SRILANKA TO PASS THEIR FIRST ANTI-CONVERSION BILL: PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE....

CARROLLTON, Texas, -- Sri Lanka's Parliament is expected to pass the country's first anti-conversion law next month. The proposed legislation, titled "Bill for Prohibition of Forcible Conversions," was presented a second time to members of Parliament in January. It is expected to easily pass when it is presented for a vote in February.Gospel for Asia missionaries work throughout Sri Lanka. They minister to people whose lives have been battered by a 26-year-old civil war and numerous natural catastrophes, including floods and a tsunami. In addition to the individual missionaries, GFA has a Bible college, Bridge of Hope centers and radio broadcasts in two languages in Sri Lanka. The GFA Bible college was targeted by protestors last year, but the protest ended peacefully. "Our missionaries only want to share the love of Christ with the people of Sri Lanka," said K.P. Yohannan, Gospel for Asia president. "They are not forcing anyone to change their faith. The reality is that those who choose to follow Christ know that they are opening themselves up to persecution and ridicule. It is not a decision these people make lightly."The proposed anti-conversion law, originally submitted in 2004, calls for penalties including fines up 500,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($4,425) and/or seven years in prison for anyone who tries to convert a Sri Lankan citizen from one religion to another by using force, fraud or allurement. The harshest punishments are reserved for those convicted of converting women or children.

The bill was drafted by the Jathika Hela Urumaya political party, whose leadership is comprised of Buddhist monks. A leader of that party has been quoted as saying that U.S.- funded Christian missionaries are one of the greatest threats facing Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's constitution guarantees freedom of thought, consciences and religion. However, it also calls for Buddhism to hold the "foremost place."Sri Lanka is a tiny island off the southeast coast of India. Of the country's 18.8 million residents, 71 percent are Buddhists. Another 12 percent are Hindu, and 8 percent are Muslim. Evangelical Christians comprise only about 1 percent of the population. A number of observers and commentators are saying the legislation is in reaction to the decline in the number of Sri Lankans choosing to follow the Buddhist teaching. Buddhist leaders have expressed concern about the growth of Christianity, especially in the country's rural areas. These Buddhist activists accuse Christians of offering jobs or money in order to get people to convert to Christianity. They were also harshly critical of many Christian aid organizations that worked in the country just after the 2004 tsunami.Christians in Sri Lanka say elements of the bill allow vast leeway in interpretation and could result in the criminalization of most Christian activity aimed at helping the poor.

"Our Lord commands us to take the Gospel to all people, both the wealthy and the poor," Yohannan said. "We need prayer that God will grant us the ability to continue ministering to the spiritual needs of all Sri Lankans, and when it is appropriate, the ability to continue providing for the physical needs of the country's poorest residents."

After the bill was read in Parliament the first time, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court received 22 petitions challenging its validity. The court ruled that two of the clauses--the first requiring those who participated in a religious conversion ceremony to report it to a government official and the second prescribing punishment for such conversions--were ruled unconstitutional. The bill was amended and no longer contains those two clauses.

JUDGE TELLS A CHRISTIAN WOMAN: ' I WILL KILL YOU ' WHO CHOOSES TO WORSHIP JESUS

A woman arrested at the Cairo airport because her identity card described her as a Christian has been threatened for her faith by the judge in her case, according to a new report.
Authorities in Egypt deprived the woman's two children, ages 2 and 4, of food to try to coerce her to abandon Christianity and return to Islam.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency, a woman identified as Martha Samuel Makkar was arrested Dec. 13 as she, her husband, Fadl Thabet, and two sons were trying to leave Cairo for Russia.
Makkar, formerly known as Zainab Said Abdel-Aziz, was accused of carrying forged government documents, because she identified herself as a Christian. Islamic law forbids Muslims from abandoning the faith.

Now, according to Compass Direct News, she has been granted bail, and released to rejoin her husband and sons at home pending her forgery trial.
However, the release was not without complications.
Makkar's lawyer, Nadia Tawfiq, reported that Judge Abdelaa Hashem questioned Makkar closely about her Christian faith during a courtroom hearing.
The decision to grant her bail came Saturday in the hearing before Hashem after Makkar told the judge about her new Christian faith and her abandonment of Islam.
Tawfiq told Compass Direct "the judge then said, 'I want to talk with Martha alone,' so we all left the room, and he said to her, 'Nobody changes from Muslim to Christian – you are a Muslim.'
"And she said, 'No, I am a Christian.' He told her, 'If I had a knife now, I would kill you,'" the lawyer said.
Makkar, 24, has said she's been enduring death threats from police and members of her extended family for the five years since she converted.
There is no established legal precedent in Egypt for allowing people to leave Islam. And national law doesn't provide a channel through which to change the religious designation on an identity card.
The Compass report said George Abyad, 67, and Masood Guirges, 55, employees of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria, also were arrested on suspicion they aided Makkar with her papers.
Egypt formally recognizes Islamic Shariah law as the source of justice, and Christians have faced persecution there for generations.
The American Center for Law and Justice has participated in a fight to keep a man who fled Egypt from being deported from the U.S. A recent decision from the 3rd U.S. District Court of Appeals gave Sameh Khouzam the right to challenge Egypt's "diplomatic assurances" that he would not be tortured on his return to the Middle East nation.
Egypt has been demanding his extradition in a homicide case he alleges is trumped-up. The case has been highlighted by spokesman Sam Grace of Coptic News.He praised U.S. District Judge Thomas Vanaskie's earlier ruling that Khouzam "most assuredly has a right not to be tortured."
Grace earlier told Christians in Egypt are hostages
"We live in a time that is really as bad if not worse than the time of the martyrs," he said.
Multitudes of Christians have been attacked, and many killed, yet not one Muslim ever has been convicted in the attacks, he said.
"The why is very simple, because Shariah law says the blood of the Muslim should not be shed for the blood of an unbeliever," he said.
Grace said since Egypt's constitution concludes laws derive from the Quran, persecution of Christians is not only allowed but endorsed by the government.
"In the last 10 years, more than 5,000 Christians have been massacred in Egypt,"Hundreds of businesses and homes first have been looted, then burned and destroyed. Churches have been burned and destroyed."
Grace told that attacks, lootings and burnings are common in Egypt on Fridays, after the local imam preaches violence against Christians at his mosque.
"The life of a Christian in Egypt is now worth zero. Every Muslim now knows killing a Christian [is not prosecuted]," he said.
A report from the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights concluded Coptic Christians in Egypt have been harassed, tortured and killed by Muslims for 1,400 years.
"They have been subjected to all kinds of hate crimes including, the abduction of young Coptic girls, the killing of Coptic women and children and the destruction of their places of worship," the report said.

