Well friends and fellow bloggers we have come to one of those rare occasions that a liberal MSM - The Guardian - has reported that United Nations nuke inspectors have in their possession a paper describing "how to shape weapons-grade uranium into a warhead, ..." My guess is this is why Russia and China signed off on a Security Council investigation. One wonders if President Bush will have the gonads to address this in his State of the Union address (due in 25 minutes from the posting of this blog).
Here is the potential for a united front from the UN for the first time since the Korean War. It is a good thing Annan does not run the Security Council, I can only imagine the horror a Mohammedan is sensing of the possibilities that another Mohammedan may be taken down a notch by a unified international forum.
-------------------------
Iran papers reveal 'uranium warhead instructions'
· Referral is 'end of diplomacy', says Iran
· Russia and China back US and EU line
Staff and agencies
Tuesday January 31, 2006
UN nuclear inspectors have taken possession of Iranian papers appearing to describe how to shape weapons-grade uranium into a warhead, it was claimed today.
A report from the Associated Press, quoting diplomatic sources, said the one-and-a-half-page document was given to inspectors when Iran was presented with US intelligence suggesting it was working on nuclear weapons and was asked for a response.
The diplomats suggested the document - given to Iran by a nuclear black market network - was handed over to demonstrate cooperation as international pressure mounted over Iran's recent resumption of uranium enrichment research.
That pressure increased today when Russia and China joined US and European efforts to refer Iran to the UN security council. A London meeting of foreign ministers from the council's five permanent members - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - agreed to consider a report in March from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tehran's activities.
Ali Larijani, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, said such a move would put an end to efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully. "Reporting Iran's dossier to the UN security council will be unconstructive and the end of diplomacy," he said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran doesn't welcome this. We still think that this issue can be resolved peacefully. We recommend them not to do it."
The five also recommended that the IAEA's 35-member board refer Iran to the security council when it holds an emergency meeting in Vienna on Thursday.
But the agreement to wait for the report means the security council will wait until March before deciding what action to take.
Iran, which has threatened to end cooperation with the IAEA if it is brought before the security council, said there was no legal justification to refer the report to the council.
The vice-president and head of the country's nuclear programme, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said it was not certain the IAEA board would even follow the lead of the permanent security council members.
"The biggest problem for the west is that they can't find any [legal] justification to refer Iran to the UN security council," he said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
International concern over Iran's nuclear programme intensified earlier this month when Britain, France and Germany - who were negotiating with Iran on behalf of the EU - said the breaking of IAEA seals on three research facilities against their express wishes meant talks were at a "dead end".
Diplomats from the three countries yesterday met with Iran to see if there was any scope for talks to resume. The British representative, John Sawer, last night said "we didn't detect anything new in their approach".
The crisis centres on whether Iran can take control of a nuclear fuel cycle that could allow it to enrich uranium to weapons grade. Iran claims it has a right under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to process fuel for civilian purposes, but the US and EU suspect that Iran's history of concealing nuclear activities from the IAEA mean it would use civilian reactors as cover for a military programme.
One hope was that Tehran would accept a Russian proposal for it to enrich uranium for Iran and audit the fuel going in and out of the country, but Iranian officials have said it is unlikely to be accepted.
Russia and China - which have greater economic ties to Iran - are still attempting to find a negotiated settlement to the crisis despite their support for a security council referral that could lead to sanctions.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, today announced that Russian and Chinese diplomats are to be dispatched to Iran in an attempt to convince it to cooperate with the IAEA.
"I expect representatives of the leadership of the Russian foreign ministry with Chinese colleagues to visit Tehran to explain the agreements adopted in London and to urge Iran to give precise answers to the questions that the IAEA has presented," he said.
The decision by Russia and China to vote for referral surprised observers as they have consistently advocated caution. A French government official told the Associated Press that the Russian and Chinese ministers had been persuaded of the need to show a united front.
Guardian Unlimited
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
The Disappearance of Sin: A Flight from Reality
Sin, a simple three letter little word that ruins the lives of people who unwittingly make it the life principle for their existence.
Non-Christians are doomed by sin, particularly if they have heard and know the simplicity of Salvation in Jesus Christ. This is a pretty bigotted attitude a non-Christian might say. Atheists, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Hindus just to name a few creeds and religions have "faith" there way is the best way. I assure you someone is wrong, only the end will prove who is correct in the sense realm. Spiritually I know The Way of Christ is the only Way.
Sin is that element or action that separates humanity from union with God. Grace is the simplicity that satiates the appetite of sin, invigorating the Life of Christ and defeating the nature of death. Choose Life!
-------------------------
The Disappearance of Sin—A Flight from Reality
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
The Christian Post
1/31/06
The disappearance of sin from our moral vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the modern age--and of postmodern morality. These days, most people think themselves to be imperfect, leaving room for improvement--but they do not think of themselves as sinners in need of forgiveness and redemption. This point has been raised by many, but an early prophet of sin's disappearance was not a theologian, but a psychiatrist.
Karl Menninger was a famous American psychiatrist, and he was among the first mental heath professionals to suggest that some psychological disorders were actually treatable. The established thought at the time was that virtually all mental disorders were incurable, but Menninger was unwilling to accept that assumption. His innovative treatment of psychological diseases largely shaped the modern practice of psychiatry.
Nevertheless, Menninger was not without controversy. Perhaps his most controversial contribution came in the form of his 1973 book, Whatever Became of Sin? The psychological community had almost universally banned the word "sin" from its vocabulary. In fact, therapists blamed the notion of sin for producing guilt, which seemed to be psychologically unhealthy. How's that for a reversal of reality?
Menninger wrote with moral indignation. He understood the reason the notion of sin had been rejected by psychiatry, but he found that he could not explain all human behavior as either "neurotic" or "healthy." There was another category of behavior as Menninger observed--and that category was sin. Menninger's book was a powerful and influential call for recognizing sin as sin. He demonstrated that the psychological community was not alone; society at large had rejected the notion of sin.Words such as "disease," "anti-social behavior," and "lack of moral development" had replaced "sin" as explanations for human behavior. Menninger attacked this evasion.He wrote: "I believe there is 'sin' which is expressed in ways that cannot be subsumed . . . as 'crime,' 'disease,' 'delinquency,' 'deviancy.' There is immorality; there is unethical behavior; there is wrong doing. And I hope to show that there is usefulness in retaining the concept, and indeed the SIN, which now shows some signs of returning to public acceptance."
Menninger's call was heard by some of his fellow psychologists, but rejected by many. His recovery of "sin" was seen by many of his colleagues as a giant step backward for a progressive science. Furthermore, his hope that sin might return as a public concern was not realized.Genuine Christianity cannot escape dealing with sin. The Gospel will not allow any evasion of sin as the universal human condition of revolt against the Creator, the God of absolute holiness and absolute love. Nevertheless, Menninger's question still remains an indictment of the church as well as society: Whatever became of sin?The famous psychiatrist noted the absence of "sin" in his profession, but we should notice the decline of "sin" within the church. Some leading churches and television preachers have followed the lead of the psychological community in rejecting the notion of sin. The word is seldom uttered in many churches--even some who would describe themselves as evangelical.
This is an abdication of the Gospel. Where sin is not faced as sin, grace cannot be grace. What need have men and women of atonement, when they are told that their deepest problem is something less than the Bible explicitly teaches? Weak teaching on sin leads to cheap grace, and neither leads to the Gospel.Scripture identifies sin as humanity's willful revolt against God. It is rebellion and disobedience. Furthermore, it is "missing the mark" of faithfulness to God's holy standard. It is the most fundamental human problem, and it is the reason we need a Savior. It is a revolt against God's authority and an insult to God's glory. It is the human in moral revolt, usually disguised as personal autonomy.
Christians have had a hard time striking a biblical balance. Some minimalize sin so that it seems not to apply to their behavior. Others may fixate on certain "pet" sins as their only concern, and neglect the more pressing commands. Some churches deal with sin, but never get to the gospel. Liberal denominations have abandoned the biblical doctrine of sin, and now locate sin only in the structures of society. None of these perversions is worthy of the gospel.
Whatever became of sin? It has been redefined, ignored, rejected, neglected, and denied. Yet human beings know of its reality. Those who deny its reality were once described by another psychiatrist as "People of the Lie.
"The church must be the people of the truth. Though society and popular culture may reject sin as unsophisticated and outdated, the church must speak the word of truth. Therapy has its rightful place, and Christians should not disparage the legitimate use of psychological insights. Christian psychologists and psychiatrists should serve, in the truest sense, as healing ministers. Nevertheless, the Christian knows that the most fundamental problem faced by humanity cannot be overcome by therapy but only by atonement. And that is the gospel truth.
This article was originally published on Friday, August 13, 2004.
--------------------------------------
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. For more articles and resources by Dr. Mohler, and for information on The Albert Mohler Program, a daily national radio program broadcast on the Salem Radio Network, go to www.albertmohler.com. For information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to www.sbts.edu. Send feedback to mail@albertmohler.com. Original Source: www.albertmohler.com.>
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.Christian Post Guest Columnist
Copyright © 2004 The Christian Post
Non-Christians are doomed by sin, particularly if they have heard and know the simplicity of Salvation in Jesus Christ. This is a pretty bigotted attitude a non-Christian might say. Atheists, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Hindus just to name a few creeds and religions have "faith" there way is the best way. I assure you someone is wrong, only the end will prove who is correct in the sense realm. Spiritually I know The Way of Christ is the only Way.
Sin is that element or action that separates humanity from union with God. Grace is the simplicity that satiates the appetite of sin, invigorating the Life of Christ and defeating the nature of death. Choose Life!
-------------------------
The Disappearance of Sin—A Flight from Reality
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
The Christian Post
1/31/06
The disappearance of sin from our moral vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the modern age--and of postmodern morality. These days, most people think themselves to be imperfect, leaving room for improvement--but they do not think of themselves as sinners in need of forgiveness and redemption. This point has been raised by many, but an early prophet of sin's disappearance was not a theologian, but a psychiatrist.
Karl Menninger was a famous American psychiatrist, and he was among the first mental heath professionals to suggest that some psychological disorders were actually treatable. The established thought at the time was that virtually all mental disorders were incurable, but Menninger was unwilling to accept that assumption. His innovative treatment of psychological diseases largely shaped the modern practice of psychiatry.
Nevertheless, Menninger was not without controversy. Perhaps his most controversial contribution came in the form of his 1973 book, Whatever Became of Sin? The psychological community had almost universally banned the word "sin" from its vocabulary. In fact, therapists blamed the notion of sin for producing guilt, which seemed to be psychologically unhealthy. How's that for a reversal of reality?
Menninger wrote with moral indignation. He understood the reason the notion of sin had been rejected by psychiatry, but he found that he could not explain all human behavior as either "neurotic" or "healthy." There was another category of behavior as Menninger observed--and that category was sin. Menninger's book was a powerful and influential call for recognizing sin as sin. He demonstrated that the psychological community was not alone; society at large had rejected the notion of sin.Words such as "disease," "anti-social behavior," and "lack of moral development" had replaced "sin" as explanations for human behavior. Menninger attacked this evasion.He wrote: "I believe there is 'sin' which is expressed in ways that cannot be subsumed . . . as 'crime,' 'disease,' 'delinquency,' 'deviancy.' There is immorality; there is unethical behavior; there is wrong doing. And I hope to show that there is usefulness in retaining the concept, and indeed the SIN, which now shows some signs of returning to public acceptance."
Menninger's call was heard by some of his fellow psychologists, but rejected by many. His recovery of "sin" was seen by many of his colleagues as a giant step backward for a progressive science. Furthermore, his hope that sin might return as a public concern was not realized.Genuine Christianity cannot escape dealing with sin. The Gospel will not allow any evasion of sin as the universal human condition of revolt against the Creator, the God of absolute holiness and absolute love. Nevertheless, Menninger's question still remains an indictment of the church as well as society: Whatever became of sin?The famous psychiatrist noted the absence of "sin" in his profession, but we should notice the decline of "sin" within the church. Some leading churches and television preachers have followed the lead of the psychological community in rejecting the notion of sin. The word is seldom uttered in many churches--even some who would describe themselves as evangelical.
This is an abdication of the Gospel. Where sin is not faced as sin, grace cannot be grace. What need have men and women of atonement, when they are told that their deepest problem is something less than the Bible explicitly teaches? Weak teaching on sin leads to cheap grace, and neither leads to the Gospel.Scripture identifies sin as humanity's willful revolt against God. It is rebellion and disobedience. Furthermore, it is "missing the mark" of faithfulness to God's holy standard. It is the most fundamental human problem, and it is the reason we need a Savior. It is a revolt against God's authority and an insult to God's glory. It is the human in moral revolt, usually disguised as personal autonomy.
Christians have had a hard time striking a biblical balance. Some minimalize sin so that it seems not to apply to their behavior. Others may fixate on certain "pet" sins as their only concern, and neglect the more pressing commands. Some churches deal with sin, but never get to the gospel. Liberal denominations have abandoned the biblical doctrine of sin, and now locate sin only in the structures of society. None of these perversions is worthy of the gospel.
Whatever became of sin? It has been redefined, ignored, rejected, neglected, and denied. Yet human beings know of its reality. Those who deny its reality were once described by another psychiatrist as "People of the Lie.
"The church must be the people of the truth. Though society and popular culture may reject sin as unsophisticated and outdated, the church must speak the word of truth. Therapy has its rightful place, and Christians should not disparage the legitimate use of psychological insights. Christian psychologists and psychiatrists should serve, in the truest sense, as healing ministers. Nevertheless, the Christian knows that the most fundamental problem faced by humanity cannot be overcome by therapy but only by atonement. And that is the gospel truth.
This article was originally published on Friday, August 13, 2004.
--------------------------------------
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. For more articles and resources by Dr. Mohler, and for information on The Albert Mohler Program, a daily national radio program broadcast on the Salem Radio Network, go to www.albertmohler.com. For information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to www.sbts.edu. Send feedback to mail@albertmohler.com. Original Source: www.albertmohler.com.>
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.Christian Post Guest Columnist
Copyright © 2004 The Christian Post
Patriots must act
Herein is the rub: Security VS Civil Rights. Liberal Americans tend to desire to protect civil liberties no matter the cost. Many Conservatives actually agree with their political adversaries on the matter of Civil Rights. NeoConservative and safety minded Americans lean toward the preeminence of Security. That is my thinking as well - Security trumps Civil Rights. I strongly embrace Civil Rights, however if I am even more in favor of living in a safe environment. It is already too much to be concerned with indigenous thugs, gangs and drug criminals. If I have to worry about an Islamofascist who wishes to commit homicidal suicide, that is too much. And how about the worse case scenario? That scenario in which an Islamofascist sets off some small scale WMD - nuke or chemical. Yes, in all those cases Security trumps Civil Rights.
