Bibles Banned at Walter Reed

I wonder how far we are from the time when carrying a Bible openly is itself an act of civil disobedience.

Walter Reed Banned Family Members From Bringing Bibles to Wounded Warriors

(CNSNews.com) - In a Sept. 14 policy memorandum, Col. Chuck Callahan, chief of staff of Walter Reed National Medical Center, banned family members from bringing Bibles and other "religious items" when visiting wounded military personnel at the facility.

In a section entitled “Partners in Care Guidelines," describing what family members can bring to their wounded warrior in the hospital, the memo states: “No religious items (i.e., Bibles, reading materials and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.”

The piece goes on to say that this was just poor wording and that...

King and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) met with Navy officials and were told that the “memo was worded improperly” and a new memo will be drafted “to affirmatively assert that religious items and artifacts are welcome in the hospital, if they are welcomed by the patient.”

A lie.

A Colonel (a senior officer form whom people rise when he enters the room) knows how to say what he wants to say, and when Col. Callahan banned family members from bringing Bibles and other religious items to patients he knew what he was doing.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but one does not get to be a Colonel in the US Army not knowing how to give an order. One wonders if he will be held accountable. I doubt it.

So, Mr. Dasey is spinning his butt off about what they really meant to say and about how they are going to issue a new policy.

In the meanwhile, they do not know then a new policy will be issued.

The Family Research Council, being accustomed to being lied to, is staying on it.

“We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with Walter Reed Military Medical Center in hope of understanding who authorized the Bible ban and why,” Tony Perkins, FRC president, said in a press release about the request. “Although the Center's spokesmen assure us the policy has been rescinded, we have yet to see the revised policy. Until then, we'll push forward with our investigation to see who or what is driving the religious purging.”

Good for them.

The Reason for God

I just discovered this. On March 5th, 2008, Tim Keller gave a lecture at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California as part of the Authors@Google series.

I can give an Orthodox Christian a thousand reasons to see this video, and many of the same reasons to an atheist (although the atheist will not watch it).

Watch or listen to the whole thing, it will make you feel better.

Christian and Muslim Prayers - Reflecting the Teachings of Faith

One does not need to be a believer in any particular religion or religious dogma, possess any faith or live according to any doctrine to understand what is logically true. The way that a group of believers pray will reflect the quality and the teachings of their faith.

Mr. Raymond Ibrahim has an inconvenient truth.

Muslim Prayers of Hate

The Christian preachers give universal supplications that include phrases like “O Lord, lover of all mankind and savior of all the world”; they quote biblical passages such as “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5: 44); they pray that God may “heal all people around the world of their diseases.”

While such an approach is familiar, taken for granted even, the supplications of the Muslim preachers may surprise some. Popular Egyptian preacher Sheikh Muhammad al-Zoghbi was taped invoking his god thusly:

May Allah cut your tongue out! May he freeze the blood in your veins! May he inflict you with cancer and allow you no reprieve. … Allah, strike them with all sorts of disease, afflictions and pain! Allah, strike them with cancer! Allah, let your prophet overpower them! Allah destroy them! Allah destroy them! Allah destroy them! Allah destroy the criminals who challenge the noble prophet!

[Then, very serenely to his Muslim viewers] And peace upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings.

Likewise, Sheikh Abdullah Nihari supplicated Allah with outstretched arms accordingly:

Lord, Lord, we condemn them before you! Freeze the blood in their veins! Strike them with evil, or at the very least freeze the blood in their veins — until they pray for death, but do not receive it! O Lord! O Lord! O Lord!

You can observe any Orthodox Christian service anywhere in the world and here prayers that are as quoted above and NEVER here a single prayer that asks for any harm to anyone under any circumstances EVER. We pray only for the salvation of all mankind. The same is true in the Roman Catholic Church. Not so in Islam. Read the entire piece, there is a lot more.

Religious Freedom and Free Speech in Pakistan

Religious freedom must be strong in the craphole that is Pakistan, because the craphole that is Pakistan is not on the United States' list of “Countries of Particular Concern” in the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom published by the U.S. State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

From CNSNews.com; Pakistan Passes Obama's 'Religious Freedom' Test—After Sentencing Christian to Death

Pakistan, which has issued a death sentence to a Christian mother of five for allegedly blaspheming the prophet Mohammed, and which regularly prosecutes Christians for allegedly blaspheming Islam, has passed the religious freedom test imposed by the Obama administration.

The countries listed in the "Countries of Particular Concern" and eligible for sanctions are; Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. Of these, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan will not have any sanctions applied against them.

Death for choosing to disagree with Islam is written into the Pakistani Constitution.

“Freedom of speech was subject to ‘reasonable’ restrictions in the interest of the ‘glory of Islam,’ as stipulated in sections 295(a), (b), and (c) of the penal code,” says the report.

“The consequences of contravening the country’s blasphemy laws were death for defiling Islam or the prophets; life imprisonment for defiling, damaging, or desecrating the Qur’an; and 10 years imprisonment for insulting ‘another’s religious feelings,’” says the report.

Christians are the top target of these Pakistani laws. “Laws prohibiting blasphemy continued to be used against Christians,” says the State Department report.

Which is apparently ok with the State Department.

There is more, read it all. And while you're at it, read;

Christian In Pakistan Burned Alive, Wife Raped By Police, Because They Refused To Convert To Islam; The man was burned in front of the police station in Rawalpindi. In response, the police went to his house and raped his wife. Their three children were forced to watch these attacks. More here and here.

How Muslims in Pakistan Use the Law to Persecute Christians

Ramadan 2011

The 2011 Ramadan Bombathon is on. Check out the score at The Religion of Peace. So far "the Religion of Peace" has a shutout going against competitors "All Other Religions" and "'Anti-Muslim' Right Wingers"

One Reason Why I Left the Presbyterian Church

Actually one of many reasons.

Presby Peacemakers Attack Jewish Groups in the U.S.

My experience in the PC(USA) was in a community that was very concerned about social and political issues and unconcerned about theological ones. Had you walked into my (Presbyterian) Church when I was there, and said that Jesus the Christ is God and the Son of God, fully God and Fully Man, and asked if anyone there agreed with that, you would have gotten several reactions. The most prominent would have been outrage and loud argument. A very few would have understood the real concept of the Holy Trinity, and even fewer would know what the dual nature of Christ is even though both doctrines are officially at the core of the Presbyterian doctrine.

Rather than educating its members about the teachings of Christ and the early Apostles, the Presbyterian Church would rather play in politics and social issues. And with a very leftist view at that. Pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-feminist, and pro-huge government while being anti-military were the essential characteristics of the Church when I left it.

The very fact that the IPMN even exists and succeeds as an anti-semitic organization says it all.

A gay clergy is coming to the PC(USA) soon.

Our Incompetent Government - POTUS Inner circle

A note to the President and his yes men senior aides - YOU are the power. Please grow wake up.

The Great Mark Steyn tells the tale.

REALITY CHECK ON THE OBAMA AS CAESAR CULT

Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that “we’re going to speak truth to power”.

Who’s Valerie Jarrett? She’s “Senior Advisor” to the President of the United States – ie, the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would find a hard job finding anyone on the planet to “speak truth to power” to. But I suppose if you’re as eager to do so as his Senior Advisor, there’s always somebody out there: The Supreme Leader of Iran. The Prime Minister of Belgium. The Deputy Tourism Minister of the Solomon Islands. But no. The Senior Advisor has selected targets closer to home: “I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we’re going to speak truth to power. When we saw all of the distortions in the course of the summer, when people were coming down to town hall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death…”

Read the whole thing, there is a lot more...

Meanwhile, Larry David is now doing televised NEA exhibits on his HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. Christians are said to be “angry” at him because of an episode in which, after he accidentally sprays his urine on a picture of Jesus, his assistant mistakes the droplets for tears and calls in her mother to witness the miracle of Christ weeping. Ha-ha! Oh, those brave transgressive artists! Of course, Christians aren’t “angry” in the sense that two US residents arrested last week are. The pair – one an American citizen, the other Canadian – were so “angry” about the Mohammed cartoons published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that they hatched a plot to kill the artist and his editor. As many commentators pointed out, Mr David’s splashy stunt is a dreary provocation: It’s easy to be provocative with people who can’t be provoked. If he were to start urinating in a more Mecca-ly direction, he’d find an entirely more motivated crowd waiting for him at the stage door.

But I liked the point made by the Anchoress, a writer at the magazine First Things: Putting Mohammed et al aside, if Larry David had a yen to urinate hither and yon, wouldn’t it have been “braver” to have done it to the religious icon du jour? That’s to say, Barack Obama. And then maybe Ashton Kutcher could have marveled at how even Obama’s image was empathizing tearily with all 687 million Americans without health insurance. Or, alternatively, dribbling warm champagne from his Norwegian Nobel banquet toast. C’mon, Larry. Sure, you might not have a career afterward, but, unlike any Islamo-provocations, you’re not gonna get killed. Just fired, and probably damned as a racist. But at least you wouldn’t be a simpering suck-up to power like Rocco Landesman and the other creeps.

Protests in Iran

These have been covered by just about everyone, so I thought that anything that I have to add would be redundant (even though that is the nature of blogging).

I was wandering around the internet and found myself at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical² and found this post about Neda Soltani.

During WWII the allies air dropped cheap pistols and burp guns all over France to help the resistance fight Nazis. We ought be doing that now, at the least.

Yes.

Let's Kill All The Jews

As I return home for a very few months and try to put things together, I thought that I should start right in with how our unwillingness to take meaningful action in the face of evildoers endangers the world. Include our unwillingness to see through the lies of our enemies (and Mr. Obama's choice to make friends of enemies and enemies of friends). I will start with a piece that I was writing a few months ago. As Obama makes noises about how Mr. Netanyahu needs to accept a "two-state" solution as Mr. Abbas supposedly does, we should remember that what the Palestinian leadership says in public is one thing, but another thing is said amongst themselves in Arabic.

Let's kill all the Jews.

That is the word from Fatah. They openly admit that they are fooling the western powers with the phony acceptance of the right of the state of Israel to exist, or the right of Jews in the middle east to continue breathing. And, having said so openly, expect no objection from us.



Read all about it on the Strategy Page.

Let's Kill All The Jews

March 19, 2009: Fatah, the "moderate" Palestinian political movement, has admitted that it does not recognize the existence of Israel. Fatah points out that the Palestinian Authority, an organization set up in the 1990s after peace negotiations with Israel allowed the Palestinians to assume control of their own affairs, does not speak for Fatah. The Palestinian Authority recognized Israel, but Fatah points out that this was done to meet the demands of Western nations that were going to provide the Palestinians with billions of dollars in economic aid. What the Western donors ignored was the fact that Palestinians regularly used maps of the area that showed Israel as Palestinian territory. To Palestinians, Israel did not exist. Children were taught that Israel was an illegal entity, and the Israelis (at least the Jewish ones) foreign invaders who must be expelled or killed. All this was in Arabic. English pronouncements tended to be rather more opaque on the "kill the Jews" stuff.

And so we allow ourselves to be fooled.

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish both of my faithful readers a happy Thanksgiving.

As the Pilgrims gave thanks to God (you won't find that taught in school very much any more) for their success after the first years of struggle. As Joseph Farah wrote in the San Francisco Sentinel last year (a paper that I would never normally read);

There are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the people responsible for the American Thanksgiving tradition. Contrary to popular opinion, the Pilgrims didn’t wear buckles on their shoes or hats. They weren’t teetotalers, either. They smoked tobacco and drank beer. And, most importantly, their first harvest festival and subsequent “thanksgivings” weren’t held to thank the local natives for saving their lives.

Do you know there are public schools in America today actually teaching that? Some textbooks, in their discomfort with open discussions of Christianity, say as much. I dare suggest most parents today know little more about this history than their children.

Yet, there is no way to divorce the spiritual from the celebration of Thanksgiving – at least not the way the Pilgrims envisioned it, a tradition dating back to the ancient Hebrews and their feasts of Succoth and Passover.

The Pilgrims came to America for one reason – to form a separate community in which they could worship God as they saw fit. They had fled England because King James I was persecuting those who did not recognize the Church of England’s absolute civil and spiritual authority.

And the there was the interesting direct comparison to centrally managed economies and free enterprise, with William Bradford's exactly correct explanation as to why one of those systems does not work.

When the Pilgrims landed in the New World, they found a cold, rocky, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, Bradford wrote. No houses to shelter them. No inns where they could refresh themselves. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims died of sickness or exposure – including Bradford’s wife. Though life improved for the Pilgrims when spring came, they did not really prosper. Why? Once again, the textbooks don’t tell the story, but Bradford’s own journal does. The reason they didn’t succeed initially is because they were practicing an early form of socialism.

The original contract the Pilgrims had with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store. Each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community. Bradford, as governor, recognized the inherent problem with this collectivist system.

“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years … that by taking away property, and bringing community into common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God,” Bradford wrote. “For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense … that was thought injustice.”

What a surprise! Even back then people did not want to work without incentive. Bradford decided to assign a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of free enterprise. What was the result?

“This had very good success,” wrote Bradford, “for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.”

As a result, the Pilgrims soon found they had more food than they could eat themselves. They set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London much faster than expected. The success of the Plymouth colony thus attracted more Europeans and set off what we call the “Great Puritan Migration.”

But it wasn’t just an economic system that allowed the Pilgrims to prosper. It was their devotion to God and His laws. And that’s what Thanksgiving is really all about. The Pilgrims recognized that everything we have is a gift from God – even our sorrows. Their Thanksgiving tradition was established to honor God and thank Him for His blessings and His grace.

So today let us thank God for what we have.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Islamic Civilization

This is what it is like for anyone who is not a Muslim to live the hellhole that is Pakistan (or any other Islamic country). Islamic societies claim to have a highly developed culture. I don't know how they define that, but it is clear from the high level of emigration from those countries and the continuing oppression of the people who live their that it is not true. Let me be clear, Islamic religious and political structure are not capable of developing free and prosperous societies.

Pray for the Younas family.

Christian girl, kidnapped and converted by Muslims, returned to family

"The girl told me", her uncle continues, "that in order to convince her, some of the Muslims threatened her with death, in addition to promising her expensive presents".

The two girls were kidnapped from the village of Chowk Munda, in the province of Punjab, while they were visiting their uncle. Afterward, the kidnappers stated that they had converted, and that the older one had married "of her own will".

On July 14, the Christian parents asked the Muzaffargarh Sessions Court for custody of their daughters, but the tribunal responded that, since they had converted to Islam, they can no longer live with their Christian parents. This verdict was overturned by the high court in Aneela's case, because she is only 10 years old. Her relatives say that Saba is only 13, as shown by official documents, but the court has accepted expert testimony that she is over 16 years old, and therefore capable of marrying "of her own will".

"The beautiful religion."

The Easter Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

This sermon is read every year at the end of the services that we celebrate for Holy Pascha. Read this beautiful sermon out loud. It is wonderful.

The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom

If any be pious and a lover of God,
let him rejoice in this fair and radiant festival.
If any be a faithful servant
let him enter into the joy of his Lord.
If any be weary with fasting,
let him now enjoy his payment.

If anyone has labored from the first hour,
let him receive today his just reward.
If anyone has come after the third hour,
let him now be thankful that the feast is at hand,
If anyone has waited until after the sixth hour,
let him not be anxious, no loss shall be his own.
If anyone has tarried until the ninth hour,
let him draw near also, shedding all his doubts.
If anyone has come only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be fearful because of his delay.

For the Master is bountiful
and receives the last even as the first.
He gives repose to him who came at the eleventh hour
just as to one who labored from the first.
The tardy are shown mercy
and the timely are made whole.
To the one he gives,
on the other he bestows.
He honors the deed and praises the intention.

Let all therefore enter into the joy of our Lord,
(let both the first and those who came later receive their wages)
Let rich and poor dance with one another.
You sober and you heedless celebrate the day.
You who have fasted and you who have not
rejoice in this occasion.

The table is full-laden
let all enjoy the feast.
The calf is fatted,
let no one go forth hungry.
Let all partake of the banquet of faith,
let all partake of the riches of goodness.

Let none mourn his poverty,
for the kingdom stands before us.
Let none lament his failings,
forgiveness has risen from the tomb.
Let none fear death,
for the death of the Savior has set us free.

He quenched death when it had tasted his flesh.
He despoiled Hades when he descended thereto
Foreseeing this, Isaiah cried:
'Hell was embittered when it met you face to face.'

It was embittered for it was made void,
It was embittered for it was mocked,
It was embittered for it was slain,
It was embittered for it was despoiled.
It was embittered for it was led off in chains.

It received a body and encountered God,
It received earth and came face to face with heaven.
It received what it saw and fell where it could not see.

Death where is thy sting,
Hades where is thy victory?

Christ is risen and you are cast down,
Christ is risen and the demons are fallen,
Christ is risen and the angels rejoice,
Christ is risen and life is made free.
Christ is risen and there is none dead in the tomb.

For Christ is risen from the dead as the first fruits of those that
fell asleep.

To him be glory and power forever and ever, Amen.


Translated by Frank Dobbs

I pray that Christians everywhere are having a blessed Holy Pascha. God bless all of you.

More Islamic Tolerance in Indonesia

A ransacked and burned Christian Church in Indonesia with ALLAHU AKBAR written in Arabic on the walls

I have written several times about the oppression of Christians in Indonesia and other Islamic countries. It is impossible for me to believe that any well meaning person who can read at the 5th grade level or better can view Islam as anything other than the oppressive, abusive, intolerant political ideology that it is.

And remember, Indonesia has a "moderate" Islamic culture and is (we are supposed to believe) a secular republic. Of course you can believe whatever idiocy that you want.

At The Christian Post: Indonesia: Over 100 Churches Closed in 3 Years

Islamic extremism and local governments closed more than 100 churches in Indonesia within three years, according to a persecution watchdog agency.

From 2004 to 2007, 110 churches were closed in Indonesia as a result of attacks from radical Muslim groups or by local governments coerced by these groups, reported Compass Direct News. Based on official numbers, a total of 1,025 churches have been closed or destroyed in Indonesia since the island nation claimed its independence in 1945. Notably, however, only two cases of church destruction or closures are recorded in the era of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno (1945-1967).

...

High profile cases of Christian persecution in Indonesia include the 2005 arrests of three Christian Sunday school teachers who were accused of attempting to convert Muslim children. The Muslim parents had reportedly given full consent for their children to join Christian students in singing Christian songs, playing games and hearing Bible stories, but the court nevertheless sentenced the women to three years in prison. The women served two years and were released early for good behavior last June.

Also in 2005, Islamic militants on motorcycles beheaded three Christian schoolgirls who were on their way to school. The girls’ heads were dumped in villages nearby with and a handwritten note by the bodies warned of more killings in revenge for sectarian violence on Sulawesi Island.

“Wanted – 100 more heads,” read the letter, according to The Associated Press. “Blood must be paid with blood, lives with lives, heads with heads.”

Headless corpse being dragged through the streets of Banyuwangi with shouts of Allahu Akbar

Religion of Peace indeed.

Happy and Blessed Easter

Life has been very hectic and I have been under great pressure to satisfy the many roles that I have both at work and at home. As a result you can see that I have not posted in a long time. If either of my faithful readers should still pass by here, you have my apologies for that.

I wanted to take the time to wish all of my western Christian friends a happy and blessed Easter.

Matthew 28:

¹Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you." ⁸So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

¹¹While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. ¹²And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers ¹³and said, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' ¹⁴And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." ¹⁵So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (ESV)

Just a note, we Orthodox Christians will celebrate Holy Pascha (Easter) on April 27th.

The Disappearing Presbyterian Church

Some refuse to learn, and place themselves and their ambitions and desires over God. After seeing that a church that abandons any semblance of orthodoxy or understanding of sin is torn apart (see here and here), many wish to continue down that same path.

While many, perhaps even most within the Presbyterian Church sense that something is wrong, many others would rather execise liberal "progressive" politics.

Lesbian Moves Forward in Ordination Amid Debate

An openly lesbian minister's bid to join the clergy may be the first national test of a controversial policy adopted by the Presbyterian Church (USA).

After being denied ordination twice over the past couple of decades because of a ban on ordaining openly gay persons, Lisa Larges made some headway this past week when she gained support from a regional body of the PC(USA).

The San Francisco Presbytery voted Tuesday 167-151 to support Larges' application for ministry. The vote came after a long debate and despite warnings that the action violated the church's constitution and would be appealed.

According to its constitution, the PC(USA) requires "fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman" or "chastity in singleness" for its clergy.

And as they become more "liberal" they begin openly to abandon the Christian faith.

Following the 2006 General Assembly decision, several Presbyterian churches have taken steps to withdraw from the national church. The churches have opposed the liberal direction the denomination is going on homosexuality as well as other issues, including the singular lordship of Jesus Christ.

They are moving towards becoming just another liberal-progressive political organization.

Anglo-Orthodox Saints

Our Lady of Walsingham and the holy Abbess Werburgh of Chester

Go and read this very beautiful blog.

Anglo-Orthodox Saints

Kill the Innocent - Allow Heinous Criminals to Live

From the UN:

November 16 - Death Penalty Resolution Adopted Because of Concerns About Human Rights Says EU President

Ambassador Joao Manuel Guerra Salgueiro, President of the European Union, says member states of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty in part because of their concerns about human rights. The Ambassador rejected claims that the resolution sought to impose values [Although that is the entire purpose of it. - Photi] on all member states and noted the broad support for the resolution. Now that the third committee -- which addresses social, humanitarian and cultural issues -- has approved the resolution, the matter can be discussed in the full General Assembly sometime after mid-December.

From "progressive religious leaders":

A Faith-Filled Commitment to Development Includes a Commitment to Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health

As progressive religious leaders, we call on other religious leaders and policy makers to overcome the fears, taboos and stigmas associated with sexuality and reproduction, to accept that these matters are part of the legitimate scope of human rights and public policy and include these important human rights more explicitly in the struggle to end poverty. We call on the world’s leaders—religious, governmental, nongovernmental and those in multilateral and UN agencies—to incorporate the ICPD agenda and goals to ensure that all the world’s people have available to them the reproductive health services [read "abortion" - Photi] that will enable them to live healthy, dignified and financially secure lives.

The British War on Her Own Culture

The liberal elites of the UK continue to work toward the erasure of their own national identity. Britain's Escalating War on Christianity

The report's recommendations are probably the most radical that have been made so far by a body with real political influence for the destruction of Britain's Christian identity and historic culture.

However, the thrust of its recommendations are really nothing new, and are squarely in line with concerted and unremitting political/culture-war attacks on Christianity and Britain's historic identity which have been going on for at least a decade, not at the level of national Parliamentary government, where an electorate might show its displeasure, but in a shadowy, Gramscian way at quasi-govnmental (sic) level and in localized areas with entrenched Labour/left control of councils, Parliamentary seats and other institutions.

Not all of the British are happy about it. The Telegraph asks the question, Should integration work both ways? Fortunately at least a few Brits still wish to retain their culture against their government's wishes.

Whistling Past the Graveyard

The Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.), of which I am a former member (it was the United Presbyterian Church back then) has suddenly come to the realization that something is wrong with itself. When I was a child it had a membership of more than 4 million and now has a membership of just under 2.3 million. So, I would have to agree with their assessment. In the below quoted article Joan Gray, moderator of the General Assembly during a Sept. 17-21 GAC (General Assembly Council) meeting in Louisville, Ky. says, "I recently spent time in the Midwest, and these areas are drying up. The people are not there any more. In Detroit, 3,000 people a day are leaving to emigrate elsewhere. That is just the tip of the iceberg.”

'Tsunami' Hits Presbyterians; Dramatic Changes Ahead

The PC(USA) has suffered continual losses in membership and now claims a little less than 2.3 million. More dissident Presbyterians and some historic congregations have voted to split from the PC(USA), citing that the denomination is not consistent with written theology in such areas as the singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ and homosexual ordination.

Many are moving into the smaller and more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

“Much of our discomfort is really about our coming to grips with the overwhelming change that is coming at us from all sides. The bottom line is that we simply cannot continue doing church the way we have been," said Gray, according to PNS.

"One thing I am seeing is that some of those churches and presbyteries who have come to the end of the string are making a choice,” she added. “They are letting go of what they had been doing and opening the way to what God is doing.”

The people are voting with their feet and going to churches that really do believe in the Holy (triune) God and in Jesus the Christ who was both fully God and fully Man - yes, orthodox Christianity. Many like myself have come to the Holy Orthodox Church, to the Catholic Church, or to other believing churches as mentioned in the article. Sadly, many others find that there is no point to membership in a church that doesn't teach that its beliefs are actually true and abandon Christianity. The children of many Presbyterian (and other liberal churches) do not continue church membership.

Look again at the table that is linked above;

% Change : Church
-57.6% : American Baptist Association
-56.4% : Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
-30.7% : Churches of Christ
-32.6% : Episcopal Church
-21.1% : Presbyterian Church (USA)
-35.9% : United Church of Christ
-23.6% : United Methodist Church

Granted, there are a couple of cases where conservative churches have lost members, but I believe that there were other factors at work in those cases. Also granted, the biggest gains have been for some very heterodox churches, most notably the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (3233.3%).

More regularly;
188% : Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
188% : Armenian Orthodox Church of America
109.1% : Church of the Nazarene
25.0% : Greek Orthodox Diocese of North and South America
32.5% : Orthodox Church in America
57.7% : Roman Catholic Church

Yet, all Joan Gray can bring herself to say is that "change" is occurring.

Yep.

New Exodus from Gaza

After more than 2000 years a Christian community that is so ancient that when it formed Mohammad (the Voice of Satan) would not be born for CENTURIES will be exterminated at the hands of the Islamists of Hamas. Of course the very trustworthy leaders of Hamas (a terror organization that also seeks to exterminate the Jews of the Middle East) tells us that there is no problem and they are committed to the protection of Christians.

We already know that this is not true.

Now, with the conquest of Gaza by Hamas we see this, New Exodus Could Wipe Out Christianity in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Broken crucifixes and shards from a statue of Jesus have been swept up, but Gaza's tiny Christian community says the violent warning sent by Islamic militants cannot be erased.

The ransacking of a Catholic convent and an adjacent Rosary Sisters school during Hamas' sweep to power broke more than wood and plaster. It signaled the end of a relatively peaceful, if sometimes uneasy, relationship between Gaza's 1.4 million Muslims and 3,000 Christians.

Despite promises of protection by Hamas leaders, Christians fear more attacks, and some say they want to leave. Gaza's flock already has been hit hard by emigration in recent years, and a new exodus could remove what is left of one of the Arab world's oldest Christian communities.

"We don't trust them. Our time is coming," said a Greek Orthodox Christian, who in the current climate of fear asked not to be identified.

Pray for the Christians of Gaza. They are set to be destroyed.