10 MEN CHARGED FOR RAPING A CATHOLIC NUN IN ORISSA;INDIA

BHUBNESHWAR, India — Police in eastern India have charged 10 men with gang raping a Catholic nun during weeks of anti-Christian violence last year, an official said Thursday.
The violence between Hindus and Christians in Orissa state followed the killing of a Hindu religious leader in August. Police blamed Maoist rebels, but conservative Hindu groups blamed Christian residents and set fire to a Christian orphanage.
The state government said 32 people died in the clashes that followed. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India said at least 40 Christians were killed.
The nun, her face hidden behind a scarf, had told reporters in October that she was raped on Aug. 25 when a mob attacked a prayer hall where she worked in the state's Kandhamal district.
She said a group of about 50 men tore off her clothes and raped her. Later, she said, she was paraded naked, together with a priest, past several policeman who she says did not help her.
On Thursday, investigating officer Dilip Mohanty said that 10 men, including two the nun had identified from a lineup on Jan. 5, were charged with gang rape — a specific charge under Indian law. If convicted, the men face up to 10 years in prison.
Twenty others have also been brought up on charges related to their alleged rioting during the attack on the prayer house where the nun worked, police official Jitendra Koel said.
Mohanty said the investigation into the attack would continue and police was looking for other attackers and members of the mob.
Relations are usually peaceful between Christians, who make up 2.5 percent of India's 1.1 billion people, and Hindus, who account for more than 80 percent.
However, Orissa has a history of anti-Christian violence, with hard-line Hindu groups claiming Christian missionary groups are forcing or bribing people to convert, charges denied by Christian leaders.

A CHRISTIAN CANDIDATE FEARS FOR HIS LIFE PRIOR ELECTION: PRAY AND MAKE DIFFERENCE......

Istifo says already lined up replacement in case he is killed before voting, as two Sunni candidates were assassinated.

HAMDANIYAH, Iraq - Sami Habib Istifo, a Christian candidate in Iraq's provincial elections, has already lined up a replacement in case he is killed before voting day tomorrow, as two Sunni candidates were murdered in Mosul and Baghdad.
The 49-year-old member of one of the war-torn country's many minority groups is standing in the town of Hamdaniyah, in the northern province of Nineveh.
"I do not rule out the possibility that I may be killed before the election, so a person has been chosen to take my place," said Istifo, a wry smile on his lips.
Istifo has kept a very low profile in campaigning for the election, addressing only three public meetings and too afraid to venture across to the nearby city of Mosul to pick up his election posters.
As a result, only the posters of Sunni Arab and Kurdish candidates have been plastered on walls across the town.
Instead he is relying on the support of "influential" Chaldeans, Assyrians and Syriacs to secure him a seat on the Nineveh provincial council.
He is one of three Christian candidates for the seat and, according to his campaign manager Jamal Daoud, "stands a good chance of winning."
Istifo said he had been reluctant to throw his hat into the electoral ring.
"My friends insisted I stand and eventually they persuaded me," said the small-framed Istifo, adjusting his tie that disappeared into a V-necked pullover.
"I would have preferred not to stand but I had no other choice. One doesn't say no to one's friends," said Istifo, a professor at a technical university in Mosul.
Countrywide, more than 200 Christians have been killed since the US invasion in 2003. Reports suggest that over one million Iraqis (mainly Sunnis and Shiites) were killed during the same period of time.
Christians make up around three percent of Iraq's 29 million overwhelmingly Muslim population.
Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq in 2003, but the number has since shrunk as many members of the various communities have fled the country after the US-led invasion, according to Christian leaders.
Meanwhile, two Sunni candidates were assassinated in Mosul and Baghdad.
The first murder occurred in Baghdad, where armed men opened fire on Omar Faruq al-Ani, a candidate for the Iraqi Concord Front, the main Sunni group in the country's parliament, police and army officials said.
The second victim, Hazim Salim Ahmed, a Sunni standing for the Iraqi National Unity list, was shot dead outside his home in the northern city of Mosul.

KINDNESS OF A CHRISTIAN FOOTBALL COACH HAS BEEN REWARDED

Grapevine Faith Christian football coach Kris Hogan did something unusual in November by asking his team's fans to cheer for an opposing team. The coach's kindness resulted in something else unusual: an invitation from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to attend the Super Bowl.
Hogan was scheduled to leave today for Tampa, Fla., where he will meet with Goodell and attend Sunday's game. He will also spend time later today at the Super Bowl's "radio row," where radio stations want to talk to him about Grapevine Faith's Nov. 7 game against Gainesville State School, a juvenile correctional facility.
Before the game, Hogan e-mailed parents of his players and asked some of them to sit in the stands on Gainesville State's side of the field and cheer for Grapevine Faith's opponent. He also asked the parents to create a spirit line for the opposing players, who normally have no fans to cheer for them, to run through before the game. Hogan even had copies of the Gainesville State roster distributed to fans so they could cheer for the players by name.
The story attracted national attention, which Hogan said surprised him.
"We never intended for this to go outside our fences," he said Tuesday. "It kind of saddens me that it got so much attention. We should all be used to people taking advantage of an opportunity to help another human life."

PASTOR T.M SIMON ' PASTOR OF PASTOR'S ' & ' TEACHER OF TEACHER'S ' HAS PASSED AWAY

Pastor T.M. SIMON went home to meet his saviour Jesus Christ to recieve his eternal reward on January 24, 2009 at 7:55 am. Pastor T.M SIMON was born at Ranny , Pathanamthitta district of kerala on November 12, 1936 o Late Rev & Mrs.T.K MATHEW. one of the seven founders of the Indian Pentecostal Church of God.

Pastor T.M SIMON started his career in 1958 as personal secretary to the Rear Admiral at the Naval Flag office Ministry of Defence, Goverment of India in Bombay. Obeying the higher calling to serve Jesus Christ in 1964, Pastor Simon resigned his job to serve in the northern parts of India.

In 1983 he founded New Testament Church Mission an continued to be the senior pastor and president of the organization until his death.Pastor Simon was passionate in teaching the Word Of The God to all those who loved to learn; he was always refered as a Well Trusted Authorityof Bible and Theology. A Great Theologian , he founded three bible colleges and taught more than ten thousand students of the Bible. He was often reckoned as the Pastor of Pastors and Teacher of Teachers. He was an approachable encouraging servant of God.

He is survived by his dear wife of 41 years Mrs. Kunjamma Simon; three sons: Pastor Mathew Simon, David Simon an Abraham Simon; daughters -in-law: Shyni, Kimberly, and Daisy; grand children: Priscilla, Jonathan, Elijah, Hannah, Joshua.