------------------------------------------------
by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Townhall.com
1/31/06
The most consequential part of President Bush’s State of the Union address tonight, at least in the near-term, will be the section he devotes to the need to ensure that the Nation’s law enforcement and intelligence communities have the tools they need to protect us. In particular, he will make a strong case for the Patriot Act – one we can only hope the minority of Senators currently blocking its reenactment will heed.
Mr. Bush afforded a small group of us an insight into his thinking on this and related matters, and a sense of the urgency he will attach to the Patriot Act’s renewal, in a meeting last Thursday. Those present included eighteen preeminent national security, intelligence, legal and public policy practitioners – nearly all of whom had previously held senior U.S. government posts and signed a letter to Congress circulated last week by the Coalition for Security, Liberty and the Law.
In informal remarks and extended, candid give-and-take with the participants, the President communicated the gravity of the peril we face. As Osama bin Laden’s most recent audio tape reminds us, enemies of this country remain intent on hitting us again, and hope to do so with even more devastating effect than on 9/11.
Two of those present knew firsthand the costs of the last attack on our homeland: Former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who lost his wife, Barbara, on American Airlines Flight 77 when it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon; and Debra Burlingame, the sister of Capt. Charles “Chic” Burlingame, that doomed aircraft’s pilot.
In the four-plus years since September 11, 2001, both have selflessly served their country. Mr. Olson was, until recently, the third-ranking official in the Department of Justice and a leader on its counterterrorism litigation and policy-making.
For her part, Ms. Burlingame has become one of the most visible, and formidable, of the 9/11 family members in championing counterterrorism legislation and policies needed to prevent future terrorist attacks in this country – and opposing initiatives that would undermine America’s ability to do so.
Such concerns prompted her to write a powerful op.ed. article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about the need to renew the Patriot Act and to continue presidentially authorized, warrantless “hot pursuit” of enemy communications by the National Security Agency – even when one of the parties is inside the United States and may be an American citizen. Under the headline, “Our Right to Security,” she observes:
“A minority of senators want to gamble with American lives and ‘fix’ national security laws, which they can’t show are broken. They seek to eliminate or weaken anti-terrorism measures which take into account that the Cold War and its slow-moving, analog world of landlines and stationary targets is gone. The threat we face today is a completely new paradigm of global terrorist networks operating in a high-velocity digital age using the Web and fiber-optic technology.
“After four-and-a-half years without another terrorist attack, these senators think we’re safe enough to cave in to the same civil liberties lobby that supported that deadly Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) “wall” [which, before the Patriot Act, prevented information-sharing between law enforcement and intelligence agencies that might have thwarted the 9/11 attacks] in the first place. What if they…are simply wrong?”
In a television ad produced by the Coalition for Security, Liberty and the Law, Ms. Burlingame asks a further question: “What will [those senators] say to their constituents if another attack occurs that might have been prevented” had key provisions of the Patriot Act not been weakened or allowed to expire?
These are questions the President himself should pointedly pose during tonight’s address: Does anyone listening – in the House chambers and across this great country – want to bet, in the face of known threats and likely ones, that we can responsibly deny those charged with protecting us the tools they have successfully used since 2001?
Are the Patriot Act’s critics really willing to risk the lives of potentially many thousands of Americans on a gamble that we can once again safely accord terrorists more legal protections than we do drug-traffickers, racketeers and other criminals – an anamolous, not to say bizarre, situation corrected by the Patriot Act?
The truth of the matter is, as Debra Burlingame puts it so well: “Ask the American people what they want. They will say that they want the commander-in-chief to use all reasonable means to catch the people who are trying to rain terror on our cities.”
So tonight, Mr. Bush should – and I am confident, will – make clear that neither he nor the Congress have any duty higher than that of protecting the American people. Adopting the conference report that will extend or make permanent the Patriot Act’s “sunsetted” provisions, and preserve its full usefulness in combating terror at home, is consistent with that duty. Filibustering the conference report – to say nothing of the boast last month by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid that opponents had “killed the Patriot Act” – is not.
--------------------------
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., is President of the Center for Security Policy, a Townhall.com partner organization, and author of War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World.
Copyright © 2006 Townhall.com
Sunday, January 29, 2006
N. Korea Threatens Nuke War
Look here, just as the Islamofascist Middle East threatens WMD war via Iran, the North Koreans need attention too. It is like the spoiled nations of the world want their cake and eat it too.
China has to step in and spank their spoiled brat. Even China has joined the world economy through disguised capitalism. Stalinist N. Korea is out dated and needs to be dealt with soon.
Apparently every time N. Korea needs something from capitalist nations it is going to threaten nuclear war. COME ON!
-------------------------------------------
Associated Press
01.28.2006, 11:06 AM
Forbes.com
North Korea warned of nuclear war Saturday and vowed to strengthen its deterrent forces as it demanded that Washington show evidence backing its allegation that the communist regime is counterfeiting U.S. money.
"Dark clouds of a nuclear war are hanging low over the Korean Peninsula," the North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency.
"The ever-more frantic moves of the U.S. to ignite a new war against (North Korea) would only compel it ... to bolster its deterrent for self-defense in every way."
The North repeatedly has accused the United States of planning to attack. Washington has denied any such intention.
The North's comments Saturday follow a South Korea-U.S. agreement this month giving American troops more flexibility in the South.
The North said the pact was aimed at preparing for war. Also Saturday, the North dismissed U.S. accusations of counterfeiting and other illicit activities like drug trafficking.
"The nature and mission of (North Korea) do not allow such things as bad treatment of the people, counterfeiting and drug trafficking to happen in it," KCNA said.
A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan also urged Washington to prove its allegation that North Korea is counterfeiting U.S. currency.
China has to step in and spank their spoiled brat. Even China has joined the world economy through disguised capitalism. Stalinist N. Korea is out dated and needs to be dealt with soon.
Apparently every time N. Korea needs something from capitalist nations it is going to threaten nuclear war. COME ON!
-------------------------------------------
Associated Press
01.28.2006, 11:06 AM
Forbes.com
North Korea warned of nuclear war Saturday and vowed to strengthen its deterrent forces as it demanded that Washington show evidence backing its allegation that the communist regime is counterfeiting U.S. money.
"Dark clouds of a nuclear war are hanging low over the Korean Peninsula," the North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency.
"The ever-more frantic moves of the U.S. to ignite a new war against (North Korea) would only compel it ... to bolster its deterrent for self-defense in every way."
The North repeatedly has accused the United States of planning to attack. Washington has denied any such intention.
The North's comments Saturday follow a South Korea-U.S. agreement this month giving American troops more flexibility in the South.
The North said the pact was aimed at preparing for war. Also Saturday, the North dismissed U.S. accusations of counterfeiting and other illicit activities like drug trafficking.
"The nature and mission of (North Korea) do not allow such things as bad treatment of the people, counterfeiting and drug trafficking to happen in it," KCNA said.
A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan also urged Washington to prove its allegation that North Korea is counterfeiting U.S. currency.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
The real war is being fought at home.
By John R. Houk
1/28/2006
The liberal MSM chisels at President Bush’s policies on the war on terrorism. You would think that the MSM would report stories of victory and successes to encourage Americans about their sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead there is a focus on the mistakes. It is a war and there are mistakes in war to go along with victory. If there is the negative to be reported it should be how Islamofascists harm their fellow religionists and Arabs. That kind of analysis is not forth coming.
The Democratic Party teams up with the MSM to publicly cry about issues that should only be an issue in times of peace. Senator Hillary has called President Bush’s reasoning lame in regard to the NSA, yet clearly and repeatedly the President has stated any monitoring pertains to suspected terrorist connections. How is that lame? It is lame to hamper the execution of the war against terrorism. That war is now on an international scale. It is not limited to American soil or the Land of Israel, rather wherever there is a Mohammedan Islamofascist agenda across the globe the war rages on.
The only way America can lose this war is if we give up. Giving will go way beyond admitting defeat it will make America a target wherever Islamofascism wishes to dominate. The goal of establishing democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan may be a long road, but a road that will validate the American way of life. Dinesh D’Souza has said establishing democracy in the Middle East is possible. The thing is the Democracy may not look like the same kind Americans are used to seeing. The Middle East is dominated by Mohammedanism and the inculcation of Sharia Law on all levels of society religiously and politically. That is a foreign concept to Americans.
Democracy then is possible in the Middle East but it will have to be adapted to the Mohammedan culture.
1/28/2006
The liberal MSM chisels at President Bush’s policies on the war on terrorism. You would think that the MSM would report stories of victory and successes to encourage Americans about their sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead there is a focus on the mistakes. It is a war and there are mistakes in war to go along with victory. If there is the negative to be reported it should be how Islamofascists harm their fellow religionists and Arabs. That kind of analysis is not forth coming.
The Democratic Party teams up with the MSM to publicly cry about issues that should only be an issue in times of peace. Senator Hillary has called President Bush’s reasoning lame in regard to the NSA, yet clearly and repeatedly the President has stated any monitoring pertains to suspected terrorist connections. How is that lame? It is lame to hamper the execution of the war against terrorism. That war is now on an international scale. It is not limited to American soil or the Land of Israel, rather wherever there is a Mohammedan Islamofascist agenda across the globe the war rages on.
The only way America can lose this war is if we give up. Giving will go way beyond admitting defeat it will make America a target wherever Islamofascism wishes to dominate. The goal of establishing democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan may be a long road, but a road that will validate the American way of life. Dinesh D’Souza has said establishing democracy in the Middle East is possible. The thing is the Democracy may not look like the same kind Americans are used to seeing. The Middle East is dominated by Mohammedanism and the inculcation of Sharia Law on all levels of society religiously and politically. That is a foreign concept to Americans.
Democracy then is possible in the Middle East but it will have to be adapted to the Mohammedan culture.
EU Approves Ban on ‘Homophobia’; Christians Remain Silent
The Christian Witness is a flickering flame in Europe. Mohammedanism is actually stronger in faith than Christianity in Europe. The object of the secular humanist liberal is against Christianity in America so much that even the ACLU promotes Mohammedan rights above Christianity. The only way to stop this agenda is to elect conservatives and insure that activist conservative judges replace liberal judges. Christophobia is becoming more and more popular in Western Culture. Christophobia is undermining morality in the West.
If America ever collapses it will not because of the economy or foreign wars. It will happen due moral depreciation. Secular Humanism debases our culture with a concept of relativitism. When Christians go to jail because of sermons or witnessing the goodness of the Gospel that will offend homosexuals, the days of persecution will have returned to the Western Church.
Here is a perspective from The Scriptorium:
----------------------------------
This WILL be coming to the United States next. The E.U. has outlawed “homophopbia”. Homophobia is defined as “an irrational fear and aversion of homosexuality and of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people based on prejudice, similar to racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism.” In other words, any views that do not accept homosexuality in all its forms as normal and morally acceptable. Our Supreme Court justices have said repeatedly that foreign laws should play a part in U.S. Supreme Court decisions, so you can bet they will be citing this resolution in decisions some time in the future. Sadly, proponents of this resolution in Britain referred to the mostly silent Christians in Europe as the “lunatic fringe”. We are seeing more of this kind of rhetoric from the left in the U.S., and it’s having the same affect. More and more, Christian denominations in the U.S. are remaining silent in the face of similar legislation. Either they remain silent, or as in the case of the Presbyterian church, the Methodists, and several others, they’ve taken up the cause of the secular left. Jesus did say the end would not come before the great apostasy.
If America ever collapses it will not because of the economy or foreign wars. It will happen due moral depreciation. Secular Humanism debases our culture with a concept of relativitism. When Christians go to jail because of sermons or witnessing the goodness of the Gospel that will offend homosexuals, the days of persecution will have returned to the Western Church.
Here is a perspective from The Scriptorium:
----------------------------------
This WILL be coming to the United States next. The E.U. has outlawed “homophopbia”. Homophobia is defined as “an irrational fear and aversion of homosexuality and of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people based on prejudice, similar to racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism.” In other words, any views that do not accept homosexuality in all its forms as normal and morally acceptable. Our Supreme Court justices have said repeatedly that foreign laws should play a part in U.S. Supreme Court decisions, so you can bet they will be citing this resolution in decisions some time in the future. Sadly, proponents of this resolution in Britain referred to the mostly silent Christians in Europe as the “lunatic fringe”. We are seeing more of this kind of rhetoric from the left in the U.S., and it’s having the same affect. More and more, Christian denominations in the U.S. are remaining silent in the face of similar legislation. Either they remain silent, or as in the case of the Presbyterian church, the Methodists, and several others, they’ve taken up the cause of the secular left. Jesus did say the end would not come before the great apostasy.
The European Union has unanimously approved a resolution banning “homophobia.” A Christian attorney in Mississippi explains why that should concern the citizens of the United States.
The resolution, called “Homophobia in Europe,” defines homophobia as “an irrational fear and aversion of homosexuality and of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people based on prejudice, similar to racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism.” It calls for action against member states that do not implement programs directed at fair treatment of homosexuals in employment and occupation. It also seeks to “ensure that same-sex partners enjoy the same respect, dignity and protection as the rest of society.”
Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, says although the resolution is not law, it could eventually affect the United States.
“Our Supreme Court seems enamored with citing to foreign sources of law,” Crampton observes. And if that mindset continues, he fears that “what happens in the European Union today is going to become the law and policy of America tomorrow.”
For that reason, the attorney advises that family advocates in the U.S. “absolutely … should be concerned about this — and we should be rising up right now before it’s too late,” he adds.
Crampton asserts that the EU resolution is just further proof that society is continuing its slide toward moral depravity. “When you consider that [approval of the measure came] by a vote of almost four-to-one — and it was basically a restatement of the radical homosexual agenda — there is great cause for concern for those of us who adhere to the traditional, biblical teachings that homosexual conduct is sinful,” he says.
The “Homophobia in Europe” resolution was passed by a vote of 468-149; there were 41 abstentions. Christians and conservatives did not protest the resolution, prompting one former member of Britain’s Parliament and a homosexual rights advocate to say that the “lunatic fringe” — Christians and conservatives — have learned that “it does not pay anymore to shout against gays and lesbians in the Parliament itself.”
TEDDY KENNEDY DIVES INTO THE KOS CESSPOOL
Above is the Daily Kos "Thank you" from Ted Kennedy.
As Michelle Malkin relates below, Daily Kos represents the fringe left in American blogging. With contributions from Kerry and Kennedy, Daily Kos also represents mainstream Democratic Pary. Now that is frightening.
