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1) Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human
As in the days of Noah
How much longer before God must intervene?
Genesis 6:12
God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
THE DAILY MAIL [LONDON] - By Claudia Joseph - March 27, 2007
Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half- human organs.
The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.
Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus.
He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.
The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.
"We would take a couple of ounces of bone marrow cells from the patient,' said Prof Zanjani, whose work is highlighted in a Channel 4 programme tomorrow.
"We would isolate the stem cells from them, inject them into the peritoneum of these animals and then these cells would get distributed throughout the metabolic system into the circulatory system of all the organs in the body. The two ounces of stem cell or bone marrow cell we get would provide enough stem cells to do about ten foetuses. So you don't just have one organ for transplant purposes, you have many available in case the first one fails."
At present 7,168 patients are waiting for an organ transplant in Britain alone, and two thirds of them are expected to die before an organ becomes available.
Scientists at King's College, London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle have now applied to the HFEA, the Government's fertility watchdog, for permission to start work on the chimeras.
But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.
Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."
Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: "Transplanting the cells into foetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all."
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4) NSC: Israelis should leave Egypt, Jordan immediately
THE JERUSALEM POST - By Herb Keinon - March 7, 2007
In an updated travel warning issued before the Pessah holiday, the National Security Council's counterterrorism division called on Israelis to immediately leave Jordan and Egypt, especially Sinai, because of concrete threats.
In addition to Jordan and Egypt, the other countries where Israelis were called upon to leave immediately were Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iran, Kashmir in northern India, Mindanao in the southern Philippines and Chechnya in southern Russia.
The counterterrorism division updates its travel warnings twice a year - before Pessah and Rosh Hashana.
The countries with the next highest level of warning - where Israelis were called upon to "avoid visiting and leave the country as soon as possible" - were Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, northern Nigeria and southern Thailand.
Countries that were in the "avoid visiting" category were Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Qatar, Morocco, Chad, Bahrain and Kenya. And the areas with the least severe warning - where Israelis were recommended to "postpone non-essential travel" - were Libya, Oman, Tajikistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, southeastern Turkey near the borders with Iran and Iraq and Khao San Road and vicinity in Bangkok.
Turkey, a favorite destination for Israelis, was included in a list of countries that also included Thailand, the Philippines and Uzbekistan, where the counterterrorism division said that Israelis should be "especially cautious," even though there was no general warning against travel to those countries.
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5) The Re-gathering of Israel: News Briefs
Ezekiel 34:13
"I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.
Thousands of Settlers Return to West Bank Town
NEW YORK TIMES - By Dina Kraft - March 27, 2007
HOMESH, West Bank, March 26 — Ariel Hazani stretched out on a sleeping bag next to a silver pup tent on the same patch of grass where his home once stood in this former Jewish settlement. Around him on Monday, about 2,000 other right-wing activists were also setting up camp for the night.
Like them, he hopes that their gathering will signal the beginning of an official return to the settlement, one of four in the northern West Bank that Israel evacuated over the summer of 2005 together with the Jewish settlements of the Gaza Strip.
The reoccupation, even temporarily, of a destroyed Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank, near Jenin, is an open challenge to a weak Israeli government. How it plays out will be viewed by Palestinians as a sign of whether Israel intends to keep its pledges, or whether settlement activity will continue to proceed unhindered, despite Israel’s promises to halt it. - - - -
Read Full Article
Expelled Gaza Jews stuck in 'temporary' housing
WORLDNETDAILY – By Aaron Klein - March 27, 2007
TEL AVIV – The majority of Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip evacuated by Israel 17 months ago still have not received full compensation promised to them by the Israeli government and are preparing to make small trailers – which were supposed to be temporary living quarters – into permanent homes, according to a report released this month.
"It is now clear that the caravan sites (which we were told was temporary until the government found permanent residences) will be home for the uprooted Gaza residents for at least five years," stated a report by the Gush Katif Committee, the main humanitarian organization representing the Gaza Jewish refugees.
"The situation is extremely grave," said Dror Vanunu, a former Gaza resident and the international coordinator for the Gush Katif Committee. "There is no solution in sight." - - -
Read Full Article
French Jews petition U.S. for asylum
JTA/GLOBAL JEWISH NEWS & ANALYSIS - March 22, 2007
More than 7,000 French Jews have signed a petition asking for political asylum in the United States because of anti-Semitism in France.