INDONESIA BANNED MUSLIMS FROM DOING YOGA

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Muslims in Indonesia are banned from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, the country's top Islamic body said Monday, echoing concerns by some religious groups elsewhere about its effect on their faith.
Though not legally binding, most devout Muslims will likely adhere to the ruling because ignoring a fatwa, or religious decree, is considered a sin.
The decision in the world's most populous Muslim state follows similar edicts in Malaysia and Egypt as the ancient Indian exercise gained popularity worldwide in recent years.
Cleric Ma'ruf Amin said the Ulema Council issued its ruling over the weekend after investigators visited gyms and private yoga classes across the sprawling nation. Amir said those performing yoga purely for health or sport reasons will not be affected.
But yoga practitioners immediately criticized the decision.
"They shouldn't be worrying about this," said Jamilah Konny Fransiska, a yoga teacher on the northern island of Batam, adding that all of her students perform yoga solely to strengthen their bodies and minds.
"There is little or no spiritual element to it," she said. "The clerics should be focusing only on purely religious matters, not this."
Yoga — a blend of physical and mental exercises aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit — has become so popular in the United States that many public schools have started offering it as part of their physical education programs.
But there, too, yoga has come under fire, with some Christian fundamentalists arguing its Hindu roots conflict with their own teachings.
A few secular parents are also opposed, saying its spiritual elements could violate rules demanding separation of church and state.
Though there is no Jewish law against yoga, which is widely practiced in Israel, some movements that insinuate idol worship are frowned upon, but not banned, by rabbis. This is to avoid misunderstandings that followers are praying to entities other than God, the sun for instance.
Indonesia is a secular country of 235 million people, 90 percent of them Muslim. Most practice a moderate form of the faith, though an increasingly vocal extremist fringe has gained ground in recent years. They have in some cases succeeded in influencing government policy, because many leaders depend on the support of Islamic parties.
The Ulema Council decided to investigate the need for a yoga ban after religious authorities in neighboring Malaysia issued their own fatwa late last year.
Many people there protested, insisting they had been performing yoga for years without losing their faith. Eventually, even Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had to step in, assuring Malaysians they could continue with the exercises as long as they didn't chant.
Amir, the cleric, said the same rule applied to Muslims here.
"We only prohibit activities that can corrupt Islamic values," he said.
The Ulema Council's annual meeting on fatwas over the weekend also debated whether to issue an edict banning smoking in Indonesia, one of the world's largest tobacco markets.
But cleric Amin Suma said Sunday those talks ended in a deadlock.

HOLOCAUST DENYING BISHOP HAS BEEN ' SILENCED'

VATICAN CITY - An ultraconservative society recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI silenced one of its bishops Tuesday and distanced itself from his claim that no Jews were gassed during World War II.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, also asked for forgiveness from the pope for the "dramatic consequences" of Bishop Richard Williamson's comments.
The Vatican press office issued Bishop Fellay's statement as part of its own efforts to quell an outcry among Jews that Benedict had removed Bishop Williamson's 20-year-old excommunication, despite his views on the Holocaust.
Bishop Fellay said he has forbidden Bishop Williamson from speaking publicly about any historical or political questions and that his views "don't reflect in any way the position of the society." Bishop Fellay himself referred to the "genocide of Jews" by Nazis.
"We ask forgiveness of the supreme pontiff and all the men of good will for the dramatic consequences of this act," Bishop Fellay said.
Benedict rehabilitated Bishop Williamson, Bishop Fellay and two other members of the society last week as part of his efforts to bring the traditionalist society, which opposes many of the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, back into the Vatican's fold.
Bishops Williamson, Fellay and the two other bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent.
Jewish groups denounced Benedict for embracing Bishop Williamson, who denied during an interview broadcast last week on Swedish state TV that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. He said about 200,000 or 300,000 were killed.
The Vatican has stressed that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Bishop Williamson's views. But amid increasing outcry from Jewish groups, it intensified its defense of Benedict's record denouncing anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
On Tuesday, Vatican Radio aired a lengthy program to mark Holocaust remembrance day, recalling Benedict's 2006 visit to Auschwitz, his 2005 visit to the main synagogue in Cologne, Germany, and other remarks in which he has denounced the "insane, racist ideology" that produced the Holocaust.
Video clips of those remarks were posted on Vatican links on the Holy See's new YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/vatican. Vatican Radio also ran an interview with an Auschwitz survivor.
On Monday, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, ran a front-page article saying Bishop Williamson's views were "unacceptable" and violated church teaching.
The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants said the Vatican's attempts to reject Bishop Williamson's views were necessary but insufficient.
"At a minimum, the Vatican should now demand that Williamson repudiate his heinous views," said the group's vice president, Elan Steinberg.

AMERICAN CHURCHES HITTING HARD BY TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

The nation's economic fallout has hit both the sacred and secular worlds of Central Florida. Many local churches now are struggling with the same money issues that confront businesses: budget crises, salary reductions and staff layoffs.

"We're facing what our members are facing in their companies and at work," said the Rev. David Loveless, pastor of Discovery Church in Orlando. Its four campuses serve about 4,000 members."We've probably cut $700,000 out of the budget this year," Loveless said.

Although his church has not missed any loan payments, it had to lay off about a dozen of its 75 paid staffers and recently instituted across-the-board pay cuts of 10 percent.

Loveless said some cuts could be reinstated if the economy improves, but he pledged to be the last person to return to his previous salary.Meanwhile, he has encouraged parishioners to keep giving in practical ways, such as gift cards from grocery and hardware stores, so they can continue to help those both inside and outside the church.

"One of the smartest things we can do is to give [despite] our need," Loveless said. "We're just trying to act contrarian to show we have faith in the future and demonstrate we believe God will take care of us."Although donations are down, Loveless and others have reported strong attendance as the economy spirals."Attendance is not the problem," said the Rev. Randolph Bracy Jr., pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church of Orlando. "That's the irony."The economy's impact on church finances mirrors a national trend. Many churches are facing the prospect of "needing a bailout," according to a year-end report by Cargill Associates Inc., a Christian fundraising development firm in Fort Worth, Texas.

Working closely with Catholic and Protestant churches -- both mainline and Evangelical -- across the United States in 2008, the firm monitored the financial effect of the economy on church giving."There's no question churches are feeling the pinch on a national level," said Pat Graham, president of Cargill Associates.Church members in needFor the first time in its 16-year history, New Covenant has not met its budget goal. Diminished collections caused the church to bring in $500,000 less than anticipated in 2008."We're in dire straits right now," said Bracy, pastor of the 2,000-member church. "I'm 64, and I've never seen anything like it."As a result, Bracy and other church leaders ordered several budget cuts, staff layoffs and a delay in expansion plans.The church's emergency and charitable funds have been focused more than ever on its own struggling members.

The Rev. Jon Dunwell said his Westwood Church in Orlando faces similar challenges.As lean times hit, Westwood started a directory for those in need. That way other congregation members could offer aid, from job leads to simply inviting folks to dinner so that cash-strapped parishioners wouldn't feel isolated.Some Westwood members also have offered to drive families to services, allowing out-of-work churchgoers to save on gas.

CHIEF RABBINATE CUTS TIES WITH VATICAN

Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Wednesday that he felt "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews.
Benedict spoke days after his decision to revoke the excommunication of a bishop who says no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust provoked an outcry among Jews.
Benedict said Wednesday that he hoped the memory of the Holocaust would also serve as a warning against the "unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the hearts of men."
He spoke during a public audience at the Vatican.

The Vatican already distanced itself from comments by bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II. The Holy See said that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Williamson's views.
But on Tuesday the Chief Rabbinate of Israel broke off official ties with the Vatican indefinitely in protest over the Pope's decision to reinstate a known Holocaust denier.

