Feature by Ed Vitagliano
April 12, 2006
(AgapePress) - Anyone know where we can find some Etruscans? You know, members of the Etruscan civilization that existed in ancient Italy, predating even Rome?
Well, there aren't any. The Etruscans were absorbed by the Roman civilization and ceased to exist as a distinct people.
Ominously, if a growing number of experts and cultural observers are right, it's entirely possible that the same question may be asked 100 years from now -- only about Italians or Spaniards or Russians.
As writer Mark Steyn glumly put it in The New Criterion, "Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries."
A Birth Dearth
What could possibly cause such a cataclysm? Another world war? A nuclear confrontation? The devastation of a plague, similar to that caused by the Black Death in the 14th century? Nothing quite so dramatic, say the experts. Rather, Europe is slowly dying simply by refusing to have enough children to replace the people who die each year.
Catholic scholar George Weigel, a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of The Cube and The Cathedral, says Europe is "committing demographic suicide, systematically depopulating itself."
For any population to remain stable, it must maintain a birthrate of 2.1 births per woman. That rate provides a replacement for both mother and father, while the .1 covers infant and child mortality. When the birthrate falls below that number, a population goes into decline -- unless it invites in large numbers of immigrants.
"The 'birth dearth' is what demographers call plummeting birth rates in most of the industrialized world," says culture critic Chuck Colson. "Throughout Western Europe and East Asia, the birth rate is well below 2.1 births per woman ...."
Sociologist Ben Wattenberg, author of Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future, puts this birth dearth in historical perspective. "Never in the last 650 years, since the time of the Black Plague, have birth and fertility rates fallen so far, so fast, so low, for so long, in so many places."
According to U.N. figures and other projections, Patrick Buchanan states in The Death of the West that by 2050 Europe (from Iceland to Russia) will see its population drop from 728 million (in 2000) to 600 million -- and perhaps 556 million. And if current trends continue, by the end of the century Europe's population will stand at 207 million.
Collapse of Family Values
Why has this happened? As it turns out, a variety of factors and trends have combined to create, as it were, the "perfect storm."
World magazine's Gene Edward Veith sums it up this way: "Why the population decline? The worldwide collapse of what are, literally, family values. Thanks to contraceptive technology, sex has become separated from childbearing. With women pursuing careers of their own and men getting sex without the responsibility of marriage, why bother with children? For many women and men, pregnancy has become an unpleasant side effect, something to prevent with contraceptives or easily treated with a trip to the abortion clinic."
Abortion comes in for particular blame in Veith's view. "The dirty little secret of the population implosion, one seldom mentioned by demographers, is that the world is aborting its future generations," he says.
Pro-family groups in the U.S., for example, rightly bemoan the abortion rate here, where Veith says one-third to one-fifth of all pregnancies end in abortion. Some European nations are far worse, however. "In Russia, the average woman may have as many as four abortions in her lifetime," he says. "There are two abortions for every live birth. That is to say, Russians kill two-thirds of their children before they are born."
All this is symptomatic of a pervasive hedonism that permeates the West, "a complete philosophy of pleasure," according to Allan Carlson, president of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society.
"Everywhere in the European Community and Anglo-America, real attention focuses on the consumption of food (alternately rich and fat-free), frequent sex, and raucous fun," Carlson says. "Relatively few are pestered these days by children. Fertile young adults rely on mechanical devices and chemical agents to thwart the designs of nature. In places as culturally different as Spain, Italy, Denmark and Germany, the sexual experimentation starts early, but hardly anyone brings forth a child."
Despite efforts on the part of some European nations to increase the desire of adults to have children -- such as tax breaks or cash incentives -- some experts think the pursuit of personal fulfillment will triumph.
Joseph Chamie, director of the U.N. Population Division, says, "No demographers believe birth rates will rebound. How much will it take to convince a woman to have four children? People are concerned about their appearances, their education, their careers."
What's ironic, however, is that this pursuit of personal pleasure and personal wealth may result in economic ruin.
"When it comes to forecasting the future, the birthrate is the nearest thing to hard numbers," Steyn argues. "If only a million babies are born in 2006, it's hard to have two million adults enter the workforce in 2026 ...."
Veith lists but a few of the ramifications of population decline. "Citizens are not just consumers but producers," he says. "Having fewer people can wreak havoc on an economy, creating both a labor shortage and a shortage of buyers. A government with a shrinking population faces a smaller military and fewer taxpayers. Dwindling populations have always signaled cultural decline, with less creativity, energy, and vitality on every level of society."
Abandoning Christianity
These explanations do not go far enough to suit culture critic and columnist Don Feder, who sees Europe's abandonment of its Christian heritage as the true root cause of its population problems.
"It's no coincidence that central to the new Europe ... is a refusal to acknowledge the continent's origins," says Feder, who is Jewish. "The proposed constitution for the European Union (a document of over 70,000 words) contains not a single reference to Christianity. Thus more than a millennium of European history is effectively erased."
The abandonment of Christianity in most European countries has been well-documented. For example, author and journalist James P. Gannon says that in five key European countries -- France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy -- over the last 30 years regular church attendance has fallen from roughly 40% of the population to about 20%." As Weigel says, Western Europe has become a "post-Christian society."
Feder believes there is a clear link between a lack of faith and the loss of that sense of duty to the future that leads people to conceive and bear children. "Having lost their faith and embraced an ethic of radical autonomy," he says, "Europeans stopped going to church, stopped taking the Bible seriously, stopped believing in the future and stopped having children."
Maria Burani, president of the Parliamentary Commission for the Family and Infancy in Rome, told Citizen magazine that faith is a foundation for the kind of lifestyle that parenting requires. "If you don't have inside your head great religious and ethical principles," she insists, "you're just not going to want to go and have these kids because it's a sacrifice."
Beyond that, of course, is the fact that religious principles also restrain the often selfish behavior that grows out of the "radical autonomy" that permeates Europe. "Among the consequences of Europe's abandonment of its religious roots and the moral code that derives therefrom is a plunge in its birth rates to below the replacement level," says Gannon. "Abortion, birth control, acceptance of gay marriage and casual sex are driving the trend."
Islamification of Europe
However, the prognosis for Europe gets even worse because many of the nations there have chosen a risky path for making up for their population shortfalls: immigration. Because North Africa and the Middle East represent a relatively convenient source of cheap labor, millions of Muslim immigrants have been flooding the continent for a half century.
"Western Europe has gone from a Muslim population of 250,000, 50 years ago, to 20 million today," says Feder.
Unlike Westerners, however, Muslims typically have large families. According to Robert S. Leiken, director of the Immigration and National Security Program at the Nixon Center, higher Muslim birthrates combined with Muslim immigration have led the U.S. National Intelligence Council to project that Europe's Muslim population will double by 2025.
As a result, Colson says flatly, "[d]emographics may bring about what the Moors and Ottoman Empire couldn't: a Muslim Europe."
But so what? Isn't such hand-wringing about Muslim immigrants nothing more than utter bigotry?
Hardly, say concerned Westerners. The Islamification of Europe would bring incredible cultural changes to Europe. "In 50 to 100 years, the Europe of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo, the Europe of Rembrandt and Bach, the Europe of Churchill and Karol Wojtyla will exist only in textbooks and museums," Feder says. "Or, perhaps the remnants of Christian Europe will be subjected to the fate of Afghanistan's Buddhist statues, demolished by the Taliban regime."
Political changes would also be inevitable, Steyn insists. "Can a society become increasingly Islamic in its demographic character without becoming increasingly Islamic in its political character?"
It is a rhetorical question, of course, and Steyn predicts that by 2050 many European nations will be forced to apply Sharia -- Muslim law -- to Muslim communities. He notes the results of a 2004 poll that found that over 60 percent of British Muslims want to live under Muslim law -- while living in the United Kingdom.
At first, most European governments would probably resist the demands of an increasingly assertive Muslim population. But in response, it would not be surprising to see an escalation of what has already begun to transpire: terrorist bombings in London and Madrid; the 2002 assassination of conservative Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who campaigned on a platform of limiting Muslim immigration; the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 for allegedly insulting Islam; rioting by Muslim youths throughout France in 2005; and rioting this year in response to political cartoons that were deemed offensive to Muslim sensibilities.
Steyn thinks Europe will see more such unrest -- and soon. "It seems more likely that within the next couple of European election cycles, the internal contradictions of the [European Union] will manifest themselves in the usual way," he says, "and that by 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on American network news every night."
In any case, Carlson says, "the Great Party [of Western hedonism] will not last much longer. There is an iron law in history: the future belongs to the fertile. Just as the clan-centered, child-rich barbarian tribes of the Germans swept away the sensuous and sterile Western Roman Empire, so shall new barbarians arise."
Scripture teaches that God rules over the nations, and the future of Europe looks increasingly like that of Israel when its prophets warned of impending chastisement and judgment. Are we on the brink of God's chastisement of Europe, even after a century of wars and other atrocities failed to bring the continent back to Christianity?
How ironic it would be that a European culture that demanded unlimited personal freedom might wind up living under the repressive heel of Muslim totalitarianism. Or that a culture that rejected its Christian heritage might, instead, be subjected to Islamic fundamentalism.
Cultures have disappeared before. Just ask the Etruscans. If you can find one.
Europe's Chastisement? -- How the Abandonment of Christianity May Be Leading to Disaster
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Abandonment of Christianity in Europe May Be Leading to Disaster
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Judge's Transcendental Meditation Sentence Crossed the Line
By Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
April 11, 2006
(AgapePress) - An attorney with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (AFA Law Center) says a circuit judge in St. Louis, Missouri, may have overstepped his authority when he sentenced a woman who plead guilty to voter fraud and drug possession to take part in a transcendental meditation program.