"Following the barbarous murder of a young Jew because he was Jewish, in the context of the rise in anti-Semitic acts committed by Islamic fundamentalists, numerous members of the community no longer feel safe in France," reads the petition, which was sent to the U.S. Congress. The reference was to Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Parisian Jew who was kidnapped and tortured to death last year by an anti-Semitic gang.
The petition asks Congress to enact a law according refugee status to French Jews. "We believe that the United States, known for its traditional welcome to those under threat in their native lands, must open its doors to us," the petition says.
French communal officials reacted with outrage. "This petition is bizarre, stupid and out of place," Haim Musicant, director of CRIF, the umbrella organization of secular French Jewish groups, told Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper. "I don't feel threatened in France, and the authorities are doing everything they can to protect the Jewish community. French Jews don't need this kind of petition."
Article Link
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6) U.S. to dialogue with Syria?
Jeremiah 30:16-17
`Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity; And those who plunder you will be for plunder, And all who prey upon you I will give for prey. `For I will restore you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the LORD, `Because they have called you an outcast, saying: "It is Zion; no one cares for her."'
WORLDNETDAILY – By Aaron Klein - March 19, 2007
JERUSALEM – The European Union is pressing the U.S. to alter its policy toward Syria and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be more in line with recommendations made last December by the Iraq Study Group, according to senior Palestinian and British diplomatic officials.
The Study Group petitioned the U.S. to engage in dialogue with Syria and stated the Jewish state should be pressured into withdrawing from the West Bank and Golan Heights. The West Bank runs alongside Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Israel's international airport. The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory that looks down on Israeli and Syrian population centers and twice was used by Syria to mount invasions into Israel.
Senior officials from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party told WND they were informed by top EU diplomats the European body is pressing the U.S. to adopt the Iraq Study Group conclusions regarding American negotiations with Syria and Israeli withdrawals.
A diplomat from Britain's Foreign Ministry touring Israel today confirmed to WND the EU is in talks with the U.S. about changing its Mideast policy. He said the UK received signals Washington is ready to act on some of the Study Group recommendations.
"America understands that Iraq cannot be solved unless Syria is engaged and Israel withdraws from the Golan Heights and the West Bank," the diplomat said, speaking on condition his name be withheld.
The diplomat pointed to a visit to Syria last week by Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, as a public gesture that Washington is willing to engage Damascus. Sauerbrey was the most senior U.S. official to visit Syria since the U.S. withdrew its ambassador following the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, for which Syria was widely blamed.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad told reporters following last week's meeting Damascus is ready to engage in "serious" dialogue with Washington on all Middle East issues.
Also last week, EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana told Syria he expected Israel to evacuate the entire Golan Heights as part of any future peace deal.
Solana's remarks were blasted by Israeli Knesset members, who pointed out the EU chief did not call for Syria to stop supporting Hezbollah or providing refuge to the leadership of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups, who live openly in Damascus.
Aside from its recommendations regarding Syria and Israel, the Iraq Study Group, which was led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, called on the U.S. to engage Iran and insurgent leaders in Iraq.
Terrorists: Baker report proves Islam is world's new giant
Immediately following the report's release, senior terrorist leaders interviewed by WND said the Study Group's recommendations prove "Islamic resistance" works and America will ultimately be defeated.
"The report proves that this is the era of Islam and of jihad," said Abu Ayman, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin.
The Islamic Jihad terror group is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel during the past two years.
"[With the Iraq Study Group report], the Americans came to the conclusion that Islam is the new giant of the world and it would be clever to reduce hostilities with this giant. In the Quran the principle of the rotation is clear and according to this principle the end of the Americans and of all non-believers is getting closer," Abu Ayman said.
According to Abu Abdullah, a senior leader of Hamas' so-called military wing, Baker's report is a victory for Islam brought about by "Allah and his angels."
"It is not just a simple victory. It is a great one. The big superpower of the world is defeated by a small group of mujahideen (fighters). Did you see the mujahideens' clothes and weapons in comparison with the huge individual military arsenal and supply that was carrying every American soldier?" exclaimed Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.
"It is no doubt that Allah and his angels were fighting with them (insurgents) against the Americans. It is a sign to all those who keep saying that America, Israel and the West in general cannot be defeated on the ground so let us negotiate with them," Abu Abdullah said.
Abu Abdullah said that following a withdrawal from Iraq, the U.S. will be defeated on its own soil.