The Chief Rabbinate also canceled a meeting scheduled for March 2-4 in Rome with the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
In a letter to the commission's chairman, Cardinal Walter Casper, Chief Rabbinate Director-General Oded Weiner wrote that "without a public apology and recanting, it will be difficult to continue the dialogue."
According to a Chief Rabbinate source, the letter was leaked to the Israeli press before it was received by the Vatican, which might further complicate relations between the Chief Rabbinate and the Catholic Church.
Last week, in an attempt to heal a decades-old rift between the Church and a group of ultra-conservative breakaway group of clergymen, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of four bishops. The four Catholic bishops belong to the Society of Saint Pius, which opposed changes in Catholic doctrine made in the 1960s under the Second Vatican Council.
One of them is Britain's Bishop Richard Williamson, who is being investigated for Holocaust denial in Germany, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
In a recent interview with Swedish state television, Williamson denied the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis.
"I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them in gas chambers," Williamson told the interviewer.
"The historical evidence is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson reportedly said.
He has also reportedly endorsed the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion and claimed that Jews are bent on world domination.
In a parallel development Tuesday, Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Society of Saint Pius, distanced himself from Williamson's comments.
Fellay said he has forbidden Williamson from speaking publicly about any historical or political questions and that his views "don't reflect in any way the position of the society."
"We ask forgiveness of the Supreme Pontiff and all the men of good will for the dramatic consequences of this act," Fellay said.
Haifa Chief Rabbi Shear Yishuv Cohen, chairman of the Rabbinate's commission, told The Jerusalem Post that he expected Williamson to publicly retract his statements before meetings could be renewed.
"I understand the Pope's efforts to bring about unity in the Church, but he should be aware that, indirectly, he hurt Jews. We expect him to do the best to repair the situation." Weiner's letter called Williamson's comments "odious" and "outrageous."
Rabbi David Rosen, Director of the American Jewish Committee's Department for Interreligious Affairs, and an advisory member of the Chief rabbinate's commission, said that the Pope's decision has created an atmosphere of "bad faith."
Rosen reckoned that the Pope's move to lift Williamson's excommunication, which was made public just days before International Holocaust Day, was made due to a lack of proper consultation.
"I tend to believe that the Pope simply was not informed about Williamson in advance and now he is in a very uncomfortable situation."
Rosen said that the Pope had a history of improper preparation, leading to large-scale blunders. He cited a speech made in Regensburg, Germany, in which he quoted a medieval emperor who called Islam "evil and inhuman," comments that sparked a wave of Islamic-led violence against Catholic churches around the world.
Rosen said that the Rabbinate expected the Pope to take tangible steps against Williamson.
"I don't think it is my place to tell the Church precisely what to do. But Williamson should be censured in some way or forced to retract his statements.
"Until that happens, we may be in contact with the Vatican on an individual level, but there will be no official meetings."

NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN IN RASHTRAPATHI BHAVAN

Our former President Abdul Kalaam would surely be shocked at this incidence as I am sure the present President Pratibha Patil when they will come to know about this. There is a protocol in which no kids are allowed in Rastrapati Bhawan in formal ceremonies and only those invited by names can enter. This restriction is for security reasons, but it seems security sometimes goes overboard.
Late Havildar Bahadur Singh Bohra was bestowed Ashoka Chakra posthumously. On Republic day the President bestowed the award to his widow 29 year old Shanti Bohra in front of the whole nation. Last September he lost his life while fighting with terrorists in Lawanz’s area in Jammu and Kashmir. He managed to kill three militants before succumbing to his injuries. He was awarded the country’s highest peacetime gallantry award “The Ashoka Chakra”.
But after being bestowed the award when his widow went to collect the award a few hours later at a ceremony in the Rastrapati Bhavan with her two daughters aged five and three, she was not allowed to enter with her daughters. Being an outsider and a stranger to the Capital she had no place where she could leave them. Despite repeatedly pleas she was not allowed to enter “The Rastrapati Bhavan” to receive her award along with her daughters.
There should be some arrangements at the President’s house where people who like Shanti are strangers in the city and have genuine problems can be accommodated. At least a widow with two baby daughters who has lost her husband fighting for the country deserves a little consideration.

HBO'S ' THE TRIALS OF TED HAGGARD' DETAILS THE PASTORS FALL

Ted Haggard liked and trusted Alexandra Pelosi. The once-powerful evangelical leader had become friendly with the HBO filmmaker when she was making a documentary about evangelicals in 2005, even taking Pelosi and her husband camping at one point and teaching them how to shoot rifles.

So when Pelosi called Haggard after he was ousted from his church following a gay sex scandal, he was delighted to hear from her. She visited frequently, often filming the disgraced pastor with her hand-held camera, footage she said she wouldn't use unless he was comfortable with it.
Haggard was less than thrilled a year later when Pelosi told him she had made a movie about his exile.
"We were enjoying our privacy," he said. "As the months were passing, we were increasingly able to go to Wal-Mart without being watched. So I told Alexandra that we were not going to be comfortable with it and that I was not happy because I thought she had violated her word."
Pelosi initially shelved the movie. But she was unrepentant about making it.
"As a friend, I wanted to tell his side of the story," she said. "I thought the media had done a disservice to Ted. Am I a vulture, am I a buzzard for showing up at his house and exploiting our friendship? I think anyone who invites Alexandra Pelosi from HBO to their house with a video camera should assume it will end up on HBO."
"The Trials of Ted ," which premieres Thursday on HBO, is the product of both fortuitous coincidence and the kind of guerrilla filmmaking that marks Pelosi's work. Her best-known documentary, "Journeys With George resulted from personal footage she took as she covered George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign as a producer for NBC. As with Haggard, Bush was taken aback to find his musings stitched together into a film.
It's an approach that may make traditionalists cringe, but the filmmaker, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), stands behind her technique.
"I would rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission," she said. "Because asking for permission, everyone is going to be on. That's why, even if people don't like Ted in this movie, you have to feel sorry for him, because he was genuine."