By Michelle Malkin
1/27/06
Michelle Malkin Blog
When I chronicled the kraziness at the Daily Kos in Unhinged, left-wing critics shot back that the most highly-trafficked website on the left side of the blogosphere did not represent the Democrat Party leadership.
Now, not only is John Kerry a proud Kossack...Ted Kennedy is blogging there, too.
Irrefutable: The unhinged fringe is the mainstream of the Democrat Party.
Friday, January 27, 2006
About Scientology
I ran into an interesting article about Scientology while I was waiting for my honey to come home from a late night prayer virgil with her aunt.
The article was acquired from an Illuminati Conspiracy website, but I actually found it on my Yahoo group - SlantedRightPolitics .
I had read some of L. Ron Hubbard as a teenager, mostly in the Sci/Fi realm. However, I learned from this article that Hubbard was a bit of a scoundrel. What does that say for some of the high profile Hollywood actors and actresses that are very active in Scientology?
It boggles my mind that someone has become so spiritually desparate to be even attracted to Scientology. I mean I can see what Scientology elites get out of the cult - power over others and eccentric pleasures. But what do the every day poor sap who has gotten sucked into this cult get? I understand that cult members are attempting to get "clear." What is the price to be "clear?" It seems to me that the lower echelons are nearly enslaved in service to do the bidding of the upper echelons. Anyway, if you are interested go to the SlantedRightPolitics link above to satisfy any curiousity you may have.
The article was acquired from an Illuminati Conspiracy website, but I actually found it on my Yahoo group - SlantedRightPolitics .
I had read some of L. Ron Hubbard as a teenager, mostly in the Sci/Fi realm. However, I learned from this article that Hubbard was a bit of a scoundrel. What does that say for some of the high profile Hollywood actors and actresses that are very active in Scientology?
It boggles my mind that someone has become so spiritually desparate to be even attracted to Scientology. I mean I can see what Scientology elites get out of the cult - power over others and eccentric pleasures. But what do the every day poor sap who has gotten sucked into this cult get? I understand that cult members are attempting to get "clear." What is the price to be "clear?" It seems to me that the lower echelons are nearly enslaved in service to do the bidding of the upper echelons. Anyway, if you are interested go to the SlantedRightPolitics link above to satisfy any curiousity you may have.
On the 61st Anniversary ... of Auschwitz - the Holocaust Remembered ...
This post is for all the Mohammedan holocaust deniers. Adolf Hitler attempted the Mohammedan dream 61 years ago - the eradication of Jews.
For those of you who do not realize it, Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf are among the heros and best sellers in the Mohammedan Middle East. Many Arab States and terrorist organizations have been modeled on Hitler's Nazi structure. This includes Saddam's Iraq, Assad's Syria, Arafat's (deceases) Palestine Liberation Organization to name a few.
In face of the ultra-fascist Hamas winning Palestinian elections, Israel is calling for prayer and rememberance of Hitler's plan of the "Final Solution," the Auschwitz participation of the eradication of Jews.
------------------------------
On the 61st Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz - the Holocaust Remembered and a Call to Prayer for Israel
by Aimee Herd
Breaking Christian News
Jan 27, 2006
As European leaders gathered in Warsaw, Poland to commemorate the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, thoughts turn to the appalling remarks of Iran's president and the recent electoral victory of Hamas.
For those of you who do not realize it, Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf are among the heros and best sellers in the Mohammedan Middle East. Many Arab States and terrorist organizations have been modeled on Hitler's Nazi structure. This includes Saddam's Iraq, Assad's Syria, Arafat's (deceases) Palestine Liberation Organization to name a few.
In face of the ultra-fascist Hamas winning Palestinian elections, Israel is calling for prayer and rememberance of Hitler's plan of the "Final Solution," the Auschwitz participation of the eradication of Jews.
------------------------------
On the 61st Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz - the Holocaust Remembered and a Call to Prayer for Israel
by Aimee Herd
Breaking Christian News
Jan 27, 2006
As European leaders gathered in Warsaw, Poland to commemorate the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, thoughts turn to the appalling remarks of Iran's president and the recent electoral victory of Hamas.
Sixty-one years ago, Soviet troops marched onto the sickening grounds of the death camp Auschwitz, setting those who had endured unspeakable atrocities free from their captors. About 1.5 million people, most Jews, did not survive but succumbed to death by gassing, starvation and disease. As other camps were also liberated, the unreal horrors of the holocaust became reality to the public and the staggering truth of six million Jews murdered by Hitler's regime was exposed. Certainly it was a time to pray for God's people.
Today, Israel is still in need of prayer as some deny that the Holocaust even happened, and constant friction and violence with Palestinian radicals continues. This week the known terrorist organization Hamas used democracy to gain a foothold, winning the Palestinian election against the Fatah party which was attempting to pursue more peaceful negotiations with Israel. Will Hamas abandon their previously stated agenda of "wiping Israel off the map?" Or will this election prove to be the beginning of an even bigger conflict in the Middle East? Certainly it is still a time to be praying for God's people; Israel.
The past and present conflicts Israel has had, and is currently going through, can sometimes make it seem overwhelming when praying for them. But still, we are exhorted in the Psalms to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." This peace, this "shalom" means much more in the Hebrew than in English vernacular. It connotes *completeness, well being, wholeness of life or body, harmony and right relationship between two parties or between a person and God. (*Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology-Baker Book House Co.)
With this in mind we can pray for God's "shalom" which passes understanding and for a revelation of the true Messiah; Who will bring that peace to Israel.
Breaking Christian News story attributed to Fox News.
Bishop Lauds New Prime Minister's Use of "God Bless Canada"
The liberals in Canada must squirming somewhat like they did in 2000 in America. I wonder if (neoconservative) Prime Minister Stephen Harper will receive the same MSM hatred that President Bush has received. My guess is that will happen. I hope Harper's PR guys have examined President Bush to learn how to deal with liberals and the leftist MSM.
--------------------------------
Lifesite.net
January 25, 2006
By Gudrun Schultz
The Name of God is Back in Canadian Politics
CALGARY, Alberta, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The name of God was heard on the lips of a Canadian political leader Monday night, in an unheard-of departure from the recent status quo in Canada. Conservative leader Stephen Harper ended his election victory speech with the words "God Bless Canada."
The use of that phrase indicates a significant departure from the policies of the Liberal government, which has ruthlessly expunged any mention of God from the public sphere during the 12 years they have been in power.
Bishop Frederick Henry of the Calgary Diocese told LifeSiteNews today that he was "greatly encouraged by [Stephen Harper's] brief statement of prayer."
"Too many of our politicians and public figures have been inclined to be almost apologetic for professing their religious belief in God and their values," said Bishop Henry, who has been an outspoken defender of religious freedom in Canada. "Mr. Harper's comment dove-tails perfectly with his call for government accountability and integrity, as ultimate accountability will be to God."
Under the Liberal government, mention of Christ and Christian prayer has been forbidden at official government-sponsored ceremonies. At the massive memorial service for victims of September 2001's terrorist attack on New York City, held on Parliament Hill, no prayer was permitted. Religious leaders, although present from many different faiths and denominations, were not acknowledged nor asked to participate in the ceremony.
The same was true for the memorial service held for the victims of Swissair flight 111, which crashed off Peggy's Cove in 1998. Church leaders were prevented from mentioning Jesus Christ or offering Christian prayers in the official service held for the victims' families.
Bishop Henry said Mr. Harper's reference to God reflected Canada's history as a nation and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom (Constitution Act, 1982), which begins "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law..."
The first fundamental freedom listed under the Charter is the freedom of conscience and religion. The second is freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression.
-------------------------------
Here is an interesting link demonstrating the power of secular humanism attacking Canada: Canada's Governor-General Designate Refuses to Swear on Bible.
(c) Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com is a production of Interim Publishing. Permission to republish is granted (with limitation*) but acknowledgement of source is *REQUIRED* (use LifeSiteNews.com).
--------------------------------
Lifesite.net
January 25, 2006
By Gudrun Schultz
The Name of God is Back in Canadian Politics
CALGARY, Alberta, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The name of God was heard on the lips of a Canadian political leader Monday night, in an unheard-of departure from the recent status quo in Canada. Conservative leader Stephen Harper ended his election victory speech with the words "God Bless Canada."
The use of that phrase indicates a significant departure from the policies of the Liberal government, which has ruthlessly expunged any mention of God from the public sphere during the 12 years they have been in power.
Bishop Frederick Henry of the Calgary Diocese told LifeSiteNews today that he was "greatly encouraged by [Stephen Harper's] brief statement of prayer."
"Too many of our politicians and public figures have been inclined to be almost apologetic for professing their religious belief in God and their values," said Bishop Henry, who has been an outspoken defender of religious freedom in Canada. "Mr. Harper's comment dove-tails perfectly with his call for government accountability and integrity, as ultimate accountability will be to God."
Under the Liberal government, mention of Christ and Christian prayer has been forbidden at official government-sponsored ceremonies. At the massive memorial service for victims of September 2001's terrorist attack on New York City, held on Parliament Hill, no prayer was permitted. Religious leaders, although present from many different faiths and denominations, were not acknowledged nor asked to participate in the ceremony.
The same was true for the memorial service held for the victims of Swissair flight 111, which crashed off Peggy's Cove in 1998. Church leaders were prevented from mentioning Jesus Christ or offering Christian prayers in the official service held for the victims' families.
Bishop Henry said Mr. Harper's reference to God reflected Canada's history as a nation and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom (Constitution Act, 1982), which begins "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law..."
The first fundamental freedom listed under the Charter is the freedom of conscience and religion. The second is freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression.
-------------------------------
Here is an interesting link demonstrating the power of secular humanism attacking Canada: Canada's Governor-General Designate Refuses to Swear on Bible.
(c) Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com is a production of Interim Publishing. Permission to republish is granted (with limitation*) but acknowledgement of source is *REQUIRED* (use LifeSiteNews.com).
Thursday, January 26, 2006
The Hamas Charter Precludes an American and Israeli Deal
By John R. Houk
©1/26/06
Today Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections booting Fatah from the ruling elite. It is of no surprise. Fatah and the old Palestine Liberation Organization had been exploiting the Arabs living in these Israeli territories for some time. Arafat would take in million and live like a king while doing nothing to improve the circumstances of the people he adopted as Palestinian.
The Arafat legacy was an education in Jewish hatred, Hitlerite fascist thuggery and squalor living conditions. Arafat and Fatah had the resources to either live with other Arab nations or even establish an Arab State called Palestine. Unfortunately Mohammedan hubris has put these so-called Palestinian Arabs into a displaced position. Surrounding Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Egyptians had a plan to divide the Israeli allotted land in 1948. History has shown that plan backfired. The Arab consensus afterward was to bottle up the displaced Arabs to give a future excuse for invasion after invasion of Israel.
While these so-called Palestinian Arabs were waiting for the invasions to repatriate them to lands not allocated to them, Arafat, Fatah and the PLO taught the hatred and robbed these people blind in the mean time.
Hamas is a generational product of learned hatred. Those that joined the Islamofascist terrorist Hamas were not corrupt, however due to a generation of hate teaching Hamas was just as bloodthirsty if not more so. Hamas killed Jews and performed the social duties that Fatah never performed.
Is it any surprise that Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections? NO!
Now Hamas is about to govern these poor hate trained people.
The Western powers are forcing Israel to accept these hate trained people as neighbors. What is the avowed end game of Hamas? According to their charter the goal is the complete annihilation of Israel and Jews.
Hmm.. I wonder who Hamas' close buddy will be? Could it be Iran, Syria and Hezbollah? O yes, Hamas' main financial backing is from the EU. Can anyone say world wide conflagration in process? That is what a Hamas power base will world civilization.
Read the 1988 Hamas Charter to understand why America and Israel cannot possibly deal with a group such as Hamas in its current format.
The catalyst for world conflagration in the making is what a Hamas government in the Palestinian Authority represents. All we need is an Arch Duke Ferdinand to set of world hostilities.
©1/26/06
Today Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections booting Fatah from the ruling elite. It is of no surprise. Fatah and the old Palestine Liberation Organization had been exploiting the Arabs living in these Israeli territories for some time. Arafat would take in million and live like a king while doing nothing to improve the circumstances of the people he adopted as Palestinian.
The Arafat legacy was an education in Jewish hatred, Hitlerite fascist thuggery and squalor living conditions. Arafat and Fatah had the resources to either live with other Arab nations or even establish an Arab State called Palestine. Unfortunately Mohammedan hubris has put these so-called Palestinian Arabs into a displaced position. Surrounding Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Egyptians had a plan to divide the Israeli allotted land in 1948. History has shown that plan backfired. The Arab consensus afterward was to bottle up the displaced Arabs to give a future excuse for invasion after invasion of Israel.
While these so-called Palestinian Arabs were waiting for the invasions to repatriate them to lands not allocated to them, Arafat, Fatah and the PLO taught the hatred and robbed these people blind in the mean time.
Hamas is a generational product of learned hatred. Those that joined the Islamofascist terrorist Hamas were not corrupt, however due to a generation of hate teaching Hamas was just as bloodthirsty if not more so. Hamas killed Jews and performed the social duties that Fatah never performed.
Is it any surprise that Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections? NO!
Now Hamas is about to govern these poor hate trained people.
The Western powers are forcing Israel to accept these hate trained people as neighbors. What is the avowed end game of Hamas? According to their charter the goal is the complete annihilation of Israel and Jews.
Hmm.. I wonder who Hamas' close buddy will be? Could it be Iran, Syria and Hezbollah? O yes, Hamas' main financial backing is from the EU. Can anyone say world wide conflagration in process? That is what a Hamas power base will world civilization.
Read the 1988 Hamas Charter to understand why America and Israel cannot possibly deal with a group such as Hamas in its current format.
The catalyst for world conflagration in the making is what a Hamas government in the Palestinian Authority represents. All we need is an Arch Duke Ferdinand to set of world hostilities.
Kofi & Kojo Annan Try To Buy Themselves Out of Scandal
Kojo Annan has offered to pay the import duties for the luxury vehicle he purchased under the diplomatic immunity of daddy - Kofi. This smacks of the appearance of yet another coverup relating to the oil-for-food scandal with Saddam Hussein and partners.
The mercedes in question has disapeared in a mysterious car accident over at the Ghana homeland. Volker had exonerated Kojo and Kofi from the bribe factor relating to the car, but even Volker's report smacks of some sort of international buddy system, in otherwords - BOGUS.
A quote from the Times of London:
The mercedes in question has disapeared in a mysterious car accident over at the Ghana homeland. Volker had exonerated Kojo and Kofi from the bribe factor relating to the car, but even Volker's report smacks of some sort of international buddy system, in otherwords - BOGUS.