"America must understand that with anti-American governments in Latin America and with Islam growing and reinforcing, including in the U.S. itself, the next step would be a total defeat on their (American) land, not a relative one like they are facing in Iraq," he said. - - - -
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A Cup of Trembling: News Briefs
Abbas unit fires rockets at Israel
WORLDNETDAILY – By Aaron Klein - March 28, 2007
JERUSALEM – The declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party today took credit for rockets fired into Israel, vowed to break a Gaza cease-fire and told WND U.S. financial aid pledged yesterday for Fatah security forces will be used to "attack the Zionists."
"Even if the American money and weapons reach only members of Fatah who are not involved in the resistance, it will find its way to the Palestinian resistance and be utilized for attacks against the Zionists," said Abu Ahmed, the northern Gaza commander of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.
Abu Ahmed was referring to $59 million the Bush administration announced yesterday it will send to strengthen Fatah security forces.
"This money is an attempt to generate civil war between Hamas and Fatah and to buy off Fatah. But we will never leave the political line of Yasser Arafat, who would not give up even one inch of Palestine," charged Abu Ahmed. - - -
Earlier today, seven rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip aimed at nearby Jewish communities.
Abu Ahmed told WND his group fired two of the projectiles while the other five were launched by Islamic Jihad. He said the two rockets fired today were "dedicated to Yasser Arafat." - - - -
Read Full Article
U.S.-backed force 'mostly terrorists'
WORLDNETDAILY – By Aaron Klein - March 27, 2007 TEL AVIV – A U.S.-financed and trained Fatah force in the northern Gaza Strip that surrendered to Hamas today consisted primarily of members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group, the declared "military wing" of Fatah, WND has learned.
The news comes as the Bush administration announced plans today to ask Congress to approve $59 million to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah security forces. - - - -
Read Full Article
Aid to Palestinians Rose Despite an Embargo
NEW YORK TIMES - By Steven Erlanger - March 21, 2007
JERUSALEM, March 20 — Despite the international embargo on aid to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas came to power a year ago, significantly more aid was delivered to the Palestinians in 2006 than in 2005, according to official figures from the United Nations, United States, European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Instead of going to the Palestinian Authority, much of the money was given directly to individuals or through independent agencies like the World Food Program.
The International Monetary Fund and the United Nations say the Palestinians received $1.2 billion in aid and budgetary support in 2006, about $300 per capita, compared with $1 billion in 2005. - - - -
Read Full Article
A-Zahar Reiterates Hamas Goal: World Domination
ARUTZ SHEVA - By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz - March 27, 2007
(IsraelNN.com) Addressing a mass rally in memory of the founder of the Hamas terrorist organization, Ahmed Yassin, senior Hamas leader and former Palestinian Authority official Mahmoud A-Zahar reiterated a fundamental position espoused by Hamas and other Islamist groups worldwide: struggle for the complete obliteration of Israel and the worldwide rule of Islam. - - -
"We have two important foundations: one is Koranic and the other is prophetic. The Koranic: the divine promise made in the Al-Israa Sura [Chapter 17] is that we will liberate the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, 'and we will enter it as we have entered it the first time' [paraphrasing Sura 17 (The Night Journey), verse 7]. And the prophetic foundation is the message of the prophet Muhammad, that Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world.
".... Our position is the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine. This is the final and strategic solution for us. There is a Koranic message for us, that we will enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the entrance to the mosque means the entrance into all of Palestine. This is the message, no one can deny it. Anyone who denies it must check his faith and his Islam." - - - -
Read Full Article
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8) Britain and Iran
The prince of the kingdom of Persia
Blair Warns Iran Standoff Could Escalate
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By David Stringer - March 28, 2007
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Tuesday that his government could make public evidence that a British navy crew was in Iraqi waters when it was captured by Iran, saying he was prepared to take the standoff to a "different phase" if diplomacy fails to win their release.
Iran said the 15 British sailors and marines were being treated well, but refused to say where they were being held, or rule out the possibility that they could be brought to trial for allegedly entering Iranian waters.
"I hope we manage to get them to realize they have to release them," Blair said in an interview with GMTV. "If not, then this will move into a different phase."
Blair's spokesman said the prime minister was not hinting either at the possible expulsion of Iranian diplomats or military action, but that Britain may have to make public evidence proving the Britons were seized in Iraqi - not Iranian - waters, if there is no swift release of the sailors.
Releasing such evidence could have "an upside and a downside" because it could show the Iranian ships strayed into Iraqi territory and provoke a diplomatic row between the neighbors, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with policy.
Britain and the United States have said the sailors and marines were intercepted Friday after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border between Iran and Iraq has been disputed for centuries.