The 45-minute film offers an intimate if fragmentary look at Haggard's attempt to recover from the sex scandal that drove him from his Colorado Springs, Colo., church in 2006. His contrition takes on new resonance with allegations made this week by a former parishioner, who said Haggard performed a sex act in front of him when Haggard was still a pastor.
In a statement, Haggard expressed regret for having "an inappropriate relationship" with the man. HBO is adding a postscript to the documentary noting the latest development.
In an interview last week, Haggard said he has made significant progress in healing his marriage since his spectacular public downfall. After intensive counseling, the father of five children now sees himself as "a heterosexual with issues."
"I have an incredibly satisfying relationship with my wife, and I no longer have the compelling and obsessing thoughts attached to same-sex attraction that I used to," he said.
"I believe sexuality, at least for me, is confusing and complex," he added. "I really wanted to be a virtuous, wonderful man, but I had to fight hard to be a man of integrity."
Although Haggard was initially horrified by the idea of the documentary, he said he now views it as a bracing dose of honesty.
"There are so many human lessons in this," he said, including a very stark one about personal responsibility.
When Pelosi first met Haggard in 2005, she said she had no inkling of the secret harbored by the then-head of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, who had the ear of the president and commanded a huge following. She was floored when, shortly before her film "Friends of God" aired, Haggard admitted to "sexual immorality" involving a male prostitute and was forced to leave New Life Church, the 12,000-member congregation that he founded.
"I felt personally deceived," she said.
But Pelosi said she didn't think about doing a follow-up film, even when she learned during a visit to her sister in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2007 that the onetime evangelical superstar was quietly living around the corner with his family, banished from Colorado.
Pelosi and her husband ended up going over to the Haggards' home for lunch, an encounter that stretched into nine hours of emotional recriminations and apologies.
"We were so desperate to be able to speak openly with somebody," Haggard said.
Pelosi said she left the visit "feeling like there were a lot of different sides to the story. It's not that simple."
She checked in with Haggard every time she was in Scottsdale to visit her family, intrigued by his efforts to cope with his abrupt fall from grace. Eventually, she pulled out her camera and began filming him, without explaining her plans for the footage.
Pelosi said she herself didn't know. Making a documentary about Haggard's turmoil seemed out of the question. He had agreed not to speak to the press as part of two legal contracts he had signed with the church, separation agreements that also barred him from Colorado or returning to his church.
"At the time, I was filming because it was so surreal to watch this man go from here to here," she said, holding her hands wide apart.
Haggard said he viewed her filming simply as "an ounce of comic relief" during a bleak time.
The scenes Pelosi captured were far from lighthearted: The onetime national figure leaving a job interview, hoping the prospective employer wouldn't Google him. Knocking on doors, trying to sell health insurance. Sitting alone in the desert, reading Scripture.
Early last year, Pelosi said she realized that material amounted to something. She put it together in an edit bay at HBO, called Haggard and told him she had made a film. The former pastor reacted angrily, and Pelosi quickly told him she would drop it.

But when she learned from news reports last June that the church had allowed Haggard to move back to Colorado Springs, she tried again. Haggard and his wife, Gayle, flew to New York to watch the film, expecting to say no.
Haggard said he found the documentary "incredibly embarrassing" but was surprisingly comfortable with it airing.
"There is nothing in the documentary that is pleasant for me personally, but philosophically I believe it's important for stories like this to be told," he said. "As I watched, I thought, 'I wished I would have seen a documentary like this before I got myself in trouble.' "
Haggard's wife and their children, ages 15 through 27, also signed off on it. But before it could air, Haggard had to get released from a final contract with the church that prevented him from speaking to the media. In December, New Life pastor Brady Boyd met with the Haggards and agreed to dissolve the agreement. But he is not pleased about the film.
"I told Ted I think it's premature to tell the story," Boyd said. "We still believe in redemption and restoration, and there's obviously been hurt. His family has been hurt, and our church family has been hurt. There's no way this has been healed in just two years. It's too big a wound."
Boyd, who said the church wasn't asked for its input in the film, said he's distressed that the congregation is portrayed as casting Haggard out. He said that the former pastor agreed to leave Colorado in the spirit of a "fresh start."
"I think the whole truth hasn't been told," he said.
Pelosi said she made numerous attempts to contact members of the church's board and never got a response.
For his part, Haggard said he's sorry if the film causes any of his former parishioners pain.
"I created the complex situation that they were in, and they all did the best they could," he said. "I love the people of New Life Church, and I am devoted to them to this day."

FAITH MIXES WITH FOOTBALL FOR THE BIG GAME

TAMPA, — Arizona running back Tim Hightower had just finished a thoughtful explanation of his religious beliefs when one of the media types who found their way into the Super Bowl stadium Tuesday decided he needed more proof.
"Can you pray right now?" he asked.
"I can pray that whatever is going on in your life right now that you find God," Hightower said.
Hightower handled the question with the same ease he handled would-be tacklers to score the winning touchdown that got his team into the Super Bowl, which by itself was somewhat surprising since he is a rookie on the biggest stage of his young life.
Even more surprising at this Super Bowl, though, is how so many players on both teams aren't hesitating to invoke the name of God as they prepare to play a violent game where there will be no mercy shown on either side.
Usually that has writers setting down their pens and cameramen hitting the pause button until talk returns to the game itself.
But the depth of convictions from evangelical Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner to the Steelers who will do their best to plant him face-first into the ground on Sunday has put religion squarely in play this week. All of a sudden the G-word is in vogue.
"You just have to embrace it, whatever God does in your life and wherever he puts you," Warner said in one of his many religious references since landing in Tampa. "If it means being a role model in this game, I'm happy to do that. You are excited about that opportunity because you get the chance to speak to millions of people and, hopefully, we'll get an opportunity to impact some lives this week."
Warner is the most vocal — and visible — Christian on the Cardinals, proclaiming his faith at every opportunity and underscoring it by carrying a Bible with him almost everywhere he goes. He had it with him at the postgame press conference after Arizona upset Philadelphia to reach the Super Bowl, and took time to credit his faith in God for the win before answering any other questions.
The 37-year-old Warner's public display of faith has left an impression on his younger teammates, about 20 of whom join him in Bible studies after practice every Wednesday during the season.
"Our quarterback is a definite leader and devout Christian," cornerback Roderick Hood said. "I think that has spearheaded our growth. Also, guys see the peace we have on the field and want to find that themselves."
Hood says he prays before every game, after every game and during the game itself. Lest Pittsburgh fans get the wrong idea, though, he says he prays for everyone to be safe and not for any particular team to win.
The Steelers aren't as public about their religious beliefs, but many consider themselves devout Christians and can sometimes be seen in locker rooms or on airplanes reading their Bibles. Safety Troy Polamalu brings teammates to services at his Eastern Orthodox Christian church, while running back Willie Parker leaned on his faith to come back from injuries this season, praying that he would be 100 percent physically and able to produce.
Defensive lineman Aaron Smith found comfort in his beliefs when his young son was diagnosed with leukemia.
"It's really through the Lord's strength that I've been able to cope with this," Smith said.
Compared to that, crediting God for helping on the field seems almost trite, though that doesn't stop athletes from doing it all the time. Football players tend to do it more often than others, perhaps because they could be permanently injured on almost any play. But there are baseball players who point to the sky every time they touch home plate and golfers who believe that God gave them the peace within to win major championships.
A poll last summer by the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed that 92 percent of Americans believe in some form of God, while 78 percent identify themselves as Christians. And while they express some concern about the mixing of politics and religion, there has never been much outcry about players from both teams gathering after a football game to kneel together in prayer.
Expect plenty of those prayers before and after Sunday's game from plenty of different players. Expect to see Warner with a Bible in hand as soon as he's done throwing a football with it.
And don't expect to hear him shout right away that he's going to Disneyland if the Cardinals win.
Because he's going to thank God first.

CAN ' SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE ' BRING A CHANGE TO THE ASIA'S LARGEST SLUM AREA ( MUMBAI) ?