A quote from the Times of London:
It also said that there was no evidence to sustain initial suspicions that the car was used as a bribe from a Swiss-based company, Cotecna Inspection, to Kofi Annan in return for a multimillion-dollar Iraqi Oil-for-Food contract.The Annan Father/Son team are a disgrace to the UN. It is this kind of exploitation should inspire The USA to set up different multilateral organization minus the corruption and more simpathetic to Western Cultural needs and interests. The UN is currently run like a Mohammedan fiefdom in which criminals make a ton of dough at the expense of Third World nations. The dough lines the pockets of dishonest corporations, despotic rules and Kojo and Kofi Annan.
Customs officials in Ghana said yesterday that they had received Kojo Annan’s offer but that the Attorney-General had not yet taken a decision on whether he would face criminal prosecution. According to Annie Anipa, an official in Accra, they were “waiting for him to come and pay”.
Hamas Win Unsettles Peace Process
I will let this article speak for itself. O gosh, I can't help it, I have to mention a few things. Hamas is a theocratic Islamofascist organization still very active in homocidal suicide bombings that kill Israelis. The avowed agenda of Hamas is the same as the Iranian President Ahmadinejad: wiping Israel off the map. I cannot possibly see how Israel can allow a State with such hatred to be establish as their next door neighbor. Here is the article:
-------------------------
Hamas Win Unsettles Peace Process
By SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press
January 26, 2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Hamas won a huge majority in parliamentary elections as Palestinian voters rejected the longtime rule of the Fatah Party, throwing the future of Mideast peacemaking into question, officials from both major parties said Thursday.
Palestinian leaders huddled to determine what role the Islamic militant group will play in governing the territories.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will ask Hamas to form the next government, with his defeated Fatah Party weighing whether to form a partnership or serve in the opposition.
A Hamas government, without Fatah as a moderating force, would greatly complicate Abbas' efforts to restart peace talks. The Islamic militants, who carried out dozens of suicide bombings and seek Israel's destruction, have said they oppose peace talks and will not disarm. Israel and the United States refuse to deal with Hamas.
The top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal told Abbas his group is ready for a political partnership, Hamas said.
Fatah legislator Saeb Erekat said the party does not want to join a Hamas government.
"We will be a loyal opposition and rebuild the party," Erekat said, after meeting with Abbas.
But Nabil Shaath, another senior Fatah lawmaker, said the party's leadership would make a decision later in the day.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Abbas to praise Palestinian democracy and say the United States supports him and his policies, his office said.
"She asserted to him that U.S. administration will continue supporting the elected president and his policies," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an Abbas aide.
Abbas was elected separately a year ago and remains president. However, the Palestinian leader has said he would resign if he could no longer pursue his peace agenda. The Cabinet and legislature must approve any major initiative by Abbas, giving Hamas tremendous influence over peace moves.
Aides said he planned a major speech Thursday night, after final results are announced by the Central Election Commission.
Acknowledging the Hamas victory, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his Cabinet ministers resigned Thursday hours before official results were released.
"This is the choice of the people. It should be respected," Qureia said. "If it's true, then the president should ask Hamas to form a new government." The Cabinet remained in office in a caretaker capacity.
International observers, led by former President Carter, said the elections were "well administered."
Hamas supporters streamed into the streets to celebrate victory. In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas loyalists shot in the air and handed out candy. Others honked horns and waved Hamas flags from car windows.
Israeli officials declined comment, but senior security officials gathered Thursday to discuss the results. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert scheduled talks with senior officials later in the day.
Olmert said Wednesday, before Hamas claimed victory, that Israel cannot trust a Palestinian leadership in which the Islamic group has a role.
"Israel can't accept a situation in which Hamas, in its present form as a terror group calling for the destruction of Israel, will be part of the Palestinian Authority without disarming," Olmert said in a statement issued by his office.
President Bush told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the United States will not deal with Hamas until it renounces its position calling for the destruction of Israel.
Reactions to the Hamas victory streamed in from around the world. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, according to news reports, called it a "very, very, very bad result." Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU external relations commissioner, said Hamas must be "ready to work for peace" with Israel if it joins the Palestinian government.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan congratulated the Palestinian people on the peaceful legislative elections, which he said was an important step toward a Palestinian state.
Hamas capitalized on widespread discontent with years of Fatah corruption and ineffectiveness. Much of its campaign focused on internal Palestinian issues, while playing down the conflict with Israel.
Before the election, Hamas had suggested it would be content as a junior partner in the next government, thus avoiding a decision on its relationship with Israel.
Throughout the campaign, leaders sent mixed signals, hinting they could be open to some sort of accommodation with Israel. Its apparent victory will now force it to take a clearer position on key issues, including whether to abandon its violent ideology.
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas candidate who won election in the northern Gaza Strip, said peace talks and recognition of Israel are "not on our agenda" but the group is ready for a partnership — presumably with Abbas.
Palestinian election officials confirmed early Thursday that Hamas had won a large majority of the seats up for grabs in electoral districts in the West Bank and Gaza. It was the first time Hamas has contested a parliamentary vote.
Half the seats in Wednesday's parliament vote were chosen on a national list and the other half by districts. While the national voting appeared to be close, election officials said Hamas had won a large majority in the district races. Hamas apparently took advantage of divisions in Fatah; the long-ruling party fielded multiple candidates in many districts, splitting the Fatah vote.
Initial exit polls had forecast a slight edge for Fatah, with Hamas coming in a strong second. The polls predicted that neither party would have a majority and would have to rely on smaller parties to form a coalition.
However, on Thursday morning, Hamas officials said the group had won up to 75 seats giving it a solid majority in the 132-member parliament.
Officials in Fatah conceded that Hamas had won at least 70 seats, or enough to rule alone. They spoke on condition of anonymity because counting in some districts was continuing.
Palestinian pollsters were at a loss to explain the discrepancy between the exit polls and the reality. It may have been partly due to a reluctance by some voters to admit to pollsters that they were abandoning the ruling party.
Also, the errors appeared especially glaring in the district races, where smaller numbers of voters were polled.
Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, who apparently was re-elected on a moderate platform, said the Hamas victory was a dramatic turning point. She said she is concerned the militants will now impose their fundamentalist social agenda and lead the Palestinians into international isolation.
She said Fatah's corruption, Israel's tough measures and international indifference to the plight of the Palestinians were to blame for Hamas' strong showing.
Washington miscalculated in pushing for the vote, as part of its pro-democracy campaign in the Arab world, she said. "The Americans insisted on having the election now, so they have to respect the results of the election, as we all do," she said.
Israel has repeatedly asked Abbas to force Hamas and other militant groups to disarm but Abbas has refused, warning such an act could cause civil war. Hamas has committed dozens of suicide bombings against Israel.
Turnout for Wednesday's vote was heavy, with nearly 78 percent of 1.3 million eligible voters casting ballots.
----------------------------
This article came to my attention via a Christian Email list to which I belong.
FRONT PAGE PROPHETIC HEADLINE NEWS:
Sound An Alarm
-------------------------
Hamas Win Unsettles Peace Process
By SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press
January 26, 2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Hamas won a huge majority in parliamentary elections as Palestinian voters rejected the longtime rule of the Fatah Party, throwing the future of Mideast peacemaking into question, officials from both major parties said Thursday.
Palestinian leaders huddled to determine what role the Islamic militant group will play in governing the territories.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will ask Hamas to form the next government, with his defeated Fatah Party weighing whether to form a partnership or serve in the opposition.
A Hamas government, without Fatah as a moderating force, would greatly complicate Abbas' efforts to restart peace talks. The Islamic militants, who carried out dozens of suicide bombings and seek Israel's destruction, have said they oppose peace talks and will not disarm. Israel and the United States refuse to deal with Hamas.
The top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal told Abbas his group is ready for a political partnership, Hamas said.
Fatah legislator Saeb Erekat said the party does not want to join a Hamas government.
"We will be a loyal opposition and rebuild the party," Erekat said, after meeting with Abbas.
But Nabil Shaath, another senior Fatah lawmaker, said the party's leadership would make a decision later in the day.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Abbas to praise Palestinian democracy and say the United States supports him and his policies, his office said.
"She asserted to him that U.S. administration will continue supporting the elected president and his policies," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an Abbas aide.
Abbas was elected separately a year ago and remains president. However, the Palestinian leader has said he would resign if he could no longer pursue his peace agenda. The Cabinet and legislature must approve any major initiative by Abbas, giving Hamas tremendous influence over peace moves.
Aides said he planned a major speech Thursday night, after final results are announced by the Central Election Commission.
Acknowledging the Hamas victory, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his Cabinet ministers resigned Thursday hours before official results were released.
"This is the choice of the people. It should be respected," Qureia said. "If it's true, then the president should ask Hamas to form a new government." The Cabinet remained in office in a caretaker capacity.
International observers, led by former President Carter, said the elections were "well administered."
Hamas supporters streamed into the streets to celebrate victory. In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas loyalists shot in the air and handed out candy. Others honked horns and waved Hamas flags from car windows.
Israeli officials declined comment, but senior security officials gathered Thursday to discuss the results. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert scheduled talks with senior officials later in the day.
Olmert said Wednesday, before Hamas claimed victory, that Israel cannot trust a Palestinian leadership in which the Islamic group has a role.
"Israel can't accept a situation in which Hamas, in its present form as a terror group calling for the destruction of Israel, will be part of the Palestinian Authority without disarming," Olmert said in a statement issued by his office.
President Bush told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the United States will not deal with Hamas until it renounces its position calling for the destruction of Israel.
Reactions to the Hamas victory streamed in from around the world. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, according to news reports, called it a "very, very, very bad result." Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU external relations commissioner, said Hamas must be "ready to work for peace" with Israel if it joins the Palestinian government.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan congratulated the Palestinian people on the peaceful legislative elections, which he said was an important step toward a Palestinian state.
Hamas capitalized on widespread discontent with years of Fatah corruption and ineffectiveness. Much of its campaign focused on internal Palestinian issues, while playing down the conflict with Israel.
Before the election, Hamas had suggested it would be content as a junior partner in the next government, thus avoiding a decision on its relationship with Israel.
Throughout the campaign, leaders sent mixed signals, hinting they could be open to some sort of accommodation with Israel. Its apparent victory will now force it to take a clearer position on key issues, including whether to abandon its violent ideology.
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas candidate who won election in the northern Gaza Strip, said peace talks and recognition of Israel are "not on our agenda" but the group is ready for a partnership — presumably with Abbas.
Palestinian election officials confirmed early Thursday that Hamas had won a large majority of the seats up for grabs in electoral districts in the West Bank and Gaza. It was the first time Hamas has contested a parliamentary vote.
Half the seats in Wednesday's parliament vote were chosen on a national list and the other half by districts. While the national voting appeared to be close, election officials said Hamas had won a large majority in the district races. Hamas apparently took advantage of divisions in Fatah; the long-ruling party fielded multiple candidates in many districts, splitting the Fatah vote.
Initial exit polls had forecast a slight edge for Fatah, with Hamas coming in a strong second. The polls predicted that neither party would have a majority and would have to rely on smaller parties to form a coalition.
However, on Thursday morning, Hamas officials said the group had won up to 75 seats giving it a solid majority in the 132-member parliament.
Officials in Fatah conceded that Hamas had won at least 70 seats, or enough to rule alone. They spoke on condition of anonymity because counting in some districts was continuing.
Palestinian pollsters were at a loss to explain the discrepancy between the exit polls and the reality. It may have been partly due to a reluctance by some voters to admit to pollsters that they were abandoning the ruling party.
Also, the errors appeared especially glaring in the district races, where smaller numbers of voters were polled.
Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, who apparently was re-elected on a moderate platform, said the Hamas victory was a dramatic turning point. She said she is concerned the militants will now impose their fundamentalist social agenda and lead the Palestinians into international isolation.
She said Fatah's corruption, Israel's tough measures and international indifference to the plight of the Palestinians were to blame for Hamas' strong showing.
Washington miscalculated in pushing for the vote, as part of its pro-democracy campaign in the Arab world, she said. "The Americans insisted on having the election now, so they have to respect the results of the election, as we all do," she said.
Israel has repeatedly asked Abbas to force Hamas and other militant groups to disarm but Abbas has refused, warning such an act could cause civil war. Hamas has committed dozens of suicide bombings against Israel.
Turnout for Wednesday's vote was heavy, with nearly 78 percent of 1.3 million eligible voters casting ballots.
----------------------------
This article came to my attention via a Christian Email list to which I belong.
FRONT PAGE PROPHETIC HEADLINE NEWS:
Sound An Alarm
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
OUR GOSPEL HAS NO TEETH
Robert and Joyce Ricciardelli operate a ministry called Visionary Advancement Strategies International. The ministry is based in the Seattle metropolitan area (so not necessarily Seattle). I am from the great Pacific Northwest myself so I have an affinity valid Christian ministry from my home state ( I currently live in Oklahoma).
Ricciardelli's email list sent me this excerpt from a book entitled, "How Saved Are You." The book is by Dr. Michael L. Brown. The excerpt challenges what kind of path with Christ we as Christians are walking.
It is an incredible and thought provoking article, enjoy:
----------------------------------
OUR GOSPEL HAS NO TEETH
Every year, more than ten thousand believers are being martyred. That’s right. More than 10,000 people who proclaim Jesus as Lord are being put to death every year. How can this possibly be? Even if we say that this figure is too high (some experts claim that it’s far too low!); even if it includes believers killed through indiscriminate terrorist attacks, as well as people who were murdered more for political reasons than spiritual reasons; even if there are only one thousand believers being martyred a year, this figure is still astounding to the American Christian mind.
Here in America, if one believer was martyred it would produce an outrage from coast to coast. It would shake up the people of God. It would make the headlines of every newspaper in the country. We’d probably even make a movie about it! It would be a national event.
Then what’s the difference between America and Iraq (where Muslims who convert can be killed on the spot), or between our country and Albania (where believers have been sealed in barrels and thrown out to sea)? Why is there virtually no persecution here? It is true that we are different than the Marxist and Islamic nations. Religious liberty for us is a constitutional right. We can evangelize and preach to our heart’s content. And we have some godly people in our government. But is the United States a “Christian” nation?
Hardly!
We have the highest level of teenage drug abuse in any industrialized nation as well as the highest divorce rate. We are by far the world’s largest manufacturer of beer and the third greatest consumer of alcohol per capita. “Christian” America has some of the world’s most liberal abortion laws -- we have legally murdered twenty-five million little ones since 1973 [as of 1990; the number as of 2005 is forty-five million], now killing forty-two babies for every 100 live births. Organized, public prayer in our schools is against the law, our children’s textbooks honor Buddha and Mohammed, and many cynical, sarcastic professors provide our “higher education.” The liberal media gives our people the news, and now our grocery stores peddle smut. Magazines which would have been hard to come by a few decades ago because of their sexual content are now placed on check-out counters for our children to see! We are not a “Christian” nation!