There were fears in Britain that the fate of the 15 could get caught up in the political tensions between Iran and the West, including the dispute over Iran's nuclear program and accusations of Iranian help to Shiite militants in Iraq. - - - -
Read Full Article
Iran: Britain Must Admit Navy Trespassed
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Salah Nasrawi - March 28, 2007
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that Britain must admit that its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture by the Mideast nation.
Manouchehr Mottaki's statement in an interview with The Associated Press came on a day of escalating tensions, highlighted by an Iranian video of the detained Britons that showed the only woman captive saying her group had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. Britain angrily denounced the video as unacceptable and froze most dealings with the Mideast nation. - - - -
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U.S. Navy Flexes Muscles in Persian Gulf
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By James Calderwood And Jim Krane - March 27, 2007
ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS - American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.
The maneuvers with 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and is in a faceoff with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team.
While they would not say when the war games were planned, U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday's seizure of the 15 British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning. - - - -
Read Full Article
Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border
RUSSIAN NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY (RIA Novosti) - March 27, 2007
MOSCOW - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.
"The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.
He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran "that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost."
He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future.
A new U.S. carrier battle group has been dispatched to the Gulf.
The USS John C. Stennis, with a crew of 3,200 and around 80 fixed-wing aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers, eight support ships and four nuclear submarines are heading for the Gulf, where a similar group led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been deployed since December 2006.
The U.S. is also sending Patriot anti-missile systems to the region.
Article Link
Oil spikes $5 on rumors of Iran attack
CNN - From staff and wires reports - March 27, 2007 NEW YORK -- U.S. crude futures briefly spiked over $5 a barrel in electronic trading late Tuesday on rumors that Iran fired on U.S. Navy warships. - - -
"We have no information at this time that an incident has taken place in the Gulf," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said about reports of a confrontation between Iran and U.S. Navy warships. - - - -
Read Full Article
UK to reveal GPS data in Iran clash
FINANCIALTIMES of LONDON - By Ben Hall in London and Gareth Smyth in Tehran - March 27, 2007
- - - A Downing Street spokesman suggested the evidence was the location of a dhow searched by the 15 troops shortly before their capture. The boat is thought to be still anchored in the same place.
UK officials hope that publication of the co-ordinates will persuade the Iranian government to admit it made a mistake in seizing them. “If their argument is that we were in Iranian territorial waters, we’ve got the evidence [to the contrary] and we’ll use it,” said one UK government figure. - - - -
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9) U.S. Long Worried That Iran Supplied Weapons in Iraq
NEW YORK TIMES - By Michael R. Gordon And Scott Shane - March 27, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 26 — More than 20 months ago, the United States secretly sent Iran a diplomatic protest charging that Tehran was supplying lethal roadside explosive devices to Shiite extremists in Iraq, according to American officials familiar with the message. - - -
The complaint said that the Shiite militants who planted the device had longstanding ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, and that the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia had been training Iraqi Shiite insurgents in Iran and supplying them with bomb- making equipment. - - -
In the past four months, the administration has sought to put new pressure on Tehran, through military raids against Iranian operatives in Iraq, the dispatch of an American aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, as well as the increasingly public complaints about Iran’s role in arming Shiite militias. The American actions prompted criticism that the White House is trying to find a scapegoat for military setbacks in Iraq, or even to prepare for a new war with Iran.
A review of the administration’s accusations of an Iranian weapons supply role, including interviews with officials in Washington and Baghdad, critics of the administration and independent experts, shows that intelligence that Iran was providing lethal assistance to Shiite militias has been a major worry for more than two years. - - -
Some Democrats in Congress, while critical of many aspects of Bush administration policy toward Iraq and Iran, say they are persuaded by the intelligence pointing to an Iranian role in supplying E.F.P.’s. Debate remains about whether Iran’s top leaders ordered the supply of the weapons, about whether the Iranian-supplied devices can be copied in Iraq and about American policy toward Tehran. - - - -
See Also
U.N. Unanimously Approves Iran Sanctions
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Alexandra Olson - March 24, 2007
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Saturday to impose new sanctions against Iran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium _ a move intended to show Tehran that defiance will leave it increasingly isolated. - - - -
Read Full Article
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10) 5 'well-educated' kids put in state custody
WORLDNETDAILY – By Bob Unruh - March 22, 2007
Five "well-educated" children have been ordered into state custody by a court that applied to a second family a ruling taking a 15-year-old homeschooler from her family and sending her to a psychiatric ward.