When Michelle Robinson pleaded guilty to 13 violations of election law and possession of crack cocaine and a crack pipe, Judge David Mason sentenced her to four years of probation for all charges. He also ordered her to get training in the Hindu practice known as transcendental meditation.
AFA Law Center attorney Brian Fahling is troubled by the judge's sentence. "Even if you don't regard transcendental meditation as a religion within the constitutional sense," he explains, "what you have here is a judge ordering an individual to engage in a practice that does have a spiritual dimension to it, and it intrudes on the heart and the mind."
Brian Fahling
What that means, Fahling says, is "you've got a governmental actor who's ordering an individual to participate in something that perhaps may run contrary to their own particular beliefs and belief system." Still, the attorney says he is not really surprised by the judge's order because it is consistent with a larger trend toward secularization that is progressing in America.
Transcendental meditation, of which Judge Mason is an advocate, is traditionally associated with Hinduism; however, it is practiced by members of many world religions and has become popular with adherents of New Age spirituality as well. Those who engage in "TM" are encouraged to clear their minds and sit in silence, with eyes closed, mentally repeating a simple sound known as a mantra, their objective being what practitioners call "pure consciousness."
The question of whether or not transcendental meditation constitutes a religion is one that is still being debated, even though those who say it is a religion can point to a wealth of prima facie evidence. The abundant proofs include TM's references to and use of Hindu astrology, terms, scriptures, and even ceremonies, including one in which practitioners are asked to get on their knees and bow before a picture of Guru Dev, a revered Hindu "enlightened" master.
A federal court has even weighed in on this debate. In Malnak v. Yogi (1979), a U.S. District Court ruled that under the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, transcendental meditation is too religious to be taught in public schools. Nevertheless, the practice continues to be promoted by advocates under the rubric of health and wellness and stress-reduction programs, and other attempts have been made to incorporate TM techniques into public schools and other institutional settings.
Christian Lawyer Sees in TM a Poor Substitute for Spiritual Truth
Fahling believes the persistent popularity of such pseudo-spiritual techniques is a by-product of spreading secularism in America -- the effect of a society that has largely rejected biblical truth yet still hungers for something to believe in. "To coin an old phrase, nature abhors a vacuum," he notes. "The nature of man, as Luther said, [is that] there's a God-shaped void in his heart.
"To the degree you take out Christianity as the predominant 'hole filler,' if you will, then something is going to rush in to fill that void," the pro-family attorney continues. "And so, certainly, it's not unexpected [that] we do see this increasing cultural embracing of anything else -- other than Christianity -- that has a spiritual dimension to it."
Among the primary appeals of transcendental meditation, according to proponents, is that it offers a scientific means of overcoming stress while conferring many physiological benefits. Critics, however, contradict this claim and point to studies and anecdotal evidence suggesting that TM may actually be hazardous to participants' health and psychological well being
News from Agape Press
Saturday, April 08, 2006
A review of Hallmark/ABC's The Ten Commandments
A review of Hallmark/ABC's The Ten Commandments
by John N. Oswalt
Research Professor of Old Testament
Wesley Biblical Seminary
Jackson, Mississippi
There is a lot to like about the movie.
In many cases, such as the healing of the water at Marah, or the giving of the manna, or the triumphing over the Egyptian diviners, the movie seems to follow the Bible text closely and presents good visual images of these.
The self-doubt of Moses and his inner struggles, especially in the early going, are probably accurate.
The rag-tag nature of the people and the vicious nature of Moses' opponents is well portrayed. There is no attempt to downplay the miraculous (in most cases).
That being said, I think the movie has a lot of problems.
The unnecessary departures from the Biblical story line:
The Pharaoh did not make a one-time attempt to kill the boy babies because of some silly prophecy. It was his settled policy that the mid-wives should conduct post-birth abortions in order to destroy the Israelites as a people. Aaron came out to meet Moses as directed by God and in confirmation of God's word to Moses. There was no hocus-pocus about Joseph giving them the "I AM" name in advance so that they could identify the deliverer.
Moses knew that he was to take them to Sinai where they would worship God; and they all knew where the Promised Land was.
The Golden Calf is expressly said to have been a molded image which Aaron cast from molten gold. They missed one of the best pieces of ironic humor in the Bible when Aaron whines to Moses, "I put the gold in the fire, and out came this calf!"
The additions to the story (all of which are designed to make the Lord [and Moses] look bad). Menrith, Zipporah's rejection (which is not what the story implies), and the Hur incident are all used to say that God is harsh and demanding and really doesn't care what he takes from us.
The omissions (which bother me most of all).
The conflict of the plagues was not between Moses and Pharaoh; it was between God and Pharaoh. This is lost by leaving out God's commands to Moses regarding each of the plagues.
The celebration by the sea recorded in Exodus 15. Moses was not weeping over some half-brother. He was leading the Israelites in exultant praise of God in one of the great hymns in all human history.
The whole point of the Exodus is the Covenant. This was not a "bargain" (the making of which takes about 4 minutes of the 180). The Covenant is a detailed revelation of the character of God, of which the 10 Commandments are a very brief summary. The people were carefully briefed on the nature of what was expected of them, both verbally and in writing. And when they agreed (Exodus 24) it was a very solemn ceremony, where they swore their obedience in blood, calling down curses on themselves if they failed, and culminating with Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and the 70 elders having a meal in the presence of God. Thus, the Golden Calf incident was done in the full knowledge of just what it was they were rejecting.
The conversations between Moses and God in both Exodus 32 and 34, both of which show God's compassion and his willingness to forgive and restore the relationship.
The Tabernacle (!!!), which is the climax of it all "“ God coming to take up residence in their midst, not in curse, but in blessing.
Probably the reason the Covenant and the Tabernacle are left out is because of the "scholars" the producers say they consulted with. Many scholars today insist that the covenant and Tabernacle are much later additions to the story. But, good grief, if they are going to go part way, why not go all the way? Most OT scholars today, sad to say, not only deny those things, they also deny that there was a Moses or an Exodus. So if you are going to do the story, do it all the way or not at all.
The distortions
The Amalekites were raiders from the far north of the Sinai peninsula. They had no settlements south of Mt. Sinai. Their presence that far south in the peninsula was simply a sign that they saw the rag-tag crowd as "easy pickings" for a lightning aggressive attack. This is why the Bible pronounced a curse on them. They were not protecting their territory; they were slaughtering people they (wrongly) believed were helpless.
It was the Levites who stood with Moses after the Golden Calf incident and they went through their own tribe picking out those who had led the false worship. The total killed (out of the huge group of people) was 3000. There was nothing like the wholesale slaughter depicted in the movie. The incident is only 3 verses long!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Proliferation of Public Profanity a Cultural -- and Spiritual -- Problem
By Tim Wildmon
April 6, 2006
(AgapePress) - Perhaps you saw the same survey I saw the other day about Americans and public profanity. It said that we the people are cursing more frequently and using words that were once considered taboo in public. I was probably 12 years old when I first heard the "f" word used by a neighborhood kid. I even asked my parents what it meant because I had no idea. Talk about an awkward moment for a parent. Today, however, you frequently hear words such as this out in the open.
A few weeks back I was on an airplane and the 25-year-old male a few seats over was yaking on his cell phone, letting everyone in on his business that none of us cared about. About every 60 seconds he felt the need to use the "f" word. I don't know if that made him feel more adult or what. Later in the airport waiting on a connecting flight, there was a lady, about 50, talking loudly on her cell phone. I heard her twice use the "f" word in what sounded like a casual conversation. Then while I walked at a local park earlier this week some teenage boys were playing basketball. One of them called another one a "mf" just as casual as you please. They were not in a fight, they were just talking to one another.
Raw profanity has become an acceptable part of popular culture today.
Rap music -- the most popular music among young people today -- is filled with gutter language. They play it loudly in their cars. Movies and television programs use hard profanity on a regular basis. In a way, we have become desensitized to it. This has been the goal of Hollywood for many years. There was a time before the mid-60s when foul language was not used on television, in movies or popular music.
But today many people mock you if you complain about public profanity. They say it's just the way people talk today and the language one uses doesn't matter. My question then is, why use words like "f" and "mf" and "gd" in public if language doesn't matter? Why didn't the teenage boy on the basketball court just say, "Give me the ball, John," instead of "Give me the ball 'mf'?" Why did certain words come out of the young man's mouth and not others? I contend most people who use foul language intentionally do so because they understand the words themselves represent rebellion against societal norms -- or what used to be societal norms. Otherwise, why use that kind of language? It's an attention grabber. Then, after using profanity for a long period of time, it does become second nature -- just the way people talk.
For the Christian, foul language is forbidden by the Bible. That is why using profanity in public was considered unacceptable before we became a post-Christian culture. Christian values and morals are now considered passé or "old-fashioned" to many Americans "“ especially the younger generation, sad to say.
In the New Testament book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul gives these instructions to followers of Jesus: "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
"But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there by any obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving" (Ephesians 5:1-4).
In Ephesians 4:29 Paul says: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
What I take from this is that we shouldn't tear down people personally. So, in the spirit of that biblical command, I don't desire to attack anyone. If we have criticism of someone, we can do so without attacking that person himself -- and do so with the purpose of achieving a positive resolution to the problem. We can talk about an offense without mounting a personal attack on the one who has offended.