MUMBAI, INDIA – John D'souza hasn't yet seen the much-feted film "Slumdog Millionaire." But he is convinced the film has the power to transform his life.
Mr. D'souza, a social worker who has lived all his life in Dharavi, a grubby slum in Mumbai (Bombay) that is touted as Asia's largest, believes that this film can highlight the invisible lives of slum dwellers and create awareness about their abominable living conditions.
"The film has put Dharavi on the world map," says D'souza, whose shanty has a cameo in the film. "Hopefully, it will help people and [the Indian] government understand that we, too, deserve a dignified existence."
Directed by the British director Danny Boyle and based on Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel, "Q&A," Slumdog Millionaire has already won four Golden Globe awards and this week garnered 10 Oscar nominations, including one for best film. Set in the fetid alleyways of Mumbai's teeming slums, Slumdog is a Dickensian tale of an orphan who ingeniously cuts away from his wretched existence to become a champion on the TV game show, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
Even before its Friday release in India, the film's riveting international success had sparked celebrations – and generated hopes in some quarters of its potential to impact change.
"Slumdog ... is Boyle's gift to Mumbai," Shobha De, a socialite and author, wrote in the Times of India, earlier this month.
"Whether or not Boyle's film wins an Oscar or two is immaterial," Ms. De wrote, unabashedly admitting she had watched the film on a pirated CD. "It should be made compulsory viewing for anybody who wants to understand the shocking, ghastly subtext that deals with the 'other' Mumbai – the one that feeds on abject poverty and paradoxically enough, also on the soaring hope that this same poverty breeds success."
Many observers draw parallels of the film with "Salaam Bombay," a 1998 film by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair, which encapsulated the despair and desperation of Mumbai's street kids. Eventually, Ms. Nair set up the "Salaam Bombay Foundation," a charity dedicated to them. Her moving portrayal of street kids helped generate awareness and funds to improve their plight.
Some social workers and nongovernmental organizations hope that "Slumdog Millionaire" will do similar good for slum dwellers.
More than 60 percent of Mumbai's citizens are known to reside in slums. The most visible of them is Dharavi, a labyrinth that is home to more than 1 million people. A majority of them are migrants, and all of them – 17,000 stuffed into each acre – are scrambling for space in a sea of weathered iron shacks and mildewed tenements.
Cholera and other waterborne diseases are endemic in Dharavi. Sanitation facilities are scarce, with one toilet for every 1,500 people, according to the World Bank. Drinking water is in short supply; families of 15 share one water tap.
Many of Mumbai's elite view Dharavi as a blight that must be purged if the city, India's financial and entertainment capital, is to achieve stature as a world-class city. Local politicians have long dreamed of transforming Mumbai into "India's Shanghai."
Sheela Patel, the director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, a nongovernmental organization that works with slumdwellers, is intrigued by the success of "Slumdog Millionaire," but skeptical that it will prompt lasting change.
"Having seen well-made films in poverty from Brazil and South Africa, I believe that like all events on the screen, the film will throw a spotlight on slum life and poverty," she says. "But such focus moves on as new events and news replace yesterday's focus."
The film has also spawned concerns the film, which starkly portrays India's epic poverty, will tarnish the international reputation of the country, well known in recent years for its torrid economic boom. Some critics have derisively labeled it as "poverty porn."
About two dozen slumdwellers on Thursday demonstrated outside the Mumbai home of Anil Kapoor, one of the film's stars, outraged by the insulting title of the movie.
The Times of India, however, called the film "a piece of riveting cinema," urging moviegoers to forget "the twitter about aggrieved national sentiment."
Jubilant about the Oscar nominations – a rarity for films dealing with India – the national daily called the film "a Cinderella-like fairy tale with the edge of a thriller and the vision of an artist."

IS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION THREAT TO FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS?

USA ― The implications of a change in administration in the United States could be potentially harmful to some faith-based organizations.
U.S. leadership has supported faith-based groups for the most part in the past and has especially recognized the importance of their service within the last eight to ten years, according to Ben Homan of Food for the Hungry.
Although all major presidential candidates in the recent election spoke in favor of faith-based organizations at some point in their campaigns, the Obama campaign also made movements in another direction. Within his campaign, suggestions were made about creating a nondiscrimination policy within faith-based organizations, therefore barring these ministries from hiring people based on their religion.
As this idea began to reappear, Food for the Hungry, along with World Vision and other major faith-based organizations, began to dialogue with Obama administrators to plead their case against such a decision. Since conversations began, the policy seems to have subsided, and Homan is hopeful that this will remain the case as relationships continue to be built.
"A change in leadership and the burden, the responsibility, that comes with that actually gives the church and faith-based organizations an opportunity to step up and to walk with a new leader," says Homan. "I think one of the callings that we have as followers of Christ is to walk in relationship with leaders and to stay in conversation, to stay in relationship, to stay engaged."
Homan has more reason to hope as both Biden and Obama have expressed the desire to raise the priority of foreign assistance -- a notion supported by other government branches as well. Homan says the new administration seems to have serious interest in helping to stop the growing HIV AIDS pandemic and in dealing with the global food crisis. A more than noticeable amount of the work being done to help solve these issues comes from faith-based organizations.
Regardless of whether new leadership makes alterations or not, Homan says Christians have a responsibility to continue dialoguing with the administration and to continue concern for world affairs. "The important thing in moving our civil society forward, and the important thing in moving the Gospel forward, is to stay in conversation and in relationship with leaders; and we're not always going to agree," says Homan. "I think this is a time for God's people to step up and make a difference."

VHP ACTIVISTS BASH UP CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AT MAGH-MELA IN ALLAHABAD

ALLAHABAD: Tension erupted here during the ongoing religious congregation Magh Mela here after Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists bashed up a group of
Christian missionaries, including three women, who were allegedly distributing "blasphemous literature".

The incident took place at the Parade Ground, barely a kilometre away from the holy confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, where four car-borne Christian missionaries were distributing pamphlets propagating their faith. "When the news reached the VHP's camp situated nearby, a volunteer was sent to fetch a copy of the pamphlet and to our horror we found all sorts blasphemous things about Hinduism," senior VHP leader Manoj Srivastava said. "We thereafter rushed and caught hold of the missionaries and gave them a good thrashing before handing them over to police," he said.

However, Circle Officer, Magh Mela, Rajesh Kumar said that no case was registered against the missionaries, who were let off after a warning "as the offence was not of a grave nature and the episode also involved women". Meanwhile, the VHP is determined to step up pressure on the Mela administration for taking stern action against the missionaries. "We demand that the missionaries be booked under NSA. Their pamphlets had many derogatory references to the Ganga, the river which is considered holy by millions of Hindus world over. They were audacious enough to distribute such literature at the Magh Mela, of which taking a holy dip in the Ganga is an integral part," Srivastava said.