The action fulfills a dire forecast from a human rights group that the government's success in the first case would encourage officials to act against other families in Germany.
The newest ruling comes from a court in Saxony and affects five members of the Brause family, according to officials with the International Human Rights Group.
Its president, Joel Thornton, earlier had told WND that, "There is an increased fear among homeschoolers about whether their children are next," after Melissa Busekros, 15, was removed from her home and ordered first to a psychiatric ward, then a foster home, because of her "school phobia."
Thornton told WND the ruling in Saxony means that while the government officials have not yet taken the five children from the family home, they have permission to do so at any time.
"Apparently, Germany has decided that it can determine when and where the children go to school; and where they live while doing so," noted Thornton. "The youth welfare, supported by the police force, can take the children out of the home at any time with or without notice."
The decision, according to the IHRG, said the well- being of the children "can only be achieved by their attendance in the public schools."
According to a CBN report, the legal custody of Rosine, Jotham, Kurt-Simon, Lovis and Ernst Brause was taken away from parents Bert and Kathrin and given to the local youth welfare office.
The parents reportedly can regain custody of their children only by placing them in public school.
In the order, which was based solely on the parents' decision against sending their children to public school, the family also was told to pay court costs estimated at $4,000.
The judge had concluded that the children were well- educated, but accused the parents of failing to provide their children with an education in a public school. The court noted that one of the daughters expressed the same opinions as her father, showing they have not had the chance to develop "independent" personalities. - - - -
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11) Christian fired for sharing God
WORLDNETDAILY – March 28, 2007
A Christian woman is battling a California university and state social agency for terminating her internship because she shared her faith with co-workers during off-hours.
Jacqueline Escobar was completing a master's degree in social work at California State University Long Beach when she interned with the Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS.
A straight-A student, Escobar was complimented regularly by the DCFS for her work. But she came under scrutiny for sharing her faith with co-workers during lunch breaks and after-hours, and for changing into a shirt with a religious message – "Found" – after signing out for the day, according to the Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing her.
A trial is scheduled to begin April 3.
"Through this case, we hope to send a powerful message to government employers: you cannot trounce upon the First Amendment rights of people of faith and expect to get away with it," said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute.
Escobar was directed to stop speaking about her faith, even during breaks and after work hours.
Also, the university ordered her to sign a document admitting she had "an inability to separate her religious beliefs from her role" as an intern.
She refused to sign the document, arguing she couldn't agree to such a sweeping prohibition that included her religious practice during non-working hours.
Consequently, Escobar was terminated from her internship and threatened with expulsion from the graduate program.
She then contacted Pacific Justice Institute and filed the federal suit.
Attorney Daniel R. Watkins argued freedom of religion is "the first and most fundamental constitutional right."
"Unfortunately, as this case illustrates, religious beliefs are under assault from every sector of government," he said. "It is our intent to ensure that people of faith working in government are afforded the protections our founding fathers intended." - - - -
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12) For Some Black Pastors, Accepting Gay Members Means Losing Others
NEW YORK TIMES - By Neela Banerjee - March 27, 2007
ATLANTA — When the Rev. Dennis Meredith of Tabernacle Baptist Church here began preaching acceptance of gay men and lesbians a few years ago, he attracted some gay people who were on the brink of suicide and some who had left the Baptist faith of their childhoods but wanted badly to return.
At the same time, Tabernacle Baptist, an African- American congregation, lost many of its most loyal, generous parishioners, who could not accept a message that contradicted what they saw as the Bible’s condemnation of same-sex relations. Over the last three years, Tabernacle’s Sunday attendance shrank to 800, from 1,100.
The debate about homosexuality that has roiled predominantly white mainline churches for years has gradually seeped into African-American congregations, threatening their unity, finances and, in some cases, their existence.
In St. Paul, the Rev. Oliver White, senior minister of Grace Community Church, lost nearly all his 70 congregants after he voted in 2005 to support the blessing of same-sex unions in his denomination, the United Church of Christ.
In the Atlanta area, a hub of African-American life, only a few black churches have preached acceptance of gay men and lesbians, Mr. Meredith said. At one of those congregations, Victory Church in Stone Mountain, attendance on Sundays has fallen to 3,000 people, from about 6,000 four or five years ago, said the Rev. Kenneth L. Samuel, the senior pastor. - - - -
Full Article Posted on the Be Alert! Blog
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13) Oprah's got a secret
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