We have annual parades celebrating homosexual and lesbian behavior, and not even AIDS has slowed us down. In fact, when one congressman was recently exposed by his male prostitute companion, Congress was hesitant to try to remove him. Why? Because too many other senators were guilty of similar perversions! And all this among the elected officials governing our land, this “one nation under God.”
Oh yes -- thank God for America! Our country is one of the greatest countries that has ever existed, and we have so much to give. But remember -- it is not so much Communism or Islam that stands against the gospel -- it is the world. And America is of the world.
Why is it then that God’s people suffer virtually no persecution here? Because our gospel has no teeth! It hardly exposes sin in the Body, let alone in the world. How are we shining the light? How are we confronting the world with the righteousness of God? How are we bringing a shaking to our society? Why do we hardly make anyone uncomfortable anymore?
The fact is, when we do poke the devil in the eye by protesting the murder of innocent babies, or by exposing the evils of pornography, the enemy rages and roars. We have dared to invade his guarded territory, and he doesn’t like it one bit. But this is the exception, not the rule. The devil is still sitting safe and secure. He sees how ineffectual most of our words and actions are. And he sees how almost all of our ministry endeavors are designed to build up our own lives, not touch the world. Are we merely fattening ourselves for slaughter?
As American believers we have corporately spent hundreds of millions of dollars on our own edification while foreign workers could have evangelized hundreds of millions of their own unreached countrymen with the financial crumbs that fall from our tables. And to add insult to injury, despite all our efforts, our ministry to ourselves has left us inactive, passive, and pathetically comfortable in a fallen, dying society. Is it any wonder that Satan is not afraid of our big talk? It hasn’t shaken the church. How can it shake the world?
The last few decades have seen a deluge of radio and television ministries. But according to every criterion of decency and morality, our national standard is down. What good has all our preaching done?
Lots of young people want “ministries.” They are looking for opportunities to share the Scriptures. Well, there are plenty of street corners throughout our cities in need of young preachers with a message! God knows -- we don’t need more ministers serving our connoisseur congregations the latest in gourmet Word! We need to get out where the action is. Then we’ll see some results. And then the sparks will fly.
Take an example from the secular world. In 1989, when the United States government began working with Columbia to apprehend and extradite Columbia’s big drug dealers, the repercussions were intense. The drug lords responded with wholesale violence -- blowing up planes, murdering newspaper reporters, kidnapping innocent civilians, and bombing police headquarters. Why? Because they were being brought to account; their lifestyle was being threatened.
It is the same with the gospel. When we tell people that they are sinners, and that there is a consequence to their actions; that one day they will be judged for their deeds; that without doubt, a guilty verdict will come -- people get enraged! But when all we say is “Only believe!” -- no repentance, no commitment, no change of life required -- why should there be any offense? How are we holding anyone accountable? How are we convicting them of their sin? We are simply not preaching the whole counsel of God. If we were, with so much media exposure, the American people would be people trembling in their boots!
What if Paul and Peter were alive today and ministering in the United States? Wouldn’t they be persecuted? Of course they would! Why? Because they would be a threat to the devil’s operation. They would be making trouble for the powers of darkness. And they would be disturbing the ungodly living in sin.
Look at the Book of Acts. The apostles were beaten and stoned by idolaters and imprisoned by hypocritical religious authorities. Why? Because their message was a menace to the kingdom of darkness. It had an adverse effect on business!
Persecution arises when the gospel is a threat to a degenerate, perverted society and a cold, formalistic religious leadership. Good business for the kingdom of God means bad business for the devil. Of this we can rest assured: if we were making real inroads into Satan’s empire, we would be feeling his heat. Instead we have become one with the world and one with the religious establishment. That’s why we receive virtually no persecution from either.
Paul’s message so effected the people of Ephesus that local idol sales dropped sharply. It led to a huge riot in the city because the silversmiths and craftsmen were afraid they would go bankrupt (Acts 19). But today in our great nation we have the strangest of occurrences: “idol sales” and Bible sales are both on the increase. Although lots of people are getting “saved”, there doesn’t seem to be much less sinning! Our lives are so intertwined with this corrupt world that we can bring no holy standard to it.
When the prophetic priest Girolamo Savonarola preached in Florence five hundred years ago, his message sent shock-waves through the whole city. “His sermons ‘caused such terror and alarm, such sobbing and tears that people passed through the streets without speaking, more dead than alive’ as he prophesied coming judgment on the church and the country” (Winkie Pratney, quoting Harold Fischer). And his only weapon was words.
“But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8). It was not long before Savonarola was imprisoned, tortured, and executed -- but not until Italy was confronted with the truth. May God give us a whole generation of fire-tongued, brokenhearted, holy men and women of the Spirit, to shatter this world’s security by the power of the Word. Oh, for the sharp, piercing sword of truth!
When Stephen accused the religious leaders of his day of being stiff-necked and hardhearted, “they were furious and gnashed their teeth” (Acts 7:54). But today we are making no one mad. Our messages put people to sleep rather than make them weep; they are calculated to win men’s praise, not provoke their rage. Who are we confronting today? We have made our peace with the religious system.
We are really not much different than the “dead” church. We go to service on Sunday mornings, attend a mid-week Bible study or prayer meeting, and leave our religion inside the sanctuary doors (if we’re serious enough to bring it home with us, we keep it locked in our houses!). Who in the world would want to persecute us? We are too harmless and mild.
Listen to the fiery words uttered in England by Catherine Booth over one-hundred years ago:
How can we argue with this? The Word is perfectly clear:
There is no getting away from the plain sense of these verses: if we were living godly lives in the full sense of the biblical word, we would be persecuted. If we did not belong to the world, just as Jesus did not belong to the world, we would be hated as He was hated.
The people of the world today are still rejecting the Son of God. Why aren’t they rejecting us?
Michael L. Brown, Ph.D., is president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina and director of the Coalition of Conscience, an association of secular and religious leaders working together for moral and cultural revolution in America.
The Ricciardelli's have a concept Concept Paper (PDF file) that demonstrates a ministry plan to use Christian capitalism in foriegn nations to bring the Gospel in other lands. If you are interested read the Concepte Paper then go to their website to contact Ricciardellis by email.
Here is a short summary:
The equip Vision is to equip believers to transform societies:
Equipping—providing practical, proven frameworks and tools.
Targeting Marketplace Believers—who are the next wave of missionaries to all cities.
To Transform—God is in the transformation business. The prize that he won for the price that he paid is transformation, not just of individuals, but of…
Societies—with the words “Go into all the world…” Jesus gave us a mandate to change whole ethnic groups, starting with individuals and households, then extending to whole communities and nations.
Ricciardelli's email list sent me this excerpt from a book entitled, "How Saved Are You." The book is by Dr. Michael L. Brown. The excerpt challenges what kind of path with Christ we as Christians are walking.
It is an incredible and thought provoking article, enjoy:
----------------------------------
OUR GOSPEL HAS NO TEETH
Every year, more than ten thousand believers are being martyred. That’s right. More than 10,000 people who proclaim Jesus as Lord are being put to death every year. How can this possibly be? Even if we say that this figure is too high (some experts claim that it’s far too low!); even if it includes believers killed through indiscriminate terrorist attacks, as well as people who were murdered more for political reasons than spiritual reasons; even if there are only one thousand believers being martyred a year, this figure is still astounding to the American Christian mind.
Here in America, if one believer was martyred it would produce an outrage from coast to coast. It would shake up the people of God. It would make the headlines of every newspaper in the country. We’d probably even make a movie about it! It would be a national event.
Then what’s the difference between America and Iraq (where Muslims who convert can be killed on the spot), or between our country and Albania (where believers have been sealed in barrels and thrown out to sea)? Why is there virtually no persecution here? It is true that we are different than the Marxist and Islamic nations. Religious liberty for us is a constitutional right. We can evangelize and preach to our heart’s content. And we have some godly people in our government. But is the United States a “Christian” nation?
Hardly!
We have the highest level of teenage drug abuse in any industrialized nation as well as the highest divorce rate. We are by far the world’s largest manufacturer of beer and the third greatest consumer of alcohol per capita. “Christian” America has some of the world’s most liberal abortion laws -- we have legally murdered twenty-five million little ones since 1973 [as of 1990; the number as of 2005 is forty-five million], now killing forty-two babies for every 100 live births. Organized, public prayer in our schools is against the law, our children’s textbooks honor Buddha and Mohammed, and many cynical, sarcastic professors provide our “higher education.” The liberal media gives our people the news, and now our grocery stores peddle smut. Magazines which would have been hard to come by a few decades ago because of their sexual content are now placed on check-out counters for our children to see! We are not a “Christian” nation!
We have annual parades celebrating homosexual and lesbian behavior, and not even AIDS has slowed us down. In fact, when one congressman was recently exposed by his male prostitute companion, Congress was hesitant to try to remove him. Why? Because too many other senators were guilty of similar perversions! And all this among the elected officials governing our land, this “one nation under God.”
Oh yes -- thank God for America! Our country is one of the greatest countries that has ever existed, and we have so much to give. But remember -- it is not so much Communism or Islam that stands against the gospel -- it is the world. And America is of the world.
Why is it then that God’s people suffer virtually no persecution here? Because our gospel has no teeth! It hardly exposes sin in the Body, let alone in the world. How are we shining the light? How are we confronting the world with the righteousness of God? How are we bringing a shaking to our society? Why do we hardly make anyone uncomfortable anymore?
The fact is, when we do poke the devil in the eye by protesting the murder of innocent babies, or by exposing the evils of pornography, the enemy rages and roars. We have dared to invade his guarded territory, and he doesn’t like it one bit. But this is the exception, not the rule. The devil is still sitting safe and secure. He sees how ineffectual most of our words and actions are. And he sees how almost all of our ministry endeavors are designed to build up our own lives, not touch the world. Are we merely fattening ourselves for slaughter?
As American believers we have corporately spent hundreds of millions of dollars on our own edification while foreign workers could have evangelized hundreds of millions of their own unreached countrymen with the financial crumbs that fall from our tables. And to add insult to injury, despite all our efforts, our ministry to ourselves has left us inactive, passive, and pathetically comfortable in a fallen, dying society. Is it any wonder that Satan is not afraid of our big talk? It hasn’t shaken the church. How can it shake the world?
The last few decades have seen a deluge of radio and television ministries. But according to every criterion of decency and morality, our national standard is down. What good has all our preaching done?
Lots of young people want “ministries.” They are looking for opportunities to share the Scriptures. Well, there are plenty of street corners throughout our cities in need of young preachers with a message! God knows -- we don’t need more ministers serving our connoisseur congregations the latest in gourmet Word! We need to get out where the action is. Then we’ll see some results. And then the sparks will fly.
Take an example from the secular world. In 1989, when the United States government began working with Columbia to apprehend and extradite Columbia’s big drug dealers, the repercussions were intense. The drug lords responded with wholesale violence -- blowing up planes, murdering newspaper reporters, kidnapping innocent civilians, and bombing police headquarters. Why? Because they were being brought to account; their lifestyle was being threatened.
It is the same with the gospel. When we tell people that they are sinners, and that there is a consequence to their actions; that one day they will be judged for their deeds; that without doubt, a guilty verdict will come -- people get enraged! But when all we say is “Only believe!” -- no repentance, no commitment, no change of life required -- why should there be any offense? How are we holding anyone accountable? How are we convicting them of their sin? We are simply not preaching the whole counsel of God. If we were, with so much media exposure, the American people would be people trembling in their boots!
What if Paul and Peter were alive today and ministering in the United States? Wouldn’t they be persecuted? Of course they would! Why? Because they would be a threat to the devil’s operation. They would be making trouble for the powers of darkness. And they would be disturbing the ungodly living in sin.
Look at the Book of Acts. The apostles were beaten and stoned by idolaters and imprisoned by hypocritical religious authorities. Why? Because their message was a menace to the kingdom of darkness. It had an adverse effect on business!
Persecution arises when the gospel is a threat to a degenerate, perverted society and a cold, formalistic religious leadership. Good business for the kingdom of God means bad business for the devil. Of this we can rest assured: if we were making real inroads into Satan’s empire, we would be feeling his heat. Instead we have become one with the world and one with the religious establishment. That’s why we receive virtually no persecution from either.
Paul’s message so effected the people of Ephesus that local idol sales dropped sharply. It led to a huge riot in the city because the silversmiths and craftsmen were afraid they would go bankrupt (Acts 19). But today in our great nation we have the strangest of occurrences: “idol sales” and Bible sales are both on the increase. Although lots of people are getting “saved”, there doesn’t seem to be much less sinning! Our lives are so intertwined with this corrupt world that we can bring no holy standard to it.
When the prophetic priest Girolamo Savonarola preached in Florence five hundred years ago, his message sent shock-waves through the whole city. “His sermons ‘caused such terror and alarm, such sobbing and tears that people passed through the streets without speaking, more dead than alive’ as he prophesied coming judgment on the church and the country” (Winkie Pratney, quoting Harold Fischer). And his only weapon was words.
“But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8). It was not long before Savonarola was imprisoned, tortured, and executed -- but not until Italy was confronted with the truth. May God give us a whole generation of fire-tongued, brokenhearted, holy men and women of the Spirit, to shatter this world’s security by the power of the Word. Oh, for the sharp, piercing sword of truth!
When Stephen accused the religious leaders of his day of being stiff-necked and hardhearted, “they were furious and gnashed their teeth” (Acts 7:54). But today we are making no one mad. Our messages put people to sleep rather than make them weep; they are calculated to win men’s praise, not provoke their rage. Who are we confronting today? We have made our peace with the religious system.
We are really not much different than the “dead” church. We go to service on Sunday mornings, attend a mid-week Bible study or prayer meeting, and leave our religion inside the sanctuary doors (if we’re serious enough to bring it home with us, we keep it locked in our houses!). Who in the world would want to persecute us? We are too harmless and mild.
Listen to the fiery words uttered in England by Catherine Booth over one-hundred years ago:
Opposition! It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this day that it provokes so little opposition. If there were no other evidence of it being wrong, I should know from that. When the Church and the world can jog along together comfortably, you may be sure there is something wrong. The world has not altered. Its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was, and if Christians were equally faithful and devoted to the Lord, and separated from the world, living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did. It is the Church that has altered, not the world.
How can we argue with this? The Word is perfectly clear:
Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12).
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: “No servant is greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also (John 15:18-20).
There is no getting away from the plain sense of these verses: if we were living godly lives in the full sense of the biblical word, we would be persecuted. If we did not belong to the world, just as Jesus did not belong to the world, we would be hated as He was hated.
The people of the world today are still rejecting the Son of God. Why aren’t they rejecting us?
Michael L. Brown, Ph.D., is president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina and director of the Coalition of Conscience, an association of secular and religious leaders working together for moral and cultural revolution in America.
The Ricciardelli's have a concept Concept Paper (PDF file) that demonstrates a ministry plan to use Christian capitalism in foriegn nations to bring the Gospel in other lands. If you are interested read the Concepte Paper then go to their website to contact Ricciardellis by email.
Here is a short summary:
The equip Vision is to equip believers to transform societies:
Equipping—providing practical, proven frameworks and tools.
Targeting Marketplace Believers—who are the next wave of missionaries to all cities.
To Transform—God is in the transformation business. The prize that he won for the price that he paid is transformation, not just of individuals, but of…
Societies—with the words “Go into all the world…” Jesus gave us a mandate to change whole ethnic groups, starting with individuals and households, then extending to whole communities and nations.
East Timor atrocities report presented
A UN commission entitled the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) has compiled a 2,000 page document in which it is determined that over 100,000 East Timorese met their death during a 24 year Indonesian occupation. The East Timor President presented the document to Kofi Annan.
Now here is a thought: East Timor is 90% Roman Catholic and Indonesian is the largest Mohammedan nation in the world. Is this yet another example of the The Religion of Peace exterminating what they consider the kafir?
---------------------------------------
Healing the wounds: East Timor atrocities report presented
January 21, 2006
The Sydney Morning Herald
East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has presented UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a long-awaited report documenting atrocities committed in his country under Indonesia's 24-year occupation.
The 2000-page report, compiled by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), established that at least 102,800 Timorese, roughly 10 per cent of the territory's current population, died as a result of the Indonesian occupation.
It was the fruit of more than three years of intensive work during which more than 7000 victims testified on human rights violations committed in East Timor between April 1974 and October 1999.
Speaking to reporters after his talks with Annan on Friday, Gusmao said the main objective of the report was to establish the truth of what happened and to ensure the international community acts so it does not happen again.
"We accept the results of the report as a way to heal the wounds," he said. "The figures (of casualties) can be disputed. But it is not so important to look at the figures. It is more important to look at the lessons."
"We don't advocate punitive justice but restorative justice," Gusmao, citing as a model South Africa, where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed the brutal excesses of apartheid and for the first time gave mainly black victims a voice.
The US-based East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN) urged the UN to publicise and discuss the findings in a bid to prevent a repeat of what happened in East Timor elsewhere and help find justice for the victims.
"Widespread understanding of the truth commission's report and recommendations is essential in charting a course of justice for victims," John Miller, ETAN's national coordinator, said in a statement.
The CAVR report blamed the deaths, most of them due to hunger and illness, on the policies of Indonesia's military toward East Timor's civilian population.
The Indonesian security forces "consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war", the report said.
CAVR had submitted its report to the East Timorese government months ago, but Gusmao kept it secret until now for fear of irritating Indonesia, its powerful neighbour.
Indonesia annexed East Timor with the tacit approval of major powers but the brutality of the occupation turned world opinion against Jakarta and led to a vote for independence in 1999.
The vote sparked bloody reprisals by Indonesian-backed militia groups who killed hundreds of people before an international force restored order.
East Timor became independent in 2002 and remains Asia's poorest country.
Now here is a thought: East Timor is 90% Roman Catholic and Indonesian is the largest Mohammedan nation in the world. Is this yet another example of the The Religion of Peace exterminating what they consider the kafir?
---------------------------------------
Healing the wounds: East Timor atrocities report presented
January 21, 2006
The Sydney Morning Herald
East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has presented UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a long-awaited report documenting atrocities committed in his country under Indonesia's 24-year occupation.
The 2000-page report, compiled by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), established that at least 102,800 Timorese, roughly 10 per cent of the territory's current population, died as a result of the Indonesian occupation.
It was the fruit of more than three years of intensive work during which more than 7000 victims testified on human rights violations committed in East Timor between April 1974 and October 1999.
Speaking to reporters after his talks with Annan on Friday, Gusmao said the main objective of the report was to establish the truth of what happened and to ensure the international community acts so it does not happen again.
"We accept the results of the report as a way to heal the wounds," he said. "The figures (of casualties) can be disputed. But it is not so important to look at the figures. It is more important to look at the lessons."
"We don't advocate punitive justice but restorative justice," Gusmao, citing as a model South Africa, where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed the brutal excesses of apartheid and for the first time gave mainly black victims a voice.
The US-based East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN) urged the UN to publicise and discuss the findings in a bid to prevent a repeat of what happened in East Timor elsewhere and help find justice for the victims.
"Widespread understanding of the truth commission's report and recommendations is essential in charting a course of justice for victims," John Miller, ETAN's national coordinator, said in a statement.
The CAVR report blamed the deaths, most of them due to hunger and illness, on the policies of Indonesia's military toward East Timor's civilian population.
The Indonesian security forces "consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war", the report said.
CAVR had submitted its report to the East Timorese government months ago, but Gusmao kept it secret until now for fear of irritating Indonesia, its powerful neighbour.
Indonesia annexed East Timor with the tacit approval of major powers but the brutality of the occupation turned world opinion against Jakarta and led to a vote for independence in 1999.
The vote sparked bloody reprisals by Indonesian-backed militia groups who killed hundreds of people before an international force restored order.
East Timor became independent in 2002 and remains Asia's poorest country.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
The Road to Tehran... Assad’s fall will have a domino effect.
The Shi'ite axis of Islamofascism is coalescing into a deluded unit of violence. We are talking Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and any various shi'ite terrorists under the financial aegis of Mahdi crazed Iran. Statistically this group has to know on paper there is nothing but death and destruction to be gained. So what is the end game the Islamofascists are attempting to visualize?
For Iran it is backword spirituality fomented by the delusions that if world conflageration is intiated, then the hidden 12th Imam - the Mahdi - will come to deliver Mohammedanism. This Imam is the last bloodline descendant of none other than the Grand Pubah himself - Mohammed. Shi'ites believe he is the Messiah like figure that will unite Mohammedanism (and the Sunnis whether they like or not) to bring world peace so-to-speak. I say "so-to-speak" because this envisioned Mohammedan world state of peace is actually a totalitarian fascist death cult that will command absolute allegiance or off with your heads. This is not exactly a peaceful situation ladened with rights and liberty for non-Mohammedans. It is a Mohammedan uberman dream that belittles the rest of humanity.
Enough of my personal opinion, read Michael Ledeen:
------------------------
Michael Ledeen
1/23/06
NRO
The Syrian-Iranian terror alliance goes back a long time, at least to the mid-1980s, when Hezbollah was created to wage terror war against American and French forces in Lebanon. There was a neat division of labor: Syria controlled the territory, and Iran ran the organization. Hezbollah's murderous successes are legendary, from the suicide bombings against the French and American Marine barracks to a similar operation against the American embassy, all in Beirut, to massive bombings of Jewish targets in Argentina. That alliance remains intact, and provides the base of the terror war in Iraq today.
So it should not have surprised anyone that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew to Damascus last Thursday to meet with Bashar Assad, nor was it surprising that among his entourage were key Iranian officials in charge of Hezbollah, probably including the operational leader, Imad Mughniyah. And in case our Middle East analysts were in doubt about the mission of the Iran-Syria partnership, a suicide bomber struck in Tel Aviv at about the same time Ahmadinejad and Assad were meeting.
A Weakening Grip
Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian blogger presently in the United States, summed up the intent of the two leaders as follows:
Assad had been hinting that he would be willing to cooperate with investigators, provided he and his family were given immunity, but the Bush administration has rejected any such deals, as Vice President Dick Cheney emphasized on his recent sortie to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both of whom had given signs of willingness to compromise. But following the Cheney trip, both governments took a tough line, and even Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League and a man who has given new meaning to the concept of appeasement of tyrants, said there would be no leniency with the murderers of Hariri. To add an exclamation point to this welcome show of American seriousness, the Treasury froze the bank accounts of the head of Syrian military intelligence, Bashar's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.
In short, the Assad family's grip on Syria is weakening, and this is welcome news indeed, both for the long-suffering Syrian people and for us. The Iranians are obviously desperate to keep Assad in power, and Hezbollah armed to the teeth. Should things go the other way, Iran would lose its principal ally in the war against us in Iraq. As is their wont, the Iranians have been paying others to do much of their dirtiest work, and they have awarded Assad tens of millions of dollars' worth of oil, as well as cash subsidies, to cover the costs of recruiting, training and transporting young jihadis, who move from Syria into the Iraqi battle space (and, according to Jane's, a serious publication, the Iranians have also sent some of their WMDs to Assad for safekeeping). That deadly flow has been considerably reduced in recent months, thanks to an extended campaign waged by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Anbar Province, and further along the Iraq/Syria border. The Syrians have accordingly sent radical Islamists into Lebanon, perhaps to link up with Hezbollah in a new jihad against Israel.
Should the jihadist traffic into Iraq and Lebanon cease, we and the Iraqis would be free to concentrate our attention on the Iranian border, especially in the oil-rich south, where Revolutionary Guards forces are very active, both to contain the anti-regime rage of the Ahwaz Arabs on the Iranian side of the border, and to infiltrate the Iraqi side, both in support of Zarqawi's terror network, and to agitate for an Islamic republic in the Shiite region around Basra. The Iranians have been hyperactive in that area ever since the fall of Saddam, and it would be a very good thing to start to turn the tables on them. For, just as many Iraqi oil fields, and millions of Iraqi Shiites, are vulnerable to Iranian maneuver, the reverse is also true: the bulk of the Iranian oil fields, and millions of Iranians, are vulnerable. And the strategic balance is definitely in our favor.
The population of the Iranian oil region is largely Arab, and they have been brutally oppressed and ethnically cleansed by the mullahs. Tehran has gobbled up thousands of square kilometers of land on the pretext of building industrial parks or expanding military facilities, and the locals have been protesting on and off for many months. As I wrote last week, the regime is so nervous about disorder in the spinal cord of the Iranian economy that they sent Lebanese Hezbollahis and members of the Badr Corps (Shiites of Iraqi origin trained in Iran for the past two decades and then sent into Iraq to fight the Coalition).
In short, the Iranians have a lot to worry about, regardless of whether or not they have atomic bombs. Indeed, as I have long argued, the mullahs have made an enormous strategic miscalculation by going all-out for nukes, because it has made regime change in Iran an absolute imperative for the West. The closer they get to their first nuclear test, the closer the mullahs approach judgement day, and not in the way the fanatics around Khamenei and Ahmadinejad believe. They will not face the 12th Imam, but the harsh condemnation of their own people.
The mullahs have long seen this threat, and indeed the elevation of Ahmadinejad was a desperate throw of the dice to quash any and all revolutionary forces in the country. In recent weeks, Tehran forced the government of Dubai to cancel all live satellite TV broadcasts in the Persian language. Just a year ago, the mullahs had similarly intimidated the Dutch government, even though parliament in the Hague had appropriated funds for the project. In a little noted sequence of events, the Dutch won some big contracts in Iran shortly thereafter, and the Bush administration fined Dutch banks to the tune of eighty million euros for embargo-busting (do you ever wonder, as I do, that this tasty information has to be gleaned from Rooz Online?).
This is the usual practice of insecure tyrants (whose sense of doom is demonstrated by the ongoing exodus of money and talent from the country). They cannot risk the consequences of honest news reaching their people, and they run around like little mad hatters, sticking their thumbs in every crack in their ideological dykes. They are now shutting down NGOs, which, according to the hard-line publication Qods, the interior ministry accuses of planning to overthrow the regime. The mullahs want Islamic organizations, not independent ones, which might support civil liberties or elementary human rights. They want a total monopoly on the flow of information inside the Islamic republic.
Power to the People
This situation is tailor-made for the Bush administration, if only it will support the Iranian people against the mullahs, and the Syrian people against the Assads. The Iranian people see the desperation of their rulers, and honest broadcasts into Iran will be welcome indeed. Support for the Ahwaz Arabs — provided we take care to stress that we have no interest in any separatist impulses, but seek to support all Iranians who wish to exercise their human rights — would also have considerable impact, as would support for the bus drivers' organization, recently savaged by the regime, which has thus far received moral support only from Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa. Perhaps the Labor Department might say a few words about the suppression of workers' organizations in Iran? And, for those millions of Iranians who do not fear the consequences of seeking the truth, we should be providing the tools of modern communications: phones, servers, laptops, phone cards, and so forth.
Meanwhile, we must increase our support for freedom in Syria. There are several new political organizations calling for Syrian freedom. Predictably, most of the organizers live outside the shadow of Assad's thumb, but they have held recent meetings in Europe with a surprising number of Syrian citizens, they are beginning to broadcast into the country, and many entrails and tea leaves suggest far more support for democratic revolution than the cynical old guys at State and CIA had believed possible. The administration should embrace all such organizations — it is not for us to pick Bashar's successor, that is the kind of old-Europe tactics best left to the futile Cartesian scheming of the Quai D'Orsay — and press hard for pulling the military fangs of Hezbollah, the sooner the better.
You can be sure that, as Assad collapses, the reverberations will reach Baghdad and Tehran. The Iraqis will gain the security they desperately need in order to advance their brave democratic project. And the Iranians, turbaned and bare-headed alike, will see the hour of their own freedom draw ever closer.
It sure beats drawing up a list of bombing targets, doesn't it?
— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute
For Iran it is backword spirituality fomented by the delusions that if world conflageration is intiated, then the hidden 12th Imam - the Mahdi - will come to deliver Mohammedanism. This Imam is the last bloodline descendant of none other than the Grand Pubah himself - Mohammed. Shi'ites believe he is the Messiah like figure that will unite Mohammedanism (and the Sunnis whether they like or not) to bring world peace so-to-speak. I say "so-to-speak" because this envisioned Mohammedan world state of peace is actually a totalitarian fascist death cult that will command absolute allegiance or off with your heads. This is not exactly a peaceful situation ladened with rights and liberty for non-Mohammedans. It is a Mohammedan uberman dream that belittles the rest of humanity.
Enough of my personal opinion, read Michael Ledeen:
------------------------
Michael Ledeen
1/23/06
NRO
The Syrian-Iranian terror alliance goes back a long time, at least to the mid-1980s, when Hezbollah was created to wage terror war against American and French forces in Lebanon. There was a neat division of labor: Syria controlled the territory, and Iran ran the organization. Hezbollah's murderous successes are legendary, from the suicide bombings against the French and American Marine barracks to a similar operation against the American embassy, all in Beirut, to massive bombings of Jewish targets in Argentina. That alliance remains intact, and provides the base of the terror war in Iraq today.