CATHOLIC PRIEST STOLE ' MILLIONS FROM THE COLLECTION PLATE '

Rev John Skehan, 81, originally from Johnstown, Co Kilkenny, pleaded guilty just hours before the start of his trial to taking money from his church over the course of several years in what authorities say could be the one of the biggest embezzlement scandals to hit the American Catholic Church.
Skehan faces charges with fellow priest, the Rev Francis Guinan, originally from Birr, Co Offaly, who has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say the pair took cash from the offering plate at St Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, in West Palm Beach, and stashed it in the church ceiling and in offshore bank accounts.
They then spent the money on expensive homes, gambling trips to Las Vegas with a mistress, even a $275,000 (£200,000) rare coin collection, authorities say.
Both are charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars, although church auditors believe the total amount taken could be in the millions.
Police reports say Skehan used $134,075 to pay for his alleged lover's expenses, gave $11,688 to relatives and used another $268,630 for personal expenses such as dental work and credit card payments.
Authorities said Mr Guinan had had an "intimate relationship" with a former bookkeeper at a church where he previously worked and used church money to pay her credit card bills and her child's school fees. They also said she accompanied him on holidays.
Mr Skehan had previously pleaded not guilty but changed his plea on Wednesday.
"Father Skehan accepted responsibility for his actions by virtue of his guilty plea," Scott Richardson, his lawyer, said outside the court. "It's been extraordinarily difficult for him from the beginning."
The scandal broke in 2006, stunning parishioners at the seaside parish.
Mr Skehan, who had been at the church for 40 years, is accused of taking $370,000 between 2001 and 2006, the timeframe covered by the statute of limitations. Auditors think he actually stole more than $8 million over 20 years.
Mr Guigan, 66, is accused of stealing $488,000 during the 19 months after he became pastor in Sept 2003. He is due to stand trial on Feb 18.
Mr Skehan will be sentenced on Mar 20. Both face up to 30 years in jail if convicted.
After the investigation began, Mr Guinan begged the church to stop the audit and "call off the dogs". In a letter released by prosecutors, he said that priests "devote their lives to the church with little thought for personal gain".
Richard Barlow, Mr Guinan's lawyer, said his client had done nothing wrong and that his co-defendant's plea did not affect his case. He said he would prove Mr Guinan spent the money on church business.

RICK WARRENS ' INCLUSIVE PRAYER ' IGNITES REACTIONS AROUND THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

Pastor Rick Warren's invocation at President Obama's inauguration today has ignited a flurry of critiques for using words from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy texts as well as including the name of Jesus – in several languages.
Leading up to the prayer, bloggers and commentators debated whether Warren – an evangelical pastor blasted by the homosexual community for his opposition to same-sex marriage – would draft a prayer that was inclusive of the many Americans of differing religions, moralities and politics or whether it would be solely reflective of evangelical Christian theology.
Following the prayer, some criticized him for being too inclusive.
Islam expert Robert Spencer at JihadWatch.org, an organization dedicated to bringing public attention to jihad theology and defending Western society, criticized Warren for including a common refrain from Islam's Quran – "You are the compassionate and merciful one.".
"'The compassionate, the merciful' is, of course, a reference to the invocation at the beginning of every chapter of the Qur'an except one: Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, 'In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful,'" Spencer writes. "Making sure everyone feels included – terrific. But the prayer indicates yet again that there is little general awareness of the reasons why the term 'Judeo-Christian-Islamic values' is a misnomer."
Warren also included the foundational Jewish prayer Shema Yisrael, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one," and the prayer beginning with the words "Our Father," revered by Christians as the Lord's Prayer.
Warren also drew criticism from those who thought the prayer was too evangelical or that the pastor, by his very presence, excluded the "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender" audience members.
In a forum on the Dallas Morning News' website, a poster named Alex writes, "Not exactly inclusive. Invoking Jesus 'who taught us to pray' alienates all non-Christians. And Catholics don't say 'For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory for ever and ever.' And his previous statements about LGBT Americans and those who are pro-choice [are] divisive as well."
The paper's religion blog writer, Jeffrey Weiss, however, was willing to extend Warren more credit.
"I found it to be inclusive – in the sense that he expressed God's love of all peoples and set forth a set of broad moral imperatives," Weiss writes. "But also restrictive in that it was an emphatically Christian prayer. But you can't invite Rick Warren to pray and expect anything but an evangelical Christian prayer."
Dan Gilgoff, the "God & Country" blogger for U.S. News & World Report, acknowledged the difficult position Warren faced, straddling a faith that demands he speak for truth and a portion of the public antagonistic toward him for standing there at all.
"For me," Gilgoff writes, "the two most salient features of the Rev. Rick Warren's inauguration invocation were its emphasis on the values of unity and mutual respect, which seemed partly a reaction to the controversy his selection as invocation speaker sparked, and its bold invocation of Jesus in the form of the Lord's Prayer. For some, those two themes would seem incongruous. It was trademark Warren, who – like Barack Obama – has been accused of trying to be all things to all people."
On the Dallas paper's message board, one contributor presented a complimentary critique, with a fitting conclusion, regardless of one's opinion of Warren's invocation.
"A prayer for our time and our new President," he writes. "May God's care and blessing be upon a people that can extend that blessing onto others. The Lord of ALL (non-Christian, gay and lesbians included) is the Lord of us. May we recognize and honor Him so. As this prayer clearly reminds us, we will eventually have to give an account to Him of our deeds, good or bad."
The contributor concludes, "Please pray for our new president and this administration. America is in great need of it."

OBAMA : U.S A COUNTRY OF MUSLIMS AND NON - BELIVERS , WHICH ECHOES U.S NO LONGER A CHRISTIAN NATION

Echoing his previous declaration that the U.S. is "no longer a Christian nation," President Barack Obama today in his inaugural address affirmed America is a nation of many faiths that includes Muslims and "nonbelievers."
"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers," Obama stated during his speech before a crowd estimated by security officials at about 1.8 million.
He continued: "We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."
Obama's statements about an inclusive country were strikingly similar to remarks he made twice in 2007 in which he went further and stated the U.S. is "no longer Christian." At that time, some took issue with his pronouncement, fearing the declarations indicated his intention to reorient the U.S. away from its traditional Judeo-Christian values.

During a June 2007 speech available on Youtube, Obama stated, "Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."
In that speech, Obama took aim at the "Christian Right" for "hijacking" religion and using it to divide the nation:
"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us," he said.
Asked last year to clarify his remarks, Obama repeated them to the Christian Broadcast Network: "I think that the right might worry a bit more about the dangers of sectarianism. Whatever we once were, we're no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers," Obama wrote in an e-mail to CBN News senior national correspondent David Brody.
"We should acknowledge this and realize that when we're formulating policies from the statehouse to the Senate floor to the White House, we've got to work to translate our reasoning into values that are accessible to every one of our citizens, not just members of our own faith community," wrote Obama.
Obama clarified his statement about the "Christian Right."
"My intention was to contrast the heated partisan rhetoric of a distinct minority of Christian leaders with the vast majority of evangelical Christians – conservatives included – who believe that hate has no place in our politics.
"When you have pastors and television pundits who appear to explicitly coordinate with one political party; when you're implying that your fellow Americans are traitors, terrorist sympathizers or akin to the devil himself; then I think you're attempting to hijack the faith of those who follow you for your own personal or political ends," wrote Obama.
Obama's speech declaring the U.S. "no longer Christian" was originally met with little fanfare. But it was recirculated this summer during the presidential campaign.
A television commercial that aired in South Dakota by a group calling itself the Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric juxtaposed the audio of Obama's "no longer Christian" statement over images of the presidential candidate dressed in Somali garb and a picture of him with his hands rested below his waist while other politicians place their hands over their hearts during the Pledge of Allegiance.
"It's time for people to take a stand against Barack Hussein Obama," declares the voiceover on the commercial.
The Gateway Pundit blog took notice of Obama's speech 2007 about the U.S. being a nation also for Muslims and non-believers.
"This won't play well in the Bible Belt," commented the blog in a posting.
Obama's campaign had utilized faith as a central theme. The candidate's Christianity and his former membership in the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright were much scrutinized.
His comment about the "Christian Right" echoed similar statements made by Merrill A. McPeak, Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman. As WND reported, in a 2003 interview with The Oregonian newspaper, McPeak apparently compared evangelical Christians to the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Oregonian interviewer asked McPeak whether "there's an element within Hamas, Hezbollah, that doesn't want Israel to exist at all and always will be there?"
McPeak responded by comparing the two terror groups to "radical" Oregonians.
"There's an element in Oregon, you know, that's always going to be radical in some pernicious way, and likely to clothe it in religious garments, so it makes it harder to attack," he said. "So there's craziness all over the place."