Even though we know the standard, still, we are human and we often fail to live up to those standards. But the occasional slip is not what I am talking about. I wish it were. What I am talking about is a serious profanity problem in the general population. Sadly, I doubt we can reverse this trend. As I stated earlier, in many respects our American society has rejected the Christian moral value system. So this really is the way people talk to each other if they don't care what God thinks about the words that come out of their mouths. To them -- to us in our current cultural context -- it doesn't seem to matter. But according to God's Word, words still matter.
News from Agape Press
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Decoding Da Vinci
By Rusty Benson
April 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - What The Passion of the Christ is to Christians and Brokeback Mountain is to homosexual rights advocates, The Da Vinci Code promises to be to the foes of Christianity.
"[The novel titled] The Da Vinci Code is one of the most serious attacks on the church in terms of effectiveness that I've seen in my lifetime," says pastor, church historian and author James Garlow. "By that I mean it's an attack on the Bible itself and the divinity of Christ."
Though Garlow is referring to the best-selling novel by Dan Brown -- over 36 million copies sold since publication in 2003 -- it's the upcoming Hollywood movie that will likely thrust the story into cultural orbit.
With credits that include renowned director Ron Howard and superstar Tom Hanks, The Da Vinci Code promises to be the kind of big-budget production that will dominate entertainment buzz this spring. Sony's Columbia Pictures plans to release the film nationwide May 19.
Already, the popularity of the novel has caused great consternation among orthodox Christians. Though it is fiction, Brown not only challenges the trustworthiness of the Scripture and implicates the Roman Catholic Church in the biggest cover-up of all time, but so effectively blurs the line between historical fact and fiction that some readers are sure to come away confused.
Garlow and Peter Jones, director of the organization Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, are among numerous Christian writers who have addressed the historical and theological inaccuracies of The Da Vinci Code. Their book is titled Cracking Da Vinci's Code (Victor). Other books aimed at debunking Brown's story include The Da Vinci Deception by Erwin W. Lutzer (Tyndale House) and A Quest For Answers by Josh McDowell (Green Key Books). In addition, Radio Bible Class offers a shorter treatment on the issue in a free online publication, The Da Vinci Code: Separating Fact From Fiction. (See links to resources at conclusion of this article.)
The following summarizes the plot of The Da Vinci Code, then highlights the books mentioned above.
The Code
The Da Vinci Code is a complex tale of intrigue and conspiracy. Although the story is fiction, Brown contends the book is historically accurate.
In the movie, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is called to untwist the baffling clues and ciphers surrounding the murder of an elderly curator of the Louvre in Paris. He is joined in the investigation by cryptologist Sophie Neveu, the curator's estranged granddaughter.
The investigation uncovers a secret society called the Priory of Sion. The group, whose members have included Leonardo da Vinci, Issac Newton and Victor Hugo, guards a secret that, if revealed, would destroy Christianity.
The secret is that, among other things, Jesus was not actually divine but was voted as such at the Council of Nicaea in 325; He married Mary Magdalene and the couple had children; and He intended for Mary Magdalene, not the apostles, to lead the church.
To preserve their version of the "truth" da Vinci and other artists in the Priory of Sion embedded clues in their art, particularly da Vinci's The Last Supper.
Opus Dei, a powerful organization within the Roman Catholic Church, is ready to use any means, including murder, to insure that the "real" Jesus remains a secret.
A subtheme is the story's assertion that the Roman Catholic Church intended to suppress women and the knowledge that sex is the "sole means through which man could become spiritually complete and ultimately achieve gnosis -- knowledge of the divine" (The Da Vinci Code, p. 308).
Brown's theories draw heavily on alternative views of the historic Jesus such as the Gnostic Gospels and the work of the Jesus Seminar, as well as pagan beliefs that predate even the Greco-Roman world.
The Da Vinci Deception
The premise of The Da Vinci Code is simple: Jesus was not divine and the Church is lying.
To prove his case, Brown spins a yarn that reinterprets real and imagined events including the Council of Nicaea, the search for the Holy Grail, the development of the Biblical canon, the art of Leonardo da Vinci, and the person of Mary Magdalene.
In The Da Vinci Deception, Erwin W. Lutzer, author and pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, convincingly separates fact from fiction in Brown's book. In a well-written and brief volume -- 120 pages, including footnotes -- Lutzer clarifies issues ranging from the veracity of the New Testament to the alleged marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Lutzer defends orthodox Christian doctrine and accepted church history in a way that is concise and usable, yet adequately detailed.
For example, in debunking Brown's claims in The Da Vinci Code that Constantine "upgraded Jesus' status [to divine] almost three centuries after Jesus' death" for political reasons, Lutzer offers a layman's look at issues faced at the Council of Nicaea. He follows that with profiles of early church fathers who were martyred defending the divinity of Jesus, then counters the false claim that the Council rejected the Gnostic Gospels in favor of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- all in only 16 pages.
Cracking Da Vinci's Code
Garlow and Jones combine narrative and storytelling to reinforce their contention that Christians should view The Da Vinci Code as a golden opportunity to engage others with the Gospel.
To that end the authors created a short story of three college friends, Carrie, Jen and Evan. Their story serves as an effective introduction to each chapter as well as a real-life model for patiently and persistently dealing with those who have been influenced by Brown's novel. In fact, the story of the trio is so well done that readers may be compelled to complete the book just to find out what happens to the characters.
In the story that accompanies the narrative, Carrie's lesbian roommate, Jen, gives her a copy of The Da Vinci Code to help Carrie understand the roommate's homosexuality. When she attends a Da Vinci Code discussion group, Carrie begins to buy into the book's agenda.
At the same time she makes an unlikely friendship with a Christian student, Evan, who patiently and gently challenges her suppositions about The Da Vinci Code.
One of their early encounters includes this exchange:
"So you've fallen into the da Vinci trap, huh?" asked Evan easily as they walked back from the one class they shared, Conversational French. "Now every time you see the Mona Lisa, you're going to wonder if it really is the artist himself in drag." He said this in a gentle, mocking manner.
"I couldn't care less about those parts of the book," said Carrie, wondering why she felt it necessary to take a defensive position. "Da Vinci was, admittedly, an odd duck. What gets me is that what Christians believe about Jesus is all wrong; but I have a much clearer understanding of Jesus now, after reading Brown's book."
Evan, still smiling replies, "I'm surprised at you, Carrie. Learning theology from a novel. Next you'll be telling me that you can prepare for the bar exam by reading Grisham."
In the narrative, Garlow and Jones prove themselves competent to crack Brown's code. Quoting frequently from the novel, the authors deconstruct its major themes giving particular emphasis to the issue of sex as a way of gaining secret knowledge of God
Cracking Da Vinci's Code also includes end notes and a study guide.
A Quest for Answers
Apparently Josh McDowell, Christian apologist, evangelist and writer, agrees that fiction is an excellent framework to demystify The Da Vinci Code.
His recently released self-published book, The Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers, is structured as a series of conversations between three fictitious characters. Unlike Garlow and Jones, McDowell uses his fictional dialogue without additional narrative.
Although the imaginary discussions are sometimes forced and predictable, McDowell's effort overflows with details that break the back of The Da Vinci Code. Readers of McDowell's earlier work including the Christian classic, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, will recognize his thorough and well-documented apologetic.
The volume runs 102 full-sized pages and includes endnotes, as well as an extensive bibliography.
Prepare to Engage
Should Christians read The Da Vinci Code and see the movie? Garlow says yes. "The movie will spark Da Vinci Code conversations everywhere," he predicts. "People are going to be talking around the water cooler about the divinity of Christ. What an opportunity!"
At the same time, Garlow says, Christians must exercise caution for the sake of their own souls.
"This is a classic case where what the enemy meant for evil, God will use for good," he says. "Therefore, I am not focusing on the offensiveness of the book and movie, but rather on the potential for fulfilling the Great Commission. We are all missionaries. And as missionaries in this hostile culture, it is our task to learn their language. And in this case the language is The Da Vinci Code."
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/32006a.asp
RESOURCES FOR DEBUNKING BROWN
The Da Vinci Code: Separating Fact From Fiction (brochure) by Radio Bible Class
http://www.rbc.org/ds/q1117
The Da Vinci Deception by Erwin Lutzer
http://www.moodychurch.org/radio/davinci.html
Cracking Da Vinci's Code by James Garlow and Peter Jones
http://www.jimgarlow.com/cdvcode/cdvcode.cfm
The Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers by Josh McDowell
http://www.josh.org/
Redeeming The Da Vinci Code, by Probe Ministries and EvanTell
http://www.probe.org/documents/redeeming_dvc2.html
Sexy media a siren call to promiscuity?
By Michael Conlon
Mon Apr 3, 11:04 AM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sexually charged music, magazines, TV and movies push youngsters into intercourse at an earlier age, perhaps by acting as kind of virtual peer that tells them everyone else is doing it, a study said Monday.
"This is the first time we've shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex," said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report.
Previous research had been limited to television, said the study which looked at 1,017 adolescents when they were aged 12 to 14 and again two years later.
They were checked on their exposure during the two years to 264 items -- movies, TV shows, music and magazines -- which were analyzed for their sexual content.
In general it found that the highest exposure levels led to more sexual activity, with white teens in the group 2.2 times more likely to have had intercourse at ages 14 to 16 than similar youngsters who had the least exposure.
The effect was not as pronounced for blacks, the study said, perhaps because the black youngsters in the study were already more sexually experienced than the whites were when the research began and thus were less influenced by media exposure over the two-year period.
The teenage pregnancy rate in the United States is three to 10 times higher than that found in other industrialized nations, making that and exposure to sexually transmitted infections a major public health concern, the study said.
At the same time parents tend not to talk about sex with their children in a timely and comprehensive way, leaving a vacuum in which the media may become a powerful sex educator, providing "frequent and compelling portraits of sex as fun and risk free."
"Interestingly one of the strongest predictors of risk for early sexual intercourse for both black and white teens (in the study) was the perception that his or her peers were having sex," the report said.
Youngsters "may begin to believe the world view portrayed and may begin to adopt the media's social norms as their own. Some, especially those who have fewer alternative sources of sexual norms, such as parents or friends, may use the media as a kind of sexual superpeer that encourages them to be sexually active," the report added.
The study was published in the April issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. A portion of the data was previously published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The study was done in several schools in North Carolina. The authors said that they did not measure the impact of exposure to sexual material on the Internet because when the research began in 2001 relatively few of the early adolescents in the sample had Internet access. Additional research should include exposure to Web-based material, the study suggested.
"It took many studies over a number of years to establish that violence in the media increased children's violent behavior and to begin initiatives to reduce harmful effects," the study said. "Given the consistent findings regarding media violence, it may be prudent not to wait decades to conclude that the media are also important sources of sexual norms for youth," it added.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-04-03T040507Z_01_N29389676_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SEX.xml
The case against adultery
By Burt Prelutsky
Apr 1, 2006
Not being religious, I don't feel comfortable discussing other people's sins. Even where the Ten Commandments are concerned, I'm probably only batting about .650. However, one of the thou-shalt-nots I seem to take more seriously than a lot of other people, including those in the church-going crowd, is number seven on the hit parade, the one dealing with adultery.
Having been divorced twice, I recognize that all marriages are not made in heaven. Some, in fact, seem to have been cobbled together in Dr. Frankenstein's basement. Speaking from experience, there are perfectly good reasons for certain unions to be dissolved. But, for the life of me, I can not come up with a single decent excuse for adultery. Frankly, I regard adulterers as lying, contemptible sleazebags. I can't begin to imagine how they live with themselves, let alone their mates. Even the terminology is distasteful, unless, unlike most of us, you don't mind being a cheater.
I recall hearing that Chicago's mayor, the late Richard Daley, who was one of the last of the big city bosses, when once asked why, with all the women available to him, he remained faithful to his wife, replied, "If I can't keep my word to my wife, why should anybody else trust me?"�
Now the story may be apocryphal, and, for all I know, Mayor Daley may have been a worse hound than Bill Clinton, but the point is still a good one. If before man and God, you pledge your troth, and, first chance you get, you hop into the sack with someone you're not married to, you're nothing but a four-flusher.
What truly confounds me are cheating couples who eventually wind up married to each other, and are then astonished that their partner is now cheating with somebody new. Anybody who believes they are so special, so beautiful, so fascinating, so charismatic, that they can trust their adulterous spouse to remain faithful is not only terminally narcissistic, but more gullible than the hayseed who pays good money for the deed to Brooklyn Bridge.
After giving it some thought, I am convinced that there are motives for adultery that have little or nothing to do with sex. I believe the first of these is based on resentment. Either the husband or the wife feels neglected because kids, work, hobbies or booze, seem to have supplanted them in importance. The adultery not only provides them with a temporary ego-boost, but it gives them the feeling that they're extracting a measure of well-deserved revenge. That is why after the initial excitement of the illicit affair wears off, the adulterer begins to resent the fact that his or her mate doesn't even suspect anything. Their attitude often changes from one of "Oh, aren't I the clever one to be pulling the wool over the fool's eyes!"� to "The damn fool doesn't notice because he/she doesn't think I'm sexy enough to attract anybody."� Ultimately, it's vanity, rather than a guilty conscience, that leads them to confess all.
Another reason that people risk destroying their marriages, hurting their children and damaging their reputations, is because their lives are so darn boring, and I'm not even referring to their sex lives. The truth is that most people live lives, not necessarily of quiet desperation, but filled with tedious activities spent with boring, mind-numbing, dullards. What makes it even worse is that every time they turn on the TV or pick up a magazine, they're confronted by gorgeous celebrities, male and female, living the way they'd like to -- a mad whirl of parties and premieres, vacations in exotic locales, private jets, limousines, servants, and, yes, tacky affairs. Well, chum, with your income, your humdrum job and your ordinary looks, you can forget about everything on the list except that last item. But even you can meet George or Helen the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month at the Bide-a-While Motel.
And aren't you, for about an hour or so, every bit as sexy and glamorous as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Sure, if you say so.
But when you drive home afterwards, saddled down with a load of guilt and self- contempt, can you honestly say the lay was worth the lie?
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/column/BurtPrelutsky/2006/04/01/192177.html
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Is killing time killing you?
Clipped from promisekeepers2 newsgroup on Yahoo Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/promisekeepers2/message/7724
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 07:47:17 EST
From: Padah@aol.com
Subject: Is killing time killing you?
You know time is a gift from Almighty God don't you?
He gives us all the time we need to find Him and His son Jesus Christ so we can live forever.
Are you one of the millions who sit in front of your television for hours and hours?
You know you have something you want to really watch, so you keep the TV on and watch whatever to kill time until your show comes on. I bet a lot of you are spending more time watching TV than you can imagine?
As a normal day starts and your watching let's say, one of those early morning shows; you know the ones that have a little of everything and a whole lot of commercials. Then your off to work or school, and on your ride to and from these places you listen to the radio, which is more time killed.
After you get home your mate in life, already has that one eyed monster blaring away with soap operas or one of those talk shows, or maybe one of those 24 hour news channels?
You say your hello honeys and maybe if you're lucky you get a quick kiss before you settle in for a night of what else, watching TV RIGHT?
So now it's six or 6:30 P.M. time to eat, maybe some fast food or left overs? If your really lucky maybe, just maybe a nice home cooked dinner, something hot and fresh will be waiting for you? . Hopefully not a frozen TV dinner, (not that there is anything wrong with this, as long as it is not an every night thing)but, too many families are eating fast foods and frozen foods way to many times. (This is a subject for another article).
Back to you killing time, you hurry and down whatever your meal was.
Worse yet you take it to the TV room and watch news or some drama that gets your stomach upset. This is BAD for your digestion.
Do you have a lot of heartburn, getting a little tub around your middle, maybe some of that is caused by emotions? It is a fact watching the news while you eat is up setting to your mind if you know it or not.
One of the points I'm getting to is that this kind of living is slowly killing you. Therefore, wasting time in this manner will kill you sooner or later.
I want you to take a moment here and think of how much time your TV is on during each day? How many hours of the day, if your watching it or not, does your TV stay on ___THINK!
Some surveys say that the average American family watch TV up to six hours every day. The reality is that the average home has a television turned on 6-12 hours every day. That's right up to 12 hours a day! This is hard to believe Huh?
Now back to the first part of this article. Do you watch TV between your favorite shows that are coming on at 9:00 or 10:00 P.M.?
We men, drive our better halves, to the breaking point with our channel surfing. We hear this all the time right? While in the middle of changing fifty channels or so, she says "Why don't you put it on one channel and quit hopping all over the place, give me that remote and stop on something before I hit you with that blank-ca-ty blank------ remote control."
You find something to watch or something she will watch, anything to kill time till your shows come on. While waiting you start, click, click, click, then you hear it again "Honey would you please quit jumping all over the place and leave it on one channel, I'll watch anything if you will quit that click, click, clicking the remote."
OK, Now it is 8:00 P.M. just another hour and your show will be on, then at 10:00 P.M. there is the other one you watch. So now you have to kill another hour to see what you have wasted half the night for. click, click, click Oh yeah! I am not suppose DO THAT, DAH!
You look over at your wife and see her eyebrows raise and you know, what she's about to scream! So you leave it on some other stupid show, that neither one of you cares about. Now you have killed another half an hour, then finally your show is about to start.
You head for the kitchen for a little snack and a beer or soda, anything to fill you growling stomach. When you come back, your long awaited show has started. Now you can flop onto your chair or the sofa to relax and watch your favorite show.
It is now 9:00 P.M. then another show at 10:00 P.M. and the news at 11:00 P.M., maybe you'll even watch the late show or a little more news before you head off to bed.
It is now 1:00 A.M. in the morning or maybe it is 2:00 A.M., when your head hits the pillow and you try to sleep.
"You're not going to get very much rest for work tomorrow morning, your saying to yourself." "You have made it thought another day" you say to yourself as you drift off to sleep.
Somewhere off in the distance you hear the alarm go off and your mind say "already, but I just went to sleep?" Does this sound very familiar?
Some people who don't work are worse off than this.
They are the ones who turn on the TV early in the morning to help get them thought their day. THEY USE IT to keep themselves company, or to kill time, how's this sound? They are home all day for some reason, like out of work, or maybe a house wife, you know the one who yells about the click, click, click.
All day the one-eyed monster is on! The TV was left on from the morning show or news, then the soaps start or worse, those game shows, all day killing time.
If your not living like this, I am sure you are doing something else to kill time? Maybe like bowling two or three times a week, or playing tennis three or four times, to stay in shape again nothing wrong with this, but where is time for God? Do you even think of God during your busy day, or do you only think and give God time on Sunday?
Fast food, eating on the run, eating while watching TV, is all bad for you and it will slowly kill you. RUSH, RUSH, RUSH killing time. , We humans are good at this, aren't we?
Eating badly, staying up late, and losing sleep, it is taking time off your life, yes, you are killing yourself with all this kind of time. STOP!
When was the last time you spent time on your knees praying? God is a loving God filled with grace. He reaches out to you and me and gives us all the time we need,to get to know Him.
We all need to spend more time in earnest prayer to know Him.
How much time do you take out of your busy day to talk to your Heavenly Father? I bet you spend time talking to your earthly father or other's close to you, don't you?
Time, we all take it for granted, we kill lots of it because we never stop to think, someday we are all going to run out of time.
Killing time can kill you. By this I mean, by not praying to God, you cannot have a close relationship with God. You know prayer is just talking to your Heavenly Father who cares for you so much He gave His only begotten Son. ( John 3:16) You can spend forever with Him in the kingdom by the time you spend with him now. Amen.
Can't you find some time to go to your God and thank him for the time you have right now? The time you spend with God isn't a wasted time. It is building an everlasting life in God's Kingdom FOREVER AND EVER!
Like the Bible says "what good does' it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses he's soul?" ( Matt.16:26 )
My fellow Christians it is time We all wake up! We are all running out of time, and some of us will be sooner than others, but still we are running out of time.
It is time to quit wasting a gift from God. He gives each of us this time so we can discover His wonderful gift of Jesus Christ!
If you haven't received Jesus into your life, NOW would be the time, to ask Him into your life so, you can have all the time in the world and beyond.
Just take the time right now and ask Jesus into your life. Take some time here right now to ask Him to forgive your wrong ways, and to come into your life! ASK HIM to lead you to the Father of all time.
Tell God you are sorry for wasting so much time of not getting to know Him. Tell God, YOU have killed so much time you have lost track of it.
Repent of your sorry life and all the time you have wasted away. Maybe this is the first time you have thought of it, maybe your time so far isn't that bad, but you my friends are still running out of time so, don't waste another second.
Don't kill any more of God's gift of time! It is TIME to repent, Time to be Baptized, Time to go to church, Time to pray, Time to be healed from all sickness's and to find happiness, and Time to find everlasting life in God's word, the Bible.
There is coming a time when you will have no more time to kill. Are you ready for that day? Is your life spent in good time with God or Television?
It might be today or in the next hour, we don't know but, it is appointed for all man to die once. ( Heb. 9:27 )
I beg you, NO! I implore you, don't kill any more time, it could kill you. Use the time you have left in your life to praise your Heavenly Father and give Him thanks for any time you have left on this earth. Read in the book of Revalations Chapter 21
Here is the time when God Himself will judge everyone on how they spent their time on this plane of existence! Where will you be doing this time? THIS is the most important time of your life? TIME IS RUNNING OUT, BE READY!!!
Friday, March 17, 2006
Dutch Immigrants Must Watch Racy Film
Wed Mar 15, 2:35 PM ET
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The camera focuses on two gay men kissing in a park. Later, a topless woman emerges from the sea and walks onto a crowded beach. For would-be immigrants to the Netherlands, this film is a test of their readiness to participate in the liberal Dutch culture.
If they can't stomach it, no need to apply.
Despite whether they find the film offensive, applicants must buy a copy and watch it if they hope to pass the Netherlands' new entrance examination.
The test — the first of its kind in the world — became compulsory Wednesday, and was made available at 138 Dutch embassies.
Taking the exam costs $420. The price for a preparation package that includes the film, a CD ROM and a picture album of famous Dutch people is $75.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060315/ap_on_re_eu/netherlands_testing_immigrants
Board Ignores Parents and Their Concerns Over Campus GSA Clubs
March 16, 2006
(AgapePress) - A Virginia school board has thumbed its nose at parents in Richmond who are pushing for a ban on "Gay Straight Alliances" and other student clubs that promote teen sexual activity.
Parents and citizens collected more than 700 petitions of registered voters in Chesterfield County, asking that GSAs and other sex-based clubs be banned from public schools. Fifteen opponents of the clubs addressed the board on Tuesday night (March 14), including an attorney from Florida-based Liberty Counsel, who affirmed the board's authority to prohibit sex-based clubs based on the federal Equal Access Act.
However, the board voted 5-0 to approve a new policy that falls short of banning homosexual student clubs. Kevin Hoeft with the group Concerned Citizens of Chesterfield County calls the outcome "devastating."
"There are mechanisms in that policy to prohibit any clubs that have sexually explicit speech or that violate the board's policies or Virginia law,," Hoeft notes, "but we are really doubtful as to whether the school board and the superintendent's office [are] going to remove these sex-based clubs from our schools."
Last year a homoerotic author was scheduled to speak to a local high school's Gay Straight Alliance, but after parents noted his books contained sexually explicit content, the event was cancelled.
The spokesman for the citizens group says the board is naïve to think the GSA clubs are not about risky sexual behavior. "If they do have an awareness of the potential danger, they are not taking the appropriate action to protect our students by getting rid of these clubs," he says.
Hoeft says he will be monitoring how the school board responds when local Gay Straight Alliances take part in the National Day of Silence, an event designed to increase the acceptance of homosexual sex among young people.
Board Ignores Parents and Their Concerns Over Campus GSA Clubs
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Homosexual Activists in Europe, Canada Using Gov't to Silence Opposition
Ed Vitagliano
March 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - For decades homosexual activists claimed that they were oppressed by societies that wanted them to remain silent and in the closet. Now that homosexuals are experiencing cultural acceptance unheard of in Western Civilization since the time of ancient Greece, they are no longer unseen nor unheard. In fact, the homosexual community has obtained a seat at the table of political power.
In Europe and Canada, those sympathetic to the homosexual movement are using the coercive power of government to silence those who oppose their agenda.
Pro-family groups in the U.S., meanwhile, are pointing to these other countries with increasing urgency, warning that what is happening in Europe and Canada is already starting to happen here. (See earlier article)
Trouble Across the Pond
In Europe, as the politically correct view of homosexuality takes root within the legal system, the Christian view is increasingly coming under pressure.
For example, when the Rev. Peter Forster, Anglican Bishop of Chester, England, told his town's newspaper that homosexuals can leave their lifestyle by getting professional medical help, he got an unexpected visit from the police. Law enforcement officials went to Forster's residence after a complaint was filed that charged him with a hate crime.
At least one homosexual group called Forster's remarks "evil." Martin Reynolds, the communications director for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, told the Daily Telegraph (London), "These are irresponsible remarks that could inflame latent homophobia."
The police investigated the complaint but decided against any further action -- but only because the British law against inciting racial hatred has not yet been extended to include sexual orientation.
Pro-family advocate and author Lynette Burrows also learned the hard way, when she criticized homosexual adoption in a live radio interview in Cambridge, England. According to the Daily Telegraph, after a member of the listening public complained, police initiated an investigation -- claiming that her comments may have constituted a "homophobic incident."
"I was astounded," Burrows said of the inquiry. When she told the female investigator that England was a free country that protected freedom of speech, the policewoman told her "it was not a crime but that she had to record these incidents. They were leaning on me, letting me know that the police had an interest in my views. I think it is sinister and completely unacceptable."
The same pressure is being brought to bear elsewhere in Europe: Catholic Cardinal Gustaaf Joos of Belgium faces a lawsuit over his comments, published in a magazine, about the Christian view of homosexuality; in Spain Cardinal Antonio Varela of Madrid also faces a lawsuit for preaching against homosexuality in a sermon; and in Ireland Catholic clergy who distribute their church's publications against same-sex marriage were told they could face prosecution under Ireland's hate crime laws.
Meanwhile, as the European Union (EU) continues to attempt to oversee more and more of the daily lives of member nations, the clash between homosexual and religious rights becomes inevitable as well.
In January, for example, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning "homophobia" and demanding that member nations introduce and then implement laws granting special rights for homosexuals in employment.
According to a story from the Rainbow Network, the resolution, which passed on a 469-149 vote, called on the European Commission to begin proceedings against countries that refuse to pass such laws.
Naturally, the passage of the resolution was applauded by homosexuals, one of whom thanked Christians for their inaction as the resolution came up. "Another positive point is that the lunatic fringe was apparently very silent," boasted Joke Swiebel, a homosexual activist and former member of the European Parliament. "It does not pay anymore to shout against gays and lesbians in the Parliament itself."
Nuttiness North of the Border
In Canada, pro-family groups and other conservatives suffered a serious defeat when that nation legalized same-sex marriage last year. But government pressure against those who dare speak up against homosexuality has been building for several years.
For example, in 2001 William Whatcott produced and distributed a flyer warning of the medical and spiritual dangers of the homosexual lifestyle, but that landed him in legal hot water after four homosexuals got the flyer out of their mailboxes and read it. They considered it "hate speech," and the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal agreed. Whatcott was ordered to pay more than $17,000 to the homosexuals.
Meanwhile, the Knights of Columbus, a men's organization affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, was fined $2,000 by the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal after the Knights refused to allow two lesbians to rent a hall for a same-sex "wedding." While the tribunal gave the Knights of Columbus a pass on the basis of religious objections, the fine was issued because of the lesbians' "humiliation" in having to find another location -- even though it was the lesbians themselves who made the matter public by informing the press.
However, the lesbians were not satisfied with the ruling, and said they will appeal. Their attorney, Barbara Findlay, said, "This is going to be the first real legal test of the [same-sex marriage law]. We want the court to make the call -- how far does freedom of religion extend under the charter? Where do we draw the line?"
The legal line may be irrelevant for David Hauser, the Knights of Columbus member who was responsible for nixing the lesbians' nuptial celebration at the hall. As it turned out, according to a story on LifeSiteNews.com, Hauser got fired from his job at Costco soon afterwards, and he alleges it was because of the fracas.
His reason for thinking so? One of the lesbians who filed the discrimination allegation is actually a coworker of Hauser, and he said many of the people in management at his former place of employment are openly homosexual.
Ironically, other Christians are finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. Nondiscrimination statutes and hate crime laws -- declared by activists to be absolutely necessary in order to protect the homosexual community -- are now weapons in the hands of those who would silence Christianity.
Scott Brockie, a Christian printer, was fined $5,000 in 2000 by the Ontario Human Rights Commission because he refused, on the basis of his religious convictions, to print materials for a homosexual group. The Commission told him he must also print anything else the group wanted.
Even though an appellate court gave Brockie a partial victory -- he was told he did not have to print any more homosexual-themed materials -- the original fine was upheld. Moreover, the entire appeal process left him more than $100,000 in debt. Then the Human Rights Commission filed and won a motion that Brockie pay its legal costs. That saddled him with $40,000 more in debt.
But even when a Christian promotes his beliefs on his own time, in a manner unconnected with his job, the results can be devastating. Chris Kempling, a counselor at the Quesnel School District in British Columbia, granted an interview to CBC Radio in 2003 -- while at home during his Christmas vacation.
In the interview, Kempling, who is a licensed psychologist with a doctorate in that field, explained about his specialty: counseling homosexuals who want to leave the lifestyle.
Kempling was suspended for three months by the school district, but when he tried to bring a religious discrimination complaint against the school, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal refused him a hearing.
In response, Rev. Tristan Emmanuel, an outspoken defender of the traditional family in Canada, told LifeSiteNews.com, "The [British Columbia] Human Right's Tribunal decision has made it clear that it's not about tolerance -- it's about the suppression of all opposition -- a type of jihad against free speech and freedom of religion."
Freedom of religion, in fact, continues to face pressure in Canada just as it is in Europe. According to the National Catholic Register, Catholic Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary ran afoul of the pro-homosexual establishment when he opposed same-sex "marriage" in a diocesan letter. Two homosexuals formerly charged the bishop with "discrimination."
In his own defense, Bishop Henry argued, "My rights to freedom of religion and free speech have been violated. Those that support same-sex marriage want to shut the churches out of this important debate. Those who favor same-sex marriage have been given full opportunity to state their views on this issue. But now they are saying that anyone who speaks out against same-sex marriage is discriminating against homosexuals."
For Christians north of the border, perhaps the most odious law was the homosexual hate crime measure, Bill C-250, which was passed by the legislature in 2004. As World magazine's Lynn Vincent explained, C-250 makes it "illegal to publish, distribute, mail, import, or speak any communication that could be perceived as promoting or inciting 'hate' against 'identifiable groups,'" which includes homosexuals.
"Everyone who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, willfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of ... an indictable offence," the law says. Punishment includes imprisonment for up to two years.
Although an exemption was made in the law for religious groups, Christians in Canada fear courts will close the loophole, since the exemption only applies if a person expresses his religious opinion "in good faith."
Vincent stated that "at least one Saskatchewan court has already held that certain Bible passages expose homosexuals to hatred."
In light of the passage of C-250, at least one attorney in Canada is advising churches to consider "avoiding public criticisms of identifiable groups" and "limiting opinions to private conversations."
If churches followed that legal advice, it would appear to sound the death knell for Christian witness in Canada. But then, it also appears to be what homosexual activists want. Those who have come out of the closet want to start stuffing Christians into a closet of their own.
Homosexual Activists in Europe, Canada Using Gov't to Silence Opposition
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Gay Straight Clubs About Promotion, Not Protection
March 13, 2006
(AgapePress) - A pro-family advocate says leaders of Gay Straight Alliance clubs in schools falsely claim their main focus is fighting discrimination. She contends those clubs are more concerned about getting young people involved in homosexuality.
Last week a private high school in Santa Monica, California, held a "Free Queer Movie Night" that was sponsored by its Gay Straight Alliance club. At the event, the GSA screened a sexually explicit film about a lesbian relationship involving a German Jew and a Nazi sympathizer during World War II. According to Linda Harvey of the Ohio-based pro-family group Mission America, such events are standard fare for GSA clubs in both private and public schools.
"Movie nights are real popular -- and they are almost always movies about two young people who are homosexual who begin having a homosexual relationship," Harvey shares. "And they're almost all rated R or worse." She adds that the typical homosexual club will network with other homosexual teens in the area, either from other high school clubs or even middle schools.
The pro-family activist contends it is extremely dishonest for GSAs to claim they exist merely to promote tolerance and diversity when, in fact, they are promoting homosexuality immorality to young people. She notes that a brief search of websites like GSANetwork.org or SafeSchoolsCoalition.org supports her contention.
"You can quickly find out that these clubs are about homosexual sex -- about getting kids connected with people who are already involved in sexual activity, about promoting the books, the movies, and all of the contacts that are very sexual in nature," Harvey says. "That is very disingenuous -- and there is a problem here, in that people need to do the research and stand up and say what the truth is."
Harvey says many school board members and administrators do not want to fight the presence of GSA clubs because such efforts have largely been unsuccessful across the country.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/132006e.asp
Krekar claims Islam will win
Norway's most controversial refugee, Mullah Krekar, told an Oslo newspaper on Monday that there's a war going on between "the West" and Islam. He said he's sure that Islam will win, and he also had praise for suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
"We're the ones who will change you," Krekar told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet in his first interview since an uproar broke out over cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims.
"Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes," Krekar said. "Every western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries are producing 3.5 children.
"By 2050, 30 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim."
He claimed that "our way of thinking... will prove more powerful than yours." He loosely defined "western thinking" as formed by the values held by leaders of western or non-islamic nations. Its "materialism, egoism and wildness" has altered Christianity, he claimed.
Krekar, who's been supported by the Norwegian government since arriving as a refugee from northern Iraq in the early 1990s, now faces deportation after violating the terms of his refugee status and being deemed a threat to national security.
Bin Laden 'a good man'
Krekar told Dagbladet that he favours Islamic rule where political and religious leaders are one and the same. One such leader he respects, he said, is Osama bin Laden.
"Osama bin Laden is a good person," Krekar said. He claimed Osama bin Laden is considered a terrorist simply because he lacks his own state.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/010579.php
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Origins 101: Worldviews Begin With Beginnings
March 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - Nearly a century-and-a-half after Darwin's Origins of the Species was published, and 75 years after the Scopes trial, the argument over life's origins still inflames contentious debate.
Today three distinct theories of origins compete for public affirmation. Darwinian Evolution remains entrenched as the orthodox position of the cultural ruling class. Once challenged by Creationism, Evolution's latest contender is a theory known as Intelligent Design (ID).
As in the past, the debate regularly surfaces in the context of which theory or theories should be taught in public schools.
In El Tejon, California, Americans United for Separation of Church and State bullied a school district into promising that it would never again offer a "course that promoted or endorses creationism, creation science or intelligent design." However, in Kansas the State Board of Education recently approved a set of science standards that question evolution.
Even President Bush has weighed in on the issue saying, "Both sides should be properly taught so people can understand what the debate is about."
So far that hasn't happened. The result is a largely confused public.
The following is offered as a synopsis of Creationism, Darwinian Evolution and Intelligent Design. For a more in-depth study of these theories and the implications of each, see the suggested resources listed at the conclusion of this article.
Creationism
Also called Creation Science, this theory attempts to defend the biblical account of the origins of the universe. Creationists freely admit that their presuppositions are different than evolutionists', and thus, their interpretation of the archeological evidence is often different.
In addition, creationists frequently use independent data from the fossil record and from radiometric and carbon-14 dating to make their case.
Variations of Creationism include the Young Earth Theory (closest to the literal Genesis account), the Gap Theory and the Day-age Theory.
Darwinian Evolution
Charles Darwin was a 19th century British naturalist who first offered a plausible naturalistic theory for the origin of life in his book On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
According to Darwin's theory, the universe is without a beginning and life on earth evolved over a span of three to four billion years by the process of natural selection. Natural selection, according to Understanding the Times by David Noebel, is "the process that through competition and other factors such as mutations, predators, geography, and time naturally and randomly allows only those life forms best suited to survive to live and reproduce."
Concerning the status of man in the evolutionary process, George Gaylord Simpson, paleontologist and evolutionist, bluntly stated: "Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned. He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material."
Intelligent Design (ID)
The heart of the theory of ID, according to Nancy Pearcey, author of the landmark book Total Truth, is that design in nature can be empirically detected.
She writes that ID "formalizes ordinary intuition." For example, we instantly recognize the difference in a landscape formed by wind, rain and erosion and one that includes Mt. Rushmore. That difference is the clear evidence of a designer. It's the same kind of observable science that enables an archeologist to distinguish between a rock and an arrowhead.
In presenting their case, proponents of ID often point to recent scientific research in three areas:
(1) The inner working of cells: Scientists are learning that living cells are like a complex assembly line in which each part serves a perfectly timed, specific purpose. If the whole system is not complete and functioning flawlessly, it cannot perform at all. ID proponents argue that this kind of irreducible complexity is clear evidence of a designer.
(2) The origin of the universe: ID proponents say that life is only possible when thousands of variants such as gravitational, nuclear and electromagnetic forces are meticulously set and balanced. Again, they claim this is the perfect working of a designer's plan.
(3) The architecture of DNA: DNA is seen as the most convincing evidence of the work of design. It is often described as remarkably computer-like, with the DNA code analogous to software that directs the DNA molecule (hardware). This information is embedded in the DNA molecule, but is separate from the matter that makes up the molecule itself. The question becomes: "Where did the information come from?" Answer: an intelligent designer.
Winner Take All
What's at stake in the debate? In short, everything. "Whatever a culture adopts as its creation story shapes everything else," Pearcey writes.
If evolution continues as our culture's official orthodoxy, Christians can only expect the complete secularization in all areas from education to entertainment, from philosophy to politics. And with the natural implications that human beings are neither accountable nor responsible, the future is likely to be one in which raw power rules.
But don't give up too quickly. Although it faces an uphill battle, acceptance of ID as a viable theory of origins is growing. At a minimum that could result in the re-establishment of the discarded idea that human life has inherent meaning and purpose. And that could change everything.
News from Agape Press
World Watch List Rankings
Open Doors USA has released its annual "World Watch List" of 50 nations where Christians face the most intense hostility and harsh treatment because of their faith. The list ranks countries according to the intensity of persecution Christians face for actively pursuing their faith; and for the fourth straight year, the communist nation of North Korea tops that list.
Open Doors USA president Carl Moeller says North Korea is the most repressive nation in the world, and Christians bear the brunt of that repression. It is believed that tens of thousands of believers are suffering in North Korean prison camps, where these people of faith endure all manner of abuses and torture.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/82006c.asp
Open Doors USA
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Families Sue to Opt Their Kids Out of School-Mandated Pro-Homosexual Seminar
February 28, 2006
(AgapePress) - A federal judge has prohibited students from opting out of mandatory pro-homosexual diversity training in one Kentucky school system. District Judge David Bunning says students in Boyd County Schools have no religious or free-speech right to opt out of a yearly seminar aimed at preventing anti-homosexual harassment.
The diversity training for staff members and middle school and high school students is the result of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of a Gay-Straight Alliance Club that is now permitted to meet on campus. Kevin Theriot with the Alliance Defense Fund is representing three families that have filed a lawsuit challenging the mandatory diversity training.
Although Judge Bunning's ruling is distressing, Theriot says, he notes that his clients have won half of the concessions they sought through the lawsuit. "They had a policy before we filed the lawsuit that said that a student couldn't tell another student that homosexual behavior is wrong," he explains. "After we filed the lawsuit, they changed the policy."
The attorney says that policy that initially barred students from telling classmates that homosexuality is morally wrong "actually was part of the training that was given to students in the Boyd County Schools-mandated seminar."
Also, Theriot maintains, school officials "were trying to convince students that homosexual behavior is something that can't be controlled, and that it's something you're born with, and it's just like having a handicap," or "just like being born of a different race." Of course, the ADF-affiliated lawyer adds, these notions are "completely contrary to the religious beliefs of our clients."
The required pro-homosexual diversity training ends next year, but for now, the federal court ruling in place gives Boyd County Schools staff, middle school and high school students disagreeing with its content no option to sit out. Theriot is currently considering whether to appeal Judge Bunning's decision to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Families Sue to Opt Their Kids Out of School-Mandated Pro-Homosexual Seminar
Porn Industry Stoops to New Low
February 28, 2006
(AgapePress) - In what is further evidence of the porn industry's disdain of Christianity, an Internet-based sex toy company has begun selling items modeled after religious icons.
Web-based Divine Productions goes out of its way to promote products that clearly offend and mock Christianity and the Catholic Church. Through its website, the company is offering sex toys [named after Christian icons].
Gene McConnell is director of Authentic Relationships International, an organization that reaches out to men and women who are struggling with addiction to pornography. "It is clear that [porn] providers like this have to expose their customers to more destructive ideas to get their customers to come back for more," he says.
The distributor sells its products by using religious imagery and terminology to make fun of biblical characters, among them Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Judas, and Moses. Company advertising employs slogans such as: "Let Judas make a martyr out of you"; "help Moses part the ---- sea"; or "find out what it means to be truly touched by God" by using "God's immaculate --- ."
McConnell believes Divine Productions "is using sex to communicate hate to the religious community."
Nationally, the handful of organizations that regularly battle the porn industry and its message of obscenity -- groups like Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, American Family Association, National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, Alliance Defense Fund, and Citizens for Community Values -- are, for the most part, religious-based or have close ties to the Christian faith community. Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty University and senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church (Lynchburg, VA) -- and a friend to many of the leaders of these groups -- says ridicule of the Church "is something that has happened since the time of Christ."
"When our beliefs are ridiculed," says Falwell, "Christians are admonished in the Bible to pray for our enemies instead of burning building and killing people." The well-known evangelist was referring to the worldwide protests by Muslim extremists over the comic character of Mohammed in a Denmark newspaper.
Syndicated radio talk-show host Paul McGuire says "it is amazing to the me that major media groups do not see this as a frontal assault on Christianity." And like Falwell, the Crawford Broadcasting host does not suggest any type of retaliation by believers. "However bad as it is, as Christians our response should be one of love [to these pornographers] -- and also one of forgiveness."
Porn Industry Stoops to New Low
Medical Records Link Abortion With Death
February 28, 2006
(AgapePress) - Several new studies reveal an unprecedented accuracy in linking women's medical records to their death certificates when comparing abortion and childbirth mortality rates. Such findings could possibly change the application of the 33-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling -- which legalized abortion -- while alerting medical professionals to common risk factors associated with abortion and death.
One of the studies, which is part of a series, was completed by researchers from the National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health in Finland. Its findings disputed the age-old presumption that abortion is linked to fewer deaths than is childbirth -- that is, when a woman's pregnancy history is examined linking her medical records to her death certificate.
With proper identification of pregnancy history, the death rate associated with abortion was found to be three times higher than the rate associated with childbirth.
According to Walter Weber, an attorney with the American Center for Law & Justice who specializes in abortion law, the findings provided by these studies set a new basis for state regulation of abortion even within the realm of Roe v. Wade.
"The claim that abortion was safer than childbirth, at least early in pregnancy, was accepted as a crucial fact in Roe v. Wade," Weber said, but is now being challenged by these recent findings.
In addition, a similar study conducted over a 13-year period by the same research center revealed a direct correlation between abortion and death specifically from suicide, accidents, and homicide. Once again, medical records were linked that signified a relationship between the cause of death and abortion. Some of the findings include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Female deaths from suicide, accidents, and homicide were 248 percent higher in the year following an abortion when compared to deaths among women who had not been pregnant the previous year.
- Women who had an abortion were six times as likely to commit suicide than women who gave birth the previous year.
- The results of a 1997 Finland-based study were confirmed, which found women who had had an abortion were 3.5 times more likely to die in the following year as compared to women who gave birth.
There is no certainty as to how these studies and their findings will affect the availability of abortion, but it will definitely heighten the social, legal, and medical debates that surround it.
Medical Records Link Abortion With Death
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Gaza Bible Distributor Facing Terrorist Threat
February 27, 2006
(AgapePress) - Terrorists in Gaza have threatened to blow up the building of the only Bible distribution center in the Palestinian-controlled area by the end of the month. Last week terrorists distributed flyers warning the building's landlord to evict the Bible Society by February 28 or they would blow up the property.
Al Janssen, Chairman of the Board for Open Doors USA, is an expert on the Middle East. He says the Bible Society plays a vital role in the region, particularly since it is "the only place in Gaza where anybody can get a Bible."
There are 1.3 million Muslims and only 2,000 Christians in the region the Bible Society Center serves, Janssen points out. "If anybody wants a Bible, that's the only place they can go. There's also a little Bible church, Gaza Baptist Church, that's very closely tied to that Bible Society. We would like people to be praying for that -- that this ministry of the church and the Bible Society will continue and that it will continue to be a light in the midst of the darkness in Gaza."
Earlier this month, terrorists detonated a bomb at the Bible Society Center, causing minor damage. However, the Open Doors USA spokesman says the Society has been forced to close for the time being. Meanwhile, he notes, Open Doors has been calling on Palestinian officials to ensure that the terrorists' violent plans do not come to fruition.
"We're working through back channels to basically say to Hamas, 'Now that you've been elected, this is something you need to be responsible for,'" Janssen notes. "Now, we don't believe that Hamas is behind this threat; there are a lot of little fringe groups in there as well. But we do believe that Hamas can make sure this doesn't happen."
Open Doors Advocates for Gaza Bible Distributor Facing Terrorist Threat
Libraries' Policy Falls Short of Protecting Children
February 27, 2006
(AgapePress) - A decision by libraries in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, regarding access to controversial children's books is being cast by some concerned citizens as merely a cosmetic move to appease critics of the books. The city's Library Commission voted 12 to 1 to move children's books that deal with sensitive topics to a separate area of the libraries.
Libraries in the Oklahoma City-County system will now have a "Parenting Collection," where they will keep books on alternative lifestyles, sex, and drug use. However, Lynn Rahman of the group Oklahomans for School Accountability believes more could be done to protect children from objectionable material.
Rahman says the Commission members are "trying to allay fears without really making an actual move." A bigger and more effective step for the library system officials to take would be to actually move the books from the children's section, she insists, "not just to a higher shelf, because children can take books down and they can leave them laying around on tables and everywhere else, and a parent could simply do the same thing."
Among the 37 children's books in the Parenting Collection is King and King, an illustrated storybook featuring two princes who get married and share a kiss at the story's end. Other books in the collection address many sensitive topics, including homosexuality and premarital sex.
Rahman feels the Library Commission's policy of moving the controversial books to higher shelves does not adequately protect children since anyone who uses the book in the library could easily leave it unshelved and it would "just be lying there anyway, in the same section."
Besides, the Oklahomans for School Accountability spokeswoman notes, parents are wrong to think the problem of inappropriate materials is isolated to public libraries. "The school library has just as many bad books, if not more, than the public library," she contends.
"So [whether] in the public schools or public school libraries," Rahman advises parents, "they really need to keep an eye on what their children grab a hold of." She believes library books containing sexually explicit and profane content are making their way into schools much faster than they are being removed.
Libraries' 'Parenting Collection' Policy Falls Short of Protecting Children, Group Contends
Second Annual Day of Truth Hailed as Celebration of Free Expression
February 27, 2006
(AgapePress) - Christian students are being encouraged to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda in public schools by celebrating the second annual "Day of Truth."
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) established the observance in response to the national "Day of Silence," an event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to protest discrimination and harassment experienced by homosexuals.
Students will be observing the Day of Truth on Thursday, April 27, by wearing T-shirts and passing out cards expressing an opposing viewpoint on homosexuality. ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb says the event is "an opportunity for students to exercise their First Amendment rights in an appropriate way and get the message out about a Christian view of truth."
Students taking part in the pro-family event will be handing out cards that state: "I am speaking the truth to break the silence. Silence isn't freedom; it's a constraint. Truth tolerates open discussion, because the truth emerges when healthy discourse is allowed. By proclaiming the truth in love, hurts will be halted, hearts will be healed, and lives will be saved."
The Day of Truth represents "an important moment in American history," McCaleb contends. "This thing has gotten a lot of traction in the couple years that we've been working on it," he says. "It really does provide an opportunity for Christians to speak out, to speak the truth in love, and I think that's important.
"We lawyers can do a lot to change the law," the ADF spokesman continues, "but if Christians don't come out and speak and engage society, then all the lawyers in the world are kind of useless. You need the folks to get out there and speak and engage the culture."
Last year, according to ADF's statistics, more than 1,100 students from at least 350 schools nationwide took part in Day of Truth activities. McCaleb says the group hopes to see even more Christian young people joining in on April 27 this year to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda in public schools by breaking the silence and speaking the truth about that lifestyle.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/2/272006c.asp
Friday, February 24, 2006
Grad student booted for sharing her faith outside of work hours
The document the school had asked Jacqueline Escobar to sign also included a statement admitting she had "an inability to separate her religious beliefs from her role" as an intern.
Consequently, Escobar's legal representative -- the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) -- filed a federal lawsuit on her behalf against the DCFS. Escobar, according to a press release from PJI, demonstrated outstanding academic and work performance but "came under scrutiny" for sharing her faith while an intern at the DCFS.
That state agency, says PJI president Brad Dacus, "has no business telling an intern that she cannot share her faith during non-working hours."
The attorney says he is confident a federal court will "cut off [the] muzzle" that the agency has used to silence his client. [Jody Brown]
News from Agape Press
Chaplain Rebels at Prayer Censorship, Then Removed From Assignment
February 23, 2006
(AgapePress) - Another military chaplain has gotten into trouble with his superiors because he has refused to go along with orders not to pray in the name of Jesus.
Captain Jonathan Stertzbach is an Army chaplain assigned to the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq. He was recently removed from his chapel after he commented to the Washington Times about how chaplains of all faiths are being told to offer up only non-sectarian prayers.
Chaplain Stertzbach is now under orders not to talk to the media -- but his representative, Dr. Billy Baugham of the International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers, is under no such restrictions. According to Baugham, Stertzbach was upset at having a prayer censored.
"He was told to write out his prayer," Baugham explains, "and when they saw 'In Jesus' name. Amen,' his brigade chaplain struck through it and said, 'You're going to have to change it.'"
Baugham says Stertzbach's response was that he cannot pray a prayer unless he uses Jesus' name. The chaplain, adds Baugham, said: "My local church is an independent Baptist church, and that's the way we pray."
The retired Army chaplain adamantly notes that military regulations forbid restrictions on chaplains' prayers. "There are Department of Defense instructions which state that a chaplain is to adhere to the faith group of his tenets before they do the military," Baugham says. "[A chaplain] has no authority to pray any other prayer other than what his sending agency or his sending church allows him to pray."
In short, says Baugham, a chaplain's duty is to represent his faith group. "It's not to represent another faith group, it's not to represent the prayers of the United States government or the United States Army," he says. "He can only speak for his endorsing agency, be that what it may be."
Baugham indicates he is working with North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones and others to get Chaplain Stertzbach reinstated to his chapel.
Chaplain Rebels at Prayer Censorship, Then Removed From Assignment
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Biblical preaching could be outlawed unless Christians become more politically active
By Allie Martin
February 22, 2006
(AgapePress) - A member of the British House of Lords has told the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention in Dallas that biblical preaching could be outlawed unless Christians become more politically active.
Recently the British Parliament nearly passed legislation that would have amended that nation's Racial and Religious Hatred Bill and outlawed incitement to religious hatred. The measure lost by a single vote -- the vote of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who left early, confident that the bill would pass without him.
John Taylor, a member of the House of Lords, spoke at this week's NRB gathering in Texas. Taylor said passage of the bill could have led to pastors being arrested for so-called "hate speech." Unless Christians take action, says Taylor, clergy in his country -- as well as in the United States -- could fall victim to such statutes, should they be enacted.
"There's an old saying that things won't change until people change," Taylor says. "So we can moan about these [political] institutions and so forth, or we can basically get in there. We are called to be salt and light -- so why don't we take over the Senate and Congress and so forth?"
According to Taylor, Christians in Britain have virtually abandoned politics. He says there is a "kind of lethargy" in Christians that often causes them to retreat from the political arena, saying "Well, that's politics; we don't get involved in politics." But try telling that to Muslims, he adds.
"There are Muslim Members of Parliament who are sponsored by mosques. They are there to preach Islam," he says. "In the House of Lords, there's a room where you can pray to Mecca -- but there's no room where you can pray to Christ."
Taylor calls it a "miracle" that the prime minister was absent for the final vote. Earlier, members of Parliament had voted 288-278 to back the amendment to the bill.
A BBC report quotes one member of Parliament as saying "the government just failed to understand that they can't take liberties with freedom of expression. This [vote] has showed ... that we will stand up for freedom of expression." That report notes this was only the second defeat of government-backed legislation in almost ten years.
News from Agape Press
New Disease Strains Heighten Risks of Unhealthy Homosexual Lifestyle
February 21, 2006
(AgapePress) - Culture and Family Institute (CFI) director Bob Knight says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has discovered some new reasons why homosexual men need to stop their destructive and potentially deadly lifestyle.
The CDC recently reported that a rare strain of chlamydia called LGV (lymphogranuloma venereum) in the U.S. have been HIV-infected men who have sex with other men. was found in several dozen U.S. patients. Public health officials say this strain of the sexually transmitted disease is extremely hard to diagnose and poses a serious health threat, as it compromises a person's immune system and makes the infected person even more susceptible to other kinds of infections.
This is one reason CDC researchers are particularly concerned about the rising incidence of LGV, Knight points out. "They're worried because, when you have an infection like that, it affects your immune system and makes you more prone to get other diseases such as HIV infection, which can lead to AIDS," he explains.
According to the pro-family advocate, LGV is just one of those sexually transmitted diseases prevalent among homosexual men on which CDC investigators are reporting some alarming data. He notes, "They've also found other diseases that are concentrated among male homosexuals -- a new strain of syphilis, and a strain of tuberculosis that is drug resistant."
"Clearly," Knight contends, "the ongoing promiscuity that characterizes the young homosexual male population is contributing to the spread of illnesses -- perhaps even strains that we hadn't seen before."
Knight says the homosexual community needs to be concerned about LGV, just as public health officials are. And homosexual men cannot rely on condom use to protect them from the disease, he warns, because condoms have proven very ineffective against the disease.
According to CDC statistics, the majority of patients diagnosed with LGV proctitis (anal inflammation due to lymphogranuloma venereum infection) in the U.S. have been HIV-infected men who have sex with other men. Unlike routine cases of chlamydia, LGV can cause chronic gastrointestinal distress, including inflammation and bleeding of the rectum and colon.
New Disease Strains Heighten Risks of Unhealthy Homosexual Lifestyle
Protect Religious Freedom in U.S. Military
By Chad Groening
February 21, 2006
(AgapePress) - A Navy chaplain who went on an 18-day hunger strike for the right to pray in Jesus' name says new guidelines adopted by the U.S. Air Force might be expanded to cover America's other armed forces as well. However, he believes those regulations would end up restricting free speech and religious expression.
Lieutenant Gordon Klingenschmitt says the Air Force's new policy does nothing to free up chaplains and other Christian military personnel to pray according to their own religious traditions. Instead, the regulations require inclusive or nondenominational prayers at public events -- which, he points out, in effect prohibits praying in Jesus' name.
Klingenschmitt fears the Air Force regulations regarding prayer may eventually become policy throughout the U.S. military. "The Secretary of Defense has indicated that, when these guidelines are finalized, they will be implemented across all the Armed Services, telling Army, Navy, and Air Force chaplains that they are not allowed to pray in Jesus name," he notes.
Already, the Christian Naval officer points out, some believers in uniform have had to take legal action to fight what he believes amounts to religious persecution in the U.S. armed services. "Many chaplains are suing because they can't get promoted," he says. "They're passed over for promotions. Sixty-five chaplains in the Navy, and Congressman Jones has complaints from over 130 chaplains, including Army and Air Force chaplains who were all punished for their faith."
The new Air Force guidelines on public prayer are "basically the same as the old guidelines," Klingenschmitt contends. "They still require what they call nondenominational prayers, which is just a code for saying no Jesus -- you cannot pray in Jesus name. And if these Air Force guidelines are implemented in the Navy, I will definitely take legal action."
The best way to resolve the issue, the Navy chaplain asserts, would be for the federal legislature to get involved to enact a policy on prayer that safeguards the First Amendment rights of military personnel, or for President Bush to issue an executive order to that effect.
"We need congressional oversight," Klingenschmitt insists. "We still need the President to step in and protect free speech for military chaplains."
Bush and Congress Urged to Protect Religious Freedom in U.S. Military