So it should not have surprised anyone that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew to Damascus last Thursday to meet with Bashar Assad, nor was it surprising that among his entourage were key Iranian officials in charge of Hezbollah, probably including the operational leader, Imad Mughniyah. And in case our Middle East analysts were in doubt about the mission of the Iran-Syria partnership, a suicide bomber struck in Tel Aviv at about the same time Ahmadinejad and Assad were meeting.
A Weakening Grip
Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian blogger presently in the United States, summed up the intent of the two leaders as follows:
The Iranians are concerned at signs of cracks in the edifice of the Assad regime, and are at pains to remind the Syrians that the destinies of the two tyrannical regimes are closely linked, and they must continue to make a common front against the destabilizing revolutionary forces unleashed on the region by the United States. Assad is now famously under pressure from unexpectedly honest U.N. investigations into the assassination of Rafik Hariri in Lebanon, and that pressure has intensified after the defection of former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, now openly calling for regime change in Damascus. Things are also a bit dicey for Assad in Lebanon, where there have been many calls for disarming Hezbollah.And so it happened just like we knew it would. Iranian President Ahmadinejad has just announced the formation of new alliance including Syria, Iran, rejectionist Palestinian groups, and Shia factions in Lebanon (in other words: Hezbollah).
The die seems to have finally been cast. The Shia Crescent has just been formalized and reconfigured into a living and breathing entity, with its own network of supports from among the secular nationalist movements and extremist Sunni groups, which simply have no other means of support at this stage.
Assad had been hinting that he would be willing to cooperate with investigators, provided he and his family were given immunity, but the Bush administration has rejected any such deals, as Vice President Dick Cheney emphasized on his recent sortie to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both of whom had given signs of willingness to compromise. But following the Cheney trip, both governments took a tough line, and even Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League and a man who has given new meaning to the concept of appeasement of tyrants, said there would be no leniency with the murderers of Hariri. To add an exclamation point to this welcome show of American seriousness, the Treasury froze the bank accounts of the head of Syrian military intelligence, Bashar's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.
In short, the Assad family's grip on Syria is weakening, and this is welcome news indeed, both for the long-suffering Syrian people and for us. The Iranians are obviously desperate to keep Assad in power, and Hezbollah armed to the teeth. Should things go the other way, Iran would lose its principal ally in the war against us in Iraq. As is their wont, the Iranians have been paying others to do much of their dirtiest work, and they have awarded Assad tens of millions of dollars' worth of oil, as well as cash subsidies, to cover the costs of recruiting, training and transporting young jihadis, who move from Syria into the Iraqi battle space (and, according to Jane's, a serious publication, the Iranians have also sent some of their WMDs to Assad for safekeeping). That deadly flow has been considerably reduced in recent months, thanks to an extended campaign waged by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Anbar Province, and further along the Iraq/Syria border. The Syrians have accordingly sent radical Islamists into Lebanon, perhaps to link up with Hezbollah in a new jihad against Israel.
Should the jihadist traffic into Iraq and Lebanon cease, we and the Iraqis would be free to concentrate our attention on the Iranian border, especially in the oil-rich south, where Revolutionary Guards forces are very active, both to contain the anti-regime rage of the Ahwaz Arabs on the Iranian side of the border, and to infiltrate the Iraqi side, both in support of Zarqawi's terror network, and to agitate for an Islamic republic in the Shiite region around Basra. The Iranians have been hyperactive in that area ever since the fall of Saddam, and it would be a very good thing to start to turn the tables on them. For, just as many Iraqi oil fields, and millions of Iraqi Shiites, are vulnerable to Iranian maneuver, the reverse is also true: the bulk of the Iranian oil fields, and millions of Iranians, are vulnerable. And the strategic balance is definitely in our favor.
The population of the Iranian oil region is largely Arab, and they have been brutally oppressed and ethnically cleansed by the mullahs. Tehran has gobbled up thousands of square kilometers of land on the pretext of building industrial parks or expanding military facilities, and the locals have been protesting on and off for many months. As I wrote last week, the regime is so nervous about disorder in the spinal cord of the Iranian economy that they sent Lebanese Hezbollahis and members of the Badr Corps (Shiites of Iraqi origin trained in Iran for the past two decades and then sent into Iraq to fight the Coalition).
In short, the Iranians have a lot to worry about, regardless of whether or not they have atomic bombs. Indeed, as I have long argued, the mullahs have made an enormous strategic miscalculation by going all-out for nukes, because it has made regime change in Iran an absolute imperative for the West. The closer they get to their first nuclear test, the closer the mullahs approach judgement day, and not in the way the fanatics around Khamenei and Ahmadinejad believe. They will not face the 12th Imam, but the harsh condemnation of their own people.
The mullahs have long seen this threat, and indeed the elevation of Ahmadinejad was a desperate throw of the dice to quash any and all revolutionary forces in the country. In recent weeks, Tehran forced the government of Dubai to cancel all live satellite TV broadcasts in the Persian language. Just a year ago, the mullahs had similarly intimidated the Dutch government, even though parliament in the Hague had appropriated funds for the project. In a little noted sequence of events, the Dutch won some big contracts in Iran shortly thereafter, and the Bush administration fined Dutch banks to the tune of eighty million euros for embargo-busting (do you ever wonder, as I do, that this tasty information has to be gleaned from Rooz Online?).
This is the usual practice of insecure tyrants (whose sense of doom is demonstrated by the ongoing exodus of money and talent from the country). They cannot risk the consequences of honest news reaching their people, and they run around like little mad hatters, sticking their thumbs in every crack in their ideological dykes. They are now shutting down NGOs, which, according to the hard-line publication Qods, the interior ministry accuses of planning to overthrow the regime. The mullahs want Islamic organizations, not independent ones, which might support civil liberties or elementary human rights. They want a total monopoly on the flow of information inside the Islamic republic.
Power to the People
This situation is tailor-made for the Bush administration, if only it will support the Iranian people against the mullahs, and the Syrian people against the Assads. The Iranian people see the desperation of their rulers, and honest broadcasts into Iran will be welcome indeed. Support for the Ahwaz Arabs — provided we take care to stress that we have no interest in any separatist impulses, but seek to support all Iranians who wish to exercise their human rights — would also have considerable impact, as would support for the bus drivers' organization, recently savaged by the regime, which has thus far received moral support only from Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa. Perhaps the Labor Department might say a few words about the suppression of workers' organizations in Iran? And, for those millions of Iranians who do not fear the consequences of seeking the truth, we should be providing the tools of modern communications: phones, servers, laptops, phone cards, and so forth.
Meanwhile, we must increase our support for freedom in Syria. There are several new political organizations calling for Syrian freedom. Predictably, most of the organizers live outside the shadow of Assad's thumb, but they have held recent meetings in Europe with a surprising number of Syrian citizens, they are beginning to broadcast into the country, and many entrails and tea leaves suggest far more support for democratic revolution than the cynical old guys at State and CIA had believed possible. The administration should embrace all such organizations — it is not for us to pick Bashar's successor, that is the kind of old-Europe tactics best left to the futile Cartesian scheming of the Quai D'Orsay — and press hard for pulling the military fangs of Hezbollah, the sooner the better.
You can be sure that, as Assad collapses, the reverberations will reach Baghdad and Tehran. The Iraqis will gain the security they desperately need in order to advance their brave democratic project. And the Iranians, turbaned and bare-headed alike, will see the hour of their own freedom draw ever closer.
It sure beats drawing up a list of bombing targets, doesn't it?
— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute
'Honor killings' on rise in Europe
The dishonorable practice of honor killings are on the rise among Mohammedans in Europe. This particular story is a case in which a young Mohammedan woman living in Berlin Germany was forced back to Turkey to marry an older cousin. The forced and arranged marriage resulted in a child. She ran away from the life of female chattel and returned to Berlin with her infant child.
Just as she was about to complete a trade school, her three brother lured with the lie of family reconciliation. Let's see how did I read that? Oh yes, one brother bought the gun, another brother made the lieing phone call and the last brother pulled the trigger. And there you go, in the German capital of Berlin Mohammedan family honor was upheld with horrific fratricidal termination of a sister's life.
All hail the religion of peace:
---------------------------------
January 20, 2006
Rage4Truth
ORIGINAL SOURCE
BERLIN -- Life was just starting to look up for 23-year-old Hatun Surucu when the bullets cut her down.
After four years of grueling courses in vocational school, coupled with the demands of single motherhood, she was only weeks away from receiving certification as an electrician, a trade that would give her the independence she desperately craved.
It had been a rough road: Eight years earlier, her parents, Turkish immigrants, had yanked Surucu from eighth grade, bundled her off to Istanbul, and forced her to marry an older cousin. Miserable in Turkey, she had fled her husband and returned to Berlin with her infant son, determined to make her own way as a modern woman in a secular society, according to friends.
For a Muslim barely out of girlhood, it was an act of extraordinary defiance against her family. And it cost Surucu her life.
As Europe's Muslims become increasingly conservative, growing numbers of women are being killed or mutilated in the name of ''family honor," according to law enforcement agencies, women's activist groups, and moderate Islamic organizations. These cases usually involve an attack on a Muslim woman by a close relative -- typically a brother or father -- angered by her refusal to accept a forced marriage or her insistence on leading a Western-style life.
There were at least eight such slayings in Berlin alone in 2005, and 47 honor killings of Muslim women across Germany in the past six years, according to police, media reports, and activist groups. Not coincidentally, activists say, tens of thousands of European-born Muslim women are annually forced into unwanted marriages, often to much older men, in their family's home countries. Refusal to submit to such marriages can bring a death sentence.
Following a spate of headline-grabbing cases, including Surucu's murder, European countries are slowly coming to recognize honor killings as a distinct crime.
In Great Britain, for example, a police review of 22 domestic homicides last year resulted in 18 being reclassified as ''murder in the name of so-called 'honor.' " Scotland Yard has reopened probes into 109 suspicious deaths, covering a 10-year span, that seem to have been family conspiracies to kill Muslim women.
The violent trend, say authorities, reflects the strengthening grip of religious fundamentalism among the continent's 16 million Muslims, many of whom suffer from rising unemployment, inadequate education, and -- perhaps above all -- the sense of being unwelcome outsiders in their adopted homes. As Muslim men embrace radical Islam and return to age-old customs, women are paying a cruel price.
''There is a lost generation of Muslims in Europe," said Eren Uensal, spokeswoman for the Turkish Federation of Berlin. ''Ten years ago, Muslims here were more modern, more secular than those 'back home.' Now the situation has reversed. The younger men feel there is no place for them in Europe, but they also feel there is no place else for them."
Islamic radical groups are filling the vacuum. ''The most alarming thing they teach is that violence is an acceptable way to enforce religious views or social customs," Uensal said. ''Much of that violence is against women."
Hatun Surucu's murder was fairly typical of Europe's recent honor killings.
Her parents and brothers in Berlin were outraged when Surucu abandoned her husband and returned to Germany with her infant son, Can. Even deeper than the anger was the family's sense of disgrace at this display of female independence, according to court testimony and family friends.
But Surucu wanted to make her own way. She stayed at a Berlin women's shelter only long enough to complete middle school. Then she found a part-time job, moved into a tiny apartment, and enrolled in a vocational program.
Further enraging her family, she abandoned the hijab -- the traditional head scarf worn by some Muslim women -- in favor of earrings, makeup, and blue jeans. Her son, now 6, was the light of her life, friends say. But Surucu also loved movies and going out dancing.
''All she wanted, really, was to be an ordinary person, just a normal young woman," said Georg Neumann, a friend of Surucu's at the vocational school.
On the night of Feb. 7, 2005, at a bus stop two blocks from her apartment, Surucu was waiting under a street lamp when bullets tore into her chest and face at point-blank range.
The slaying, according to police, was a family affair.
Three of Surucu's five brothers have been charged with murder. One has already confessed in a chilling court statement. ''She wanted her own circle of friends" outside the family, Ayhan Surucu, 18, said of his sister. ''It was too much."
Ayhan, the youngest brother, is charged with pulling the trigger. An older brother is charged with acquiring the gun, and a middle brother is accused of luring his sister to the murder scene with a phone call in which he said the family wanted to discuss reconciliation.
''She was still so much wanting to be one with her family," Neumann said. ''She didn't want to be cut off from them. She only wanted them to accept that she could have her own life."
Britain opened a review of the suspicious cases after a Kurdish immigrant from Iraq, Abdullah Yones, held his 16-year-old daughter over a bathtub and slashed her throat in 2004 after discovering that she was trading love letters with a boy in her high school class in London. In court last year, Yones insisted that his daughter brought her fate on herself. On the day he was sentenced to life imprisonment, dozens of approving Kurdish men came to court to show solidarity with Yones, according to media accounts.
In a more recent German case, Goenuel Karabey, 20, the daughter of Turkish immigrants living in Berlin, refused a forced marriage last June and disappeared with her boyfriend, a Christian.
Humiliated, her father and brothers tracked her down in Wiesbaden, in western Germany, at the home of the boyfriend's mother. Karabey was shot dead in the garden after agreeing to speak with her family. Her brother, Ali, later surrendered the murder weapon to police, according to media reports.
Just as she was about to complete a trade school, her three brother lured with the lie of family reconciliation. Let's see how did I read that? Oh yes, one brother bought the gun, another brother made the lieing phone call and the last brother pulled the trigger. And there you go, in the German capital of Berlin Mohammedan family honor was upheld with horrific fratricidal termination of a sister's life.
All hail the religion of peace:
---------------------------------
January 20, 2006
Rage4Truth
ORIGINAL SOURCE
BERLIN -- Life was just starting to look up for 23-year-old Hatun Surucu when the bullets cut her down.
After four years of grueling courses in vocational school, coupled with the demands of single motherhood, she was only weeks away from receiving certification as an electrician, a trade that would give her the independence she desperately craved.
It had been a rough road: Eight years earlier, her parents, Turkish immigrants, had yanked Surucu from eighth grade, bundled her off to Istanbul, and forced her to marry an older cousin. Miserable in Turkey, she had fled her husband and returned to Berlin with her infant son, determined to make her own way as a modern woman in a secular society, according to friends.
For a Muslim barely out of girlhood, it was an act of extraordinary defiance against her family. And it cost Surucu her life.
As Europe's Muslims become increasingly conservative, growing numbers of women are being killed or mutilated in the name of ''family honor," according to law enforcement agencies, women's activist groups, and moderate Islamic organizations. These cases usually involve an attack on a Muslim woman by a close relative -- typically a brother or father -- angered by her refusal to accept a forced marriage or her insistence on leading a Western-style life.
There were at least eight such slayings in Berlin alone in 2005, and 47 honor killings of Muslim women across Germany in the past six years, according to police, media reports, and activist groups. Not coincidentally, activists say, tens of thousands of European-born Muslim women are annually forced into unwanted marriages, often to much older men, in their family's home countries. Refusal to submit to such marriages can bring a death sentence.
Following a spate of headline-grabbing cases, including Surucu's murder, European countries are slowly coming to recognize honor killings as a distinct crime.
In Great Britain, for example, a police review of 22 domestic homicides last year resulted in 18 being reclassified as ''murder in the name of so-called 'honor.' " Scotland Yard has reopened probes into 109 suspicious deaths, covering a 10-year span, that seem to have been family conspiracies to kill Muslim women.
The violent trend, say authorities, reflects the strengthening grip of religious fundamentalism among the continent's 16 million Muslims, many of whom suffer from rising unemployment, inadequate education, and -- perhaps above all -- the sense of being unwelcome outsiders in their adopted homes. As Muslim men embrace radical Islam and return to age-old customs, women are paying a cruel price.
''There is a lost generation of Muslims in Europe," said Eren Uensal, spokeswoman for the Turkish Federation of Berlin. ''Ten years ago, Muslims here were more modern, more secular than those 'back home.' Now the situation has reversed. The younger men feel there is no place for them in Europe, but they also feel there is no place else for them."
Islamic radical groups are filling the vacuum. ''The most alarming thing they teach is that violence is an acceptable way to enforce religious views or social customs," Uensal said. ''Much of that violence is against women."
Hatun Surucu's murder was fairly typical of Europe's recent honor killings.
Her parents and brothers in Berlin were outraged when Surucu abandoned her husband and returned to Germany with her infant son, Can. Even deeper than the anger was the family's sense of disgrace at this display of female independence, according to court testimony and family friends.
But Surucu wanted to make her own way. She stayed at a Berlin women's shelter only long enough to complete middle school. Then she found a part-time job, moved into a tiny apartment, and enrolled in a vocational program.
Further enraging her family, she abandoned the hijab -- the traditional head scarf worn by some Muslim women -- in favor of earrings, makeup, and blue jeans. Her son, now 6, was the light of her life, friends say. But Surucu also loved movies and going out dancing.
''All she wanted, really, was to be an ordinary person, just a normal young woman," said Georg Neumann, a friend of Surucu's at the vocational school.
On the night of Feb. 7, 2005, at a bus stop two blocks from her apartment, Surucu was waiting under a street lamp when bullets tore into her chest and face at point-blank range.
The slaying, according to police, was a family affair.
Three of Surucu's five brothers have been charged with murder. One has already confessed in a chilling court statement. ''She wanted her own circle of friends" outside the family, Ayhan Surucu, 18, said of his sister. ''It was too much."
Ayhan, the youngest brother, is charged with pulling the trigger. An older brother is charged with acquiring the gun, and a middle brother is accused of luring his sister to the murder scene with a phone call in which he said the family wanted to discuss reconciliation.
''She was still so much wanting to be one with her family," Neumann said. ''She didn't want to be cut off from them. She only wanted them to accept that she could have her own life."
Britain opened a review of the suspicious cases after a Kurdish immigrant from Iraq, Abdullah Yones, held his 16-year-old daughter over a bathtub and slashed her throat in 2004 after discovering that she was trading love letters with a boy in her high school class in London. In court last year, Yones insisted that his daughter brought her fate on herself. On the day he was sentenced to life imprisonment, dozens of approving Kurdish men came to court to show solidarity with Yones, according to media accounts.
In a more recent German case, Goenuel Karabey, 20, the daughter of Turkish immigrants living in Berlin, refused a forced marriage last June and disappeared with her boyfriend, a Christian.
Humiliated, her father and brothers tracked her down in Wiesbaden, in western Germany, at the home of the boyfriend's mother. Karabey was shot dead in the garden after agreeing to speak with her family. Her brother, Ali, later surrendered the murder weapon to police, according to media reports.
"The Seed of God"
I have posted so much politics I felt it is time to post something for the Kingdom of God. Bob Jones is a prophet on the same scale of Kenneth E. Hagin. Brother Hagin may have been more prophetically eloquent, yet Brother Jones is just powerful in the realm of insight. Much of Bob Jones' prophecies are made understandable through the pen and voice of Paul Keith Davis, another awesome prophet of God. I received Word in Season via an email list in which I participate. Here is a word from the Spirit by the hand of Bob Jones:
-------------------------
By Bob Jones
The Prophetic Ministry of Bob JonesWith Paul Keith Davis
http://www.bobjones.org/
1/22/06
God's people are the remnant seed. The Lord is getting ready to sow again the remnant of His people. Many Christians are literally in a time of death to self; the seed of God is sown with travail and weeping. One of the main delays has simply been waiting on the Lord's timing. God has synchronization for His plans.
For years, the Lord has been working on and empowering many people in preparation for this hour. We are now at a crossroad in His blueprint, and great change is on the horizon.The process has been long and difficult, but God has given us new life at different times to encourage us to continue to press in to Him. He gave us Toronto to bring joy into His people. He gave us Brownsville with an emphasis on repentance. The Lord has allowed the Church other expressions of His grace to deliver us to this point.
Now, the Lord of the Harvest has arisen. Everyone is called to have a role in the harvest; the harvest of souls and the harvest of promises begins with prayer. According to Job 22:30, the Lord will even deliver the one for whom you intercede, who is not innocent. He will be delivered through intercession and the cleanness of our hands.When we pray, we should begin first in our own families. We are being granted a door of opportunity for reconciliation in families, both personal and church families. A grace to extract division and dis-harmony is being allowed. The fruit of this is already being made evident throughout the Church.Pray for those who are not innocent, who do not have clean hands, who have not yet embraced the Lord's salvation, and who have perhaps given you the worst counsel. That is what Job did.
The righteous prayer of Job intervened for those around him, despite their folly. It is time the fortune of God's people be restored as well. The Lord turned the captivity of Job and restored double his fortune when he prayed for his friends. We are entering the season of the double-portion.The eyes of the Lord are roving to and fro looking for a righteous agency on the earth to stand in the gap. The Lord is asking, "Is there no man when I call? Is there anyone to answer? I am speaking is there anyone listening? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Don't you know who I am?"There will be a remnant of people on the earth who hear and respond to this call. According to Isaiah 50:2 the Lord asked,
The Lord can change things quickly. He is giving His people an instructed tongue that we may sustain the weary with a word from Him. He is presently awakening many saints, morning by morning, that He may give to them eyes to see and ears to hear instruction--like His disciples. (Isaiah 50:2)
Many in the Church are coming to the end of a season of pruning and judgment, as it is beginning in the world. His desire is for our light to shine brightly, for many people will be heading our way in the great night. It is time for those who overcome to arise with a measure of His glory resting on them.
This will literally be the season for the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy when he wrote,
This is the time for the accomplishment of divine purposes and for a wave of harvest. The Lord is laying claim to this generation of young people, as well as to the seasoned and mature. It will be both the Joshua's and the Caleb's. The Lord is healing the fracture He has created in a third day harvest of the wounded and persecuted. His will is being accomplished in a mighty way so that a harvest can be achieved.
The trials in the earth will increase in an awesome way, while at the same time the end-time truths from the book of Revelation shall become increasingly clear. Great understanding will be delegated to the Church concerning these mysteries.The book of Revelation is a love letter to the Lord's bride and prepares her to be joined to Him. He is calling to those with ears to hear what He is saying concerning these times and seasons. This will not be a time to do anything presumptuously, but those led by the Spirit can rest in His protection and grace.
The Lord has already triumphed over the adversary and made a public spectacle of him. Now is the time for us to comprehend more fully that reality and appropriate it. The Lord is delegating His victory to us when we are joined to Him.
One of our greatest callings in this hour is to no longer be considered the Lord's servants, but His friends. We have a Friend who is eternally positioned on His throne of victory and authority, and we need a more complete vision of this to fully activate our faith. Commissioning from the throne room can be a living reality as promised through God's word. He is saying, "Come up here!"
He is calling His Church to discern the times and know the seasons and to know the mind of Christ for this day. It isn't His desire to hide it from us but to reveal great understanding so that the lost may see God's blessing and wisdom upon His people. That is what the grooming of the last decade has been intended to accomplish. The pain of our past is the preparation for our future.Our brokenness without the spirit of understanding can bring hopelessness, but brokenness with understanding brings hopefulness. The Lord's Spirit has been breaking us and uprooting our fallen nature and carnal plans in order to inject His own nature and strategy. His ultimate purpose is to reveal the Fatherhood of God and make us His mature sons and daughters.
Though it seems we have failed in many ways, these years have actually cultivated humility. The arm of the flesh and our own strength cannot accomplish the end-time mandate. It will not be by the might of man nor the power of our own ingenuity, but by His Spirit alone. Our job is to yield and learn to co-operate with Him.Like Jacob, the Lord has destroyed our dependence upon human strength and changed our nature. A new name is being given according to Revelation 2:17 to those who overcome in this fashion.
In every thunder and lightning storm, every earthquake, every volcano, and hurricane, the Lord will have His way. These are signposts to illuminate the day in which we live, the seriousness of the hour, and our great need for the Lord Jesus.
Bob Jones
The Prophetic Ministry of Bob JonesWith Paul Keith Davis
http://www.bobjones.org/
Source: SlantedRightPolitics Yahoo Group
-------------------------
By Bob Jones
The Prophetic Ministry of Bob JonesWith Paul Keith Davis
http://www.bobjones.org/
1/22/06
God's people are the remnant seed. The Lord is getting ready to sow again the remnant of His people. Many Christians are literally in a time of death to self; the seed of God is sown with travail and weeping. One of the main delays has simply been waiting on the Lord's timing. God has synchronization for His plans.
For years, the Lord has been working on and empowering many people in preparation for this hour. We are now at a crossroad in His blueprint, and great change is on the horizon.The process has been long and difficult, but God has given us new life at different times to encourage us to continue to press in to Him. He gave us Toronto to bring joy into His people. He gave us Brownsville with an emphasis on repentance. The Lord has allowed the Church other expressions of His grace to deliver us to this point.
Now, the Lord of the Harvest has arisen. Everyone is called to have a role in the harvest; the harvest of souls and the harvest of promises begins with prayer. According to Job 22:30, the Lord will even deliver the one for whom you intercede, who is not innocent. He will be delivered through intercession and the cleanness of our hands.When we pray, we should begin first in our own families. We are being granted a door of opportunity for reconciliation in families, both personal and church families. A grace to extract division and dis-harmony is being allowed. The fruit of this is already being made evident throughout the Church.Pray for those who are not innocent, who do not have clean hands, who have not yet embraced the Lord's salvation, and who have perhaps given you the worst counsel. That is what Job did.
"It came about after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, 'My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has... The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold." --Job 42:7-8 & 10
The righteous prayer of Job intervened for those around him, despite their folly. It is time the fortune of God's people be restored as well. The Lord turned the captivity of Job and restored double his fortune when he prayed for his friends. We are entering the season of the double-portion.The eyes of the Lord are roving to and fro looking for a righteous agency on the earth to stand in the gap. The Lord is asking, "Is there no man when I call? Is there anyone to answer? I am speaking is there anyone listening? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Don't you know who I am?"There will be a remnant of people on the earth who hear and respond to this call. According to Isaiah 50:2 the Lord asked,
"Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer? Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst." --Isaiah 50:2
The Lord can change things quickly. He is giving His people an instructed tongue that we may sustain the weary with a word from Him. He is presently awakening many saints, morning by morning, that He may give to them eyes to see and ears to hear instruction--like His disciples. (Isaiah 50:2)
Many in the Church are coming to the end of a season of pruning and judgment, as it is beginning in the world. His desire is for our light to shine brightly, for many people will be heading our way in the great night. It is time for those who overcome to arise with a measure of His glory resting on them.
This will literally be the season for the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy when he wrote,
"Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." --Daniel 12:3
This is the time for the accomplishment of divine purposes and for a wave of harvest. The Lord is laying claim to this generation of young people, as well as to the seasoned and mature. It will be both the Joshua's and the Caleb's. The Lord is healing the fracture He has created in a third day harvest of the wounded and persecuted. His will is being accomplished in a mighty way so that a harvest can be achieved.
"Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn {us} but He will heal us; He has wounded {us} but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." --Hosea 6:1-3
"The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times {brighter} like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted." --Isaiah 30:26
The trials in the earth will increase in an awesome way, while at the same time the end-time truths from the book of Revelation shall become increasingly clear. Great understanding will be delegated to the Church concerning these mysteries.The book of Revelation is a love letter to the Lord's bride and prepares her to be joined to Him. He is calling to those with ears to hear what He is saying concerning these times and seasons. This will not be a time to do anything presumptuously, but those led by the Spirit can rest in His protection and grace.
The Lord has already triumphed over the adversary and made a public spectacle of him. Now is the time for us to comprehend more fully that reality and appropriate it. The Lord is delegating His victory to us when we are joined to Him.
One of our greatest callings in this hour is to no longer be considered the Lord's servants, but His friends. We have a Friend who is eternally positioned on His throne of victory and authority, and we need a more complete vision of this to fully activate our faith. Commissioning from the throne room can be a living reality as promised through God's word. He is saying, "Come up here!"
He is calling His Church to discern the times and know the seasons and to know the mind of Christ for this day. It isn't His desire to hide it from us but to reveal great understanding so that the lost may see God's blessing and wisdom upon His people. That is what the grooming of the last decade has been intended to accomplish. The pain of our past is the preparation for our future.Our brokenness without the spirit of understanding can bring hopelessness, but brokenness with understanding brings hopefulness. The Lord's Spirit has been breaking us and uprooting our fallen nature and carnal plans in order to inject His own nature and strategy. His ultimate purpose is to reveal the Fatherhood of God and make us His mature sons and daughters.
Though it seems we have failed in many ways, these years have actually cultivated humility. The arm of the flesh and our own strength cannot accomplish the end-time mandate. It will not be by the might of man nor the power of our own ingenuity, but by His Spirit alone. Our job is to yield and learn to co-operate with Him.Like Jacob, the Lord has destroyed our dependence upon human strength and changed our nature. A new name is being given according to Revelation 2:17 to those who overcome in this fashion.
In every thunder and lightning storm, every earthquake, every volcano, and hurricane, the Lord will have His way. These are signposts to illuminate the day in which we live, the seriousness of the hour, and our great need for the Lord Jesus.
Bob Jones
The Prophetic Ministry of Bob JonesWith Paul Keith Davis
http://www.bobjones.org/
Source: SlantedRightPolitics Yahoo Group
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