QATAR : FUTURE MUSLIM LEADERS SEEK FRESH PATH

DOHA, Qatar - The question put to the young Muslims gathered here from around the world went to the heart of today's perceived clash between Islam and the West: "Do Muslims and non-Muslims share equal responsibility in taking steps to reduce Muslim extremism?"
The answer, delivered instantly through wireless voting pads, was crystal clear: Seventy-five percent replied "Yes."
The verdict is worth heeding because of where it happened: At a conference of 300 progressive Muslim activists from 75 countries.
The "Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow Conference," was meant to be a catalyst for social change in the Islamic world by inspiring the activists and giving them opportunities to network.
"We're living in challenging times, and the plot for Muslims has been written by others," said Daisy Khan, of the New York-based American Society for Muslim Advancement, which worked with the Cordoba Initiative and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations to organize the event. "The time has come for Muslims to write their own plot, and to define themselves around the core values they believe in: pluralism, freedom, justice, creativity, and intellectual development."
Participants included a Saudi businesswoman, a New York filmmaker, an Indian teacher, an Italian imam, a Dutch lawyer, an Egyptian writer, and Osama Saeed Butta, who informed his peers in a fine Scottish brogue that he will be running for a seat in Britain's Parliament come the next election.
While some activists hold more conservative views than others, all are committed to pluralism as an Islamic value, Ms. Khan said.
Some were in a hurry to exert their influence. "I came because I wanted to know why it's 'Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow' and not 'Today,'" said Maha al-Khalifa, a student from Qatar.
The discussion sessions, which included the instant polling, tackled some of the thorniest questions facing Muslim intellectuals today, including: "Is there a crisis of religious authority in Islam?" Eighty-six percent said "Yes." And "are there Islamic values that are in conflict with Western values?" Sixty-one percent said "Yes."
Panelist Madiha Younas, of Pakistan's International Islamic University, said she often encounters anxiety over clashing values. "Our people are worried about what will happen if our youth will start to live like the West."
She added, to general approval from the floor, that "it's not an Islamic value to have absolute freedom. Islam puts boundaries on you."
Saudi-born attorney and Harvard University graduate Malik Dahlan led the conversation to a more theoretical level, stating: "It's freedom that is the absolute value in Islam.... It is freedom not to submit [to God's will] that gives value to submission itself."
In smaller discussion groups, participants covered such topics as why Europe has more Islamist radicalism than the United States, Islam's position on homosexuality, and the meaning of secularism.
When discussing who has responsibility for fighting Muslim extremism, the panelists steered clear of the polarization this subject normally provokes. Instead, they argued that both extremist interpretations of Islam and foreign policies of Western countries contribute to the radicalization of Muslim youth.
In fact, the impact of US policies in the Middle East was evident at the conference, where many participants were deeply upset, at times in tears, over the civilian death toll from Israel's three-week military siege of Gaza.
"I get a sense of helplessness with this latest crisis," said conference attendee Shaukat Warraich, director of London-based Right Start Foundation International, a community development nonprofit.
ASMA's Khan said that after 9/11, Americans wanted to know why Muslims' denunciations of the terrorist attacks were so muted. Although hundreds of Islamic religious leaders did condemn the attacks, they were not heard clearly because Islam has no central leadership, like Roman Catholicism's Vatican.
Khan, then an architectural designer, gave up her career to promote a new generation of Muslim leadership, holding the first conference in New York in 2004 with 125 participants from North America. The second conference, held in Copenhagen in 2006, included Europeans. Doha, the third one, was global.
Participants had to be between 20 and 45 years old, committed to pluralism, and involved in some type of community advancement work, Khan said.
At its conclusion, the conference issued "An Open Letter to the World Leaders of Today From the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow." Noting that "with Barack Obama as the new US president, there is no better time for ... positive change," the letter demanded that leaders start implementing policies that promote development and human rights rather than war.
For now, the Muslim leaders who will receive copies of the Open Letter do not know much about Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT), as the project is known. The conference drew little international or regional media attention. But organizers said they are committed to building a global network of progressive activists in the Muslim world, an effort they say will take time.

A CHURCH IN CONGO ATTACKED: UGANDAN REBELS BLAMED, PLEASE DO PRAY FOR THE PEACE TO BE MAINTAINED

KAMPALA, Uganda – The Ugandan army accused the country's rebels of torching a Catholic church crowded with worshippers in eastern Congo, killing some of them.
Army spokesman Capt. Ronald Kakurungo said Ugandan troops in neighboring Congo reported the Lord's Resistance Army rebels set fire to a church Saturday night in the village of Tora. The Ugandan soldiers are part of a multinational force set up last December to stop the brutal rebel group.
Kakurungo said it was unclear how many people had been killed. The U.N.-run Radio Okapi, which broadcasts in eastern Congo, also reported the attack on the church and further attacks on civilian homes in the nearby village of Libombi.
Come Mbolingaba, the head of Catholic organization Caritas Congo, said employees had spoken to villagers who had confirmed there had been an attack but had no information on the number of casualties.
"They burned people who were praying in a church," he said.
U.N. officials did not return calls seeking comment.
Rebel spokesman David Matsanga disputed the claim, saying the rebels were not in the area and have not committed any atrocities.
The villages are 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the town of Dungu, where the multinational force is based.
Human Rights Watch said last week that the rebels have killed at least 620 people in the Congo in past month. The New-York based rights group collected testimonies in which survivors told how rebels attacked their homes, raped women and murdered men with bats and axes.
The rebels, who have been fighting for two decades, also have a history of abducting children to serve as sex slaves and fighters.
Uganda's army, backed by Congolese and Sudanese soldiers, launched an operation Dec. 14 aimed at routing the rebels from Congo, attacking the insurgents' headquarters in Garamba National Park. That broke the rebels into several groups, which have been attacking villages in their path as they fled.
Hunting the rebels is further complicated by Congo's own civil war. There are 18,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Congo mandated to protect civilians, but the troops are mostly posted further south around cities like Goma where separate fighting with Congo rebels has taken place.

BIG TURNOUT FOR FORMER OBAMA'S PASTOR

A year after then-candidate Barack Obama distanced himself from his controversial longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright thrilled thousands of churchgoers yesterday morning in Washington, giving a sermon holding up Obama as a spiritual symbol of possibility.

People waited two hours to hear Wright preach the Sunday service at Howard University's Cramton Auditorium, