], 'Here, look at this information,'" he suggests, "and they can help a person establish a strong faith and even a sufficiently strong understanding of the historicity of the gospels, the historicity of Jesus and his life, even church history itself enough so that they can refute Dan Brown's notions."
Garlow's The Da Vinci Code Breaker is a sort of dictionary that contains numerous terms and facts about the people, places, and events referenced in the novel. One group -- Opus Dei, a conservative Roman Catholic group -- is depicted in the book as a murderous, power-hungry sect. The group has requested that Sony Pictures include a clarifying disclaimer in the film, saying "would be a gesture of respect toward the figure of Jesus, to the history of the Church and to the religious beliefs of viewers."
In its response, Sony does not say if a disclaimer will be attached, but insists that the film is "a work of fiction" and "not a religious tract."
News from Agape Press
Monday, April 24, 2006
Research Shows Early Porn Exposure Has Lasting Effects
Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:38:51 -0400
By AFA Journal
April 21, 2006
(AgapePress) - Recent studies confirming the corruptive impact of pornography on people revealed a growing concern among both secularists and Christians regarding its effect on children, especially if they are exposed at an early age.
Author Peter Stock addressed the concern in a document titled "The Harmful Effects on Children of Exposure to Pornography," in which he noted that viewing pornography distorts the sexual development of children and adolescents. Not only does it give an inadequate perspective of human sexuality, it dehumanizes women.
"This possibly violent, very degrading image or depiction of sexuality becomes the normal depiction of sexuality in the child's mind," said Daniel Weiss of Focus on the Family Action.
Even if the exposure to graphic sexual images is accidental, research shows that it can warp a child's understanding of sexuality. This twisted view follows them through life-tainting relationships well into adulthood, and creates a plethora of problems along the way. For example, experts associate early exposure to pornography with an increase in teen pregnancy, abuse, drug and alcohol abuse and relationship problems.
According to researcher Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, these problems surface when external beauty fades after years of marriage. "The ability to see the human being on the inside and respond erotically requires that you not have set up and trained yourself in a set of completely artificial, impersonal expectations," he said.
But with constant advancements in technology, these artificial expectations are staring kids in the face while making it more difficult for parents to protect them.
As reported by the U.S. Justice Department, nine out of ten school age children are exposed to pornography, usually while doing their homework online. In addition, the New York Times recently cited a study titled "Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors" in which it was noted that one in five children ages 10 to 17 had "inadvertently encountered explicit sexual content, and one in five had been exposed to an unwanted sexual solicitation while online."
While Internet filters are helpful when it comes to protecting children from online pornography, counselor Joann Condie also encourages parents to help their children process a good, wholesome and healthy view of sexuality.
News from Agape Press
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