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Be Alert! - Feb. 22, 2007
Joel 2:1
Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near,...
Isaiah 24:16
From the ends of the earth we hear songs, "Glory to the Righteous One," But I say, "Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me! The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very treacherously."
1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
1 Peter 5:8
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
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THE CONSERVATIVE VOICE - By Warren Smith - January 31, 2007
Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” which has sold 25-million copies, is perhaps the most famous evangelical pastor in America. He writes often about church growth, leadership, and related issues. Here’s something Warren wrote for the Mar. 16, 2004, “Leadership Journal”:
"Three key responsibilities of every pastor are to discern where (and how) God’s Spirit is moving in our culture and time, prepare your congregation for that movement, and cooperate with it to reach people Jesus died for. I call it 'surfing spiritual waves' in The Purpose Driven Church, and it’s the reason Saddleback has grown to 23,500 on weekends in 24 years. You don’t criticize a wave; you just ride it as best you can. When Mel Gibson showed me his film, The Passion of The Christ, last year, I knew a huge wave - a spiritual tsunami - would hit when the film debuted on February 25 2004, and we began praying and preparing to surf it."
When I read this passage, I was taken aback. The celebrity name dropping, the appeal to size as an indication of God's blessing, the propagation of an extra-biblical theory ("spiritual waves") as a sign of God’s working, the pre-emptive strike against critics these are heresies and logical fallacies pervasive in the evangelical church today, all rolled into a single paragraph.
Warren continues:
"We booked 47 theater screens for members to take their lost friends to. Kay [Warren, Rick’s wife] and I personally invited over a thousand lost community leaders of Orange County to a VIP premiere showing, including every mayor, congressman, superintendent of schools, other community leaders, and four billionaires. The results? Over 600 unchurched community leaders attended our VIP showing; 892 friends of members were saved during the two-week sermon series. Over 600 new small groups were formed, and our average attendance increased by 3,000. That's catching a wave!"
When I read this, I wondered: Even setting aside the theological and philosophical problems, how could these numbers possibly be true? There was something about them that just didn't make sense. So I turned to “Outreach” magazine, which each year publishes lists of the largest and fastest growing churches. The 2005 list (which covered the period about which Warren writes) had Saddleback’s weekly attendance at 23,194. The 2006 “Outreach” list had Saddleback at 20,595. That’s a drop of nearly 3000. And at least according to these numbers, which were reported to “Outreach” by the church itself at no time did Saddleback have the 23,500 that Warren asserted. ---
See these related articles:
When a Megapastor Denies Christ
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2) Churches back plan to unite under Pope
All roads lead to Rome
Galatians 1:6-10
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
THE TIMES of LONDON - By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent - February 19, 2007
Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.
The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.
In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.
The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.
It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.
The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.
Were this week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican conservatives would disappear. Many of those Anglicans who object most strongly to gay ordination also oppose the ordination of women priests.
Rome has already shown itself willing to be flexible on the subject of celibacywhen it received dozens of married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic priesthood after they left over the issue of women’s ordination. ----
As the Anglicans’ squabbles over the fundamentals of Christian doctrine continue — with seven of the conservative primates twice refusing to share Communion with the other Anglican leaders at their meeting in Tanzania — the Church’s credibility is being increasingly undermined in a world that is looking for strong witness from its international religious leaders.
The Anglicans will attempt to resolve their differences today by publishing a new Anglican Covenant, an attempt to provide a doctrinal statement under which they can unite.
But many fear that the divisions have gone too far to be bridged and that, if they cannot even share Communion with each other, there is little hope that they will agree on a statement of common doctrine.
The latest Anglican-Catholic report could hardly come at a more sensitive time. It has been drawn up by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, which is chaired by the Right Rev David Beetge, an Anglican bishop from South Africa, and the Most Rev John Bathersby, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia.
The document leaked to The Times is the commission’s first statement, Growing Together in Unity and Mission. The report acknowledges the “imperfect communion” between the two churches but says that there is enough common ground to make its “call for action” about the Pope and other issues.
In one significant passage the report notes: “The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in accordance with Christ’s will for the Church and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth.” Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome as universal primate in the 16th century. Today, however, some Anglicans are beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a reunited Church.
In another paragraph the report goes even further: “We urge Anglicans and Roman Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion.” ---
Emphasis Added
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3) Mormon Candidate Braces for Religion as Issue
WASHINGTON -- As he begins campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is facing a threshold issue: Will his religion — he is a Mormon — be a big obstacle to winning the White House? ---
Mr. Romney’s advisers acknowledged that popular misconceptions about Mormonism — as well as questions about whether Mormons are beholden to their church’s leaders on public policy — could give his opponents ammunition in the wide-open fight among Republicans to become the consensus candidate of social conservatives.
Mr. Romney, in an extended interview on the subject as he drove through South Carolina last week, expressed confidence that he could quell concerns about his faith, pointing to his own experience winning in Massachusetts. He said he shared with many Americans the bafflement over obsolete Mormon practices like polygamy — he described it as “bizarre” — and disputed the argument that his faith would require him to be loyal to his church before his country. ---
Still, Mr. Romney is taking no chances. He has set up a meeting this month in Florida with 100 ministers and religious broadcasters. That gathering follows what was by all accounts a successful meeting at his home last fall with evangelical leaders, including the Rev. Jerry Falwell; the Rev. Franklin Graham, who is a son of the Rev. Billy Graham; and Paula White, a popular preacher.
Mr. Romney said he was giving strong consideration to a public address about his faith and political views, modeled after the one John F. Kennedy gave in 1960 in the face of a wave of concern about his being a Roman Catholic.
Mr. Romney’s aides said he had closely studied Kennedy’s speech in trying to measure how to navigate the task of becoming the nation’s first Mormon president, and he has consulted other Mormon elected leaders, including Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, about how to proceed.
Mr. Romney appears to be making some headway. Several prominent evangelical leaders said that, after meeting him, they had grown sufficiently comfortable with the notion of Mr. Romney as president to overcome any concerns they might have about his religion.
On a pragmatic level, some said that Mr. Romney — despite questions among conservatives about his shifting views on abortion and gay rights — struck them as the Republican candidate best able to win and carry their social conservative agenda to the White House.
“There’s this growing acceptance of this idea that Mitt Romney may well be and is our best candidate,” said Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal advocacy group, and a prominent host on Christian radio.
Mark DeMoss, an evangelical public relations consultant who represents many conservative Christian groups, said it was “more important to me that a candidate shares my values than my faith,” adding, “And if I look at it this way, Mr. Romney would be my top choice.”
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6) Homeschoolers fight bogus poisoning claim
Dispensing arsenic to a child and limiting teens' entertainment to Christian music are two of more outlandish allegations that have been made recently against families whose children are homeschooled, according to an organization that monitors child protective services actions.
The reports show that while the families in each of the cases successfully fended off formal investigations or charges, their situations typify just how such problems develop, and can complicate families' lives.
According to the reports from Thomas Dutkiewicz of Connecticut DCF Watch, the first case involved the Marrero family.
They were shocked when a social worker from the local Division of Children and Family Services visited, informing the family only that he was investigating them for alleged abuse and neglect of their children.
He later elaborated that he knew that the family's 12- year-old daughter had tested positive for abnormally high levels of arsenic. The family knew that, having just come from the office of a new doctor where the results were obtained. But since they knew arsenic wasn't present in their home, they had insisted on a new test already.
The family let the social worker physically see the children, including the daughter, so he could confirm they were fine. But they declined to let him into their home for interviews with their children.
As members of the Home School Legal Defense Association, which advocates for and advises homeschoolers worldwide, they contacted the organization and staff attorney Thomas Schmidt confirmed to the social worker that the test results indicating arsenic in the child's blood were anomalous because of a simple math error.
No matter, said the social worker, the case will go on because of "other" allegations, which turned out to be claims of Munchausen by Proxy syndrome.
"Schmidt immediately wrote to the case worker and pointed out that the entire investigation was based on a lab error, and the HSLDA would have various doctors testify that all medical testing and evaluation of the children gave no evidence of Munchausen by Proxy," the organization said.
Weeks later, and after contacting the social worker's supervisor, the case was closed, officials said.
A second case arose a short time later, when a family in the Port Huron, Mich., area, whose name was withheld, was confronted by a social worker at their front door demanding entry.
The social worker crumpled up a document the mother handed her explaining why she wouldn't allow her entry into the home, then yelled that she would "come in now" and do a strip search of one of the children.
The tirade had been triggered by an anonymous tipster, who accused the family of "only allowing their two boys to listen to Christian music." The tipster also said the children "ate their Cheerios dry" and got nearly all their "socialization through their church."
The tipster also alleged the children were not in school, and two children, ages 10 and 14 "were seen outside playing without adult supervision." Also, the tipster claimed, the mother "pinched and hit her kids in church to keep them quiet." ---
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7) 'Psych ward' homeschooler case goes international
An international human rights group has intervened to convince German authorities to release a homeschool student taken to a psychiatric ward.
WND reported a week ago that German authorities assembled a team of about 20 police officers and other officials to take the teen from in front of her shocked family.
She was taken to a psychiatric ward after a diagnosis of "school phobia," according to reports from German homeschool supporters.
Then the Home School Legal Defense Association launched a campaign to have its supporters, mostly in the United States, contact the German embassy about the case.
Now officials with the International Human Rights Group say they have assembled a list of German officials to contact on behalf of Melissa Busekros.
"German officials have taken 15-year-old Melissa Busekros from her family," the group said. "All of the facts surrounding this outrageous action of German legal and police authorities can be found in English at Netzw erk-Bildungsfreifeit," a German homeschool advocacy organization.
"The State's action clearly goes beyond what is justifiable. They took unreasonable measures for which they had no basis. They intimidated the family with a 'SWAT' team of 15 police officers to take captive a 15-year old unsuspecting girl early in the morning, taking her to a state psychiatrist," according to the IHRG.
"The psychiatrist, after hours of interrogation, wrote a report which claimed that Melissa had delayed educational development of one year and school phobia. The judge, basing her decision on this report, gave the custody of the child over to the state and placed the child in a psychiatric ward. This was all done in a sped-up action taking only four days. The family is devastated and has immediately appealed the judge's decision," the group's statement said.
"We are asking you, and everyone you know, to take action and send an e-mail to the officials listed below. Your e-mail should let them know that you do not support their actions which violate religious liberties and parental rights laws around the world, including in Germany. Then ask the official to please use the authority of their position to have Melissa released back into the custody of her parents. Also, e-mail the court and ask them to reinstate the custody rights of the Busekros parents," the group said.
The contacts, provided by the IHRG, include:
Youth Welfare Office
Director: Edeltraud Höllerer
Rathaus
Rathausplatz 1
91052 Erlangen
Tel. +49 9131 86-2844
Fax +49 9131 86-2438
Mail:
edeltraud.hoellerer@stadt.erlangen.de
Or stadtjugendamt@stadt.erlangen.de
Responsible Official
Monika Muzenhardt
Mail:
monika.muzenhardt@stadt.erlangen.de
Mayor of the Town of Erlangen
Dr. Siegfried Balleis
Rathausplatz 1
91052 Erlangen
Fon: +49 [0] 9131 86-0
Fax: +49 [0] 9131 86-26 92
Mail: ob@stadt.erlangen.de
Local Court Erlangen
Family court
Richterin Frank-Daupin
Mozartstraße 23
91052 Erlangen
Tel. +49 9131-782 01
Fax +49 9131/782-361
(No Email address available)
Minister of Justice in Bavaria
Beate Merk
Prielmayerstr. 7
80335 München
Tel. +49 89 5597 1799
Fax +49 89 5597 3580
Email: beate.merk@stmj.bayern.de
Clinic Nürnberg-Nord/Psychatrie
Prof.-Ernst-Nathan-Str. 1
90419 Nürnberg
chief physician: Prof. Jörg Wiesse
Email: joerg.wiesse@klinikum-nuernberg.de
Assistant Medical Director
Dr. Schanda
(Responsible for the survey of Melissa)
Tel: 0911-398-3877
Fax: 0911-398-3261
Email: KJP_B@klinikum-nuernberg.de
axel.froelich@klinikum-nuernberg.de
Letters of encouragement can be sent to Melissa at:
Melissa Busekros Klinikum Nuernberg-Nord
Haus 48 B
Prof.-Ernst-Nathan-Str. 1
D-90419 Nuerenberg
GERMANY
"Our prayer is that we can work together to end this nightmare for this family. Please know that the International Human Rights Group is working with the family and attorneys to secure and protect the human rights of Melissa and her parents," the statement said.
The HSLDA earlier told its members to contact German officials.
"What is being done to this sensitive girl – just to set an example of enforcing the compulsory schooling at all costs – is reprehensible and causing trauma to unassuming and lovable Melissa," the group said.
And the HSLDA warned "what is happening in Germany today may be knocking on our door tomorrow." The group now is tracking the circumstances of about 40 families in Germany with court cases in various stages – all because Germany still enforces a Hitler-created law banning homeschooling.
The HSLDA said the German Embassy can be reached at:
Dr. Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador, German Embassy 4645 Reservoir Road NW Washington, DC, 20007- 1998 (202) 298-4000
The embassy can be emailed from its website, the HSLDA said.
Melissa Busekros was removed from her parents' custody and placed in the Child Psychiatry Unit of the Nuremberg clinic, her father, Hubert Busekros, told the homeschool group, in the state's "zealous drive to enforce compulsory schooling."
"The Netzwerk Bildungsfreiheit condemns this inconsiderate and totally incommensurate behavior on the part of the officials involved and demands that they give Melissa her freedom and return her to her family immediately," the German homeschool group said.
The teen had fallen behind in Latin and math studies, and was being tutored at home in the subjects. When school officials found out, they expelled her then took the family to court when they began homeschooling.
The court order executed last week said, "The relevant Youth Welfare Office is hereby instructed and authorized to bring the child, if necessary by force, to a hearing and may obtain police support for this purpose."
See other WorldNetDaily Articles on this topic:
Police take home-taught student to psych ward
Campaign launched on behalf of German teen
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8) Anti-Christian rage hits previously quiet area
Mob breaks through barricades, stabs and murders man in his home
While persecution of Christians – largely by radical Hindus – is far too routine in India, in the past there have been areas of that nation where the level of animosity has been lower, including Kerala State. But that has changed suddenly, according to reports from Voice of the Martyrs, with the unprovoked attack on a Christian man and his wife by a mob of youths.
Officials with VOM, a U.S.-based Christian group helping members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide, said the attack happened in Pavaloor, in Kerala State, just last week, when a mob stabbed and killed a 58-year-old Christian man, identified as S. Stanley.
Sources within the region told VOM that a mob of youths assembled in front of the Stanleys' house, shouting abuses against Christians.
"Stanley and his wife came out of the house and asked the youths to leave. This angered them further and they began stoning the house and tried violently to force themselves through Stanley's gate," the sources reported.
While Stanley was inside the home calling police, the attackers climbed over a locked gate, broke into the house and stabbed him in the back, neck and stomach, and then assaulted his wife, the sources said.
"Where Stanley was martyred has traditionally been an area of India that has seen less persecution. The fact that something like this is happening is further evidence of the worsening climate for Christians in India," the contacts told VOM, which asked its supporters to "pray for Christians in India to be bold witnesses for Christ in spite of threats and attacks against them."
A number of organizations that monitor the level of Christian persecution worldwide consistently rank India as among those nations that are a significant concern.
Several states there have passed anti-conversion laws, which ban anyone from changing religious beliefs through "force, fraud or allurement." They are perceived as being targeted at Christians since the laws define "allurement" as any indication of an assured life after death, such as Christianity teaches. And "force" is being defined as any indication of a presence of a "divine displeasure."
Even government reports within India have documented the frequent harassment and persecution of minority Christians by Hindu extremists, who have falsified complaints to have Christians arrested, have physically destroyed Christians' homes and businesses, and have attacked and killed Christians.
In addition to the fatal attack on Stanley, reports have confirmed that just in the past few weeks, several Gospel for Asia missionaries were hurt in another attack by radical Hindu groups, and two GFA pastors were injured in a beating.
One of the local police officers in that situation allegedly was part of the attacking mob, which is why many times persecution of Christians is difficult to document: police either have participated, or simply refuse to take the reports of the attacks.
But according to the World Evangelical Alliance, more than 200 million Christians in at least 60 nations including India are routinely denied fundamental human rights solely because of their faith. ----
Emphasis Added
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9) Church Persecution Briefs
50 worst persecutors include Syria, described by Rick Warren as 'moderate'
WORLDNETDAILY - February 9, 2007 -- North Korea, where tens of thousands of Christians are kept in prison camps and tortured, many times to death, remains the No. 1 nation in the world for persecuting believers, according to a new report from Open Doors USA.
WND reported less than two weeks ago that there were reports that four Christians had been executed in North Korea because of their Christian faith. One incident involved a woman and her grandmother who were washing clothes when a New Testament fell out of the woman's clothing. Both she and her grandmother were executed for that offense.----
Read Full Article
Evangelists beaten for handing out tracts
WORLDNETDAILY - February 8, 2007 -- Four evangelists who are supported by Voice of the Martyrs have suffered beatings by a crowd of irate Muslims, but they first succeeded in handing out more than 13,000 Christian tracts at a conference on Islam.
Officials with VOM, a U.S.-based Christian group helping members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide, said one of the beatings was so severe that the Christian apparently suffered internal bleeding as a result.
But the message was delivered, much as Jesus described in Matthew 16:18, where he announces that "thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Gates, of course, generally are immobile, implying that it is the Christian message that advances. That is what happened at the Pakistan conference, VOM said. ---
The team was at a Muslim festival in the city of Pakpattan on a Friday late last month. The four- member team handed out more than 13,000 Christian messages at that event before being attacked by radical Muslims. ----
Read Full Article
Investigation of pastor's shooting death sought
WORLDNETDAILY - February 3, 2007 -- Church officials who oversee the work of Christian ministers in Sri Lanka are calling for international intervention in that nation, after a church pastor was gunned down by Sri Lankan government security forces.
The report comes from Assist News Service.
It identifies the victim of the government-forces shooting as Rev. Nallathamby Gnanaseelan, the pastor of Tamil Mission Church Jaffna, and the father of four children, ages 1 to 7. ---
"The killing took place at Chapel Street when Rev. Gnanaseelan was returning, after dropping his wife and daughter at the hospital. He was heading to his church to conduct a fasting and prayer event," the bishop said.
Reports reaching the bishop's office from the Clergy Fellowship of Jaffna indicate that Rev. Gnanaseelan was shot in the stomach and then as he lay on the street, shot in the head and killed. "His Bible, bag, identity card and motorcycle were taken away and he was left lying on the road," the report said. ----
Read Full Article
Family group compares HPV vaccine to condoms
Texas has become the first state in the nation to require schoolgirls to be vaccinated with Merck & Co.'s human papillomavirus vaccine in order to be allowed in school, and one Christian organization leader says that's not a lot different from requiring those girls to carry a condom.
WORLDNETDAILY
STD vaccine campaign sweeping the nation
State laws requiring young girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease soon could be controlling the decisions parents make regarding their daughters in 26 states, as a result of the financial influence of drug maker Merck & Co. and the support it has gotten for its campaign from Women in Government as well as a prominent Republican lobbyist.
WORLDNETDAILY
Philadelphia 11 appeal free speech limits
A notice of appeal has been filed with the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals over actions by city officials in Philadephia who not only refused to protect the speech rights of 11 Christians at a public homosexual festival, but arrested them for quoting the Bible and speaking against the behavior.
WORLDNETDAILY
Men jailed for being on public sidewalk
Two men who are members of Gideons International, the Christian organization that is famous for, among other ministries, placing Bibles in motels and giving them to children, have been arrested after trying to hand out Bibles on a public sidewalk in Florida, according to a law firm.
WORLDNETDAILY
Descendant of Muhammad converts to Christianity
A Turk who claims to be a descendant of Islam's prophet Muhammad has converted to Christianity while living in Germany.
But Sedar Dedeoglu, of Luedenscheid, now faces a threat to his life if he's forced to return to Turkey, and is seeking help from German authorities.
WORLDNETDAILY
Tortured brickmakers refuse to embrace Islam
Two brothers who used to work at a brick kiln have escaped from what they describe as a kidnapping and torture by the business owner, who wanted them to convert from Christianity to Islam, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs, a U.S.-based Christian group helping members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide.
WORLDNETDAILY
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10) VIDEO -- CNN/DOBBS: George W Bush Fulfills His Dad's Dream Of a New World Order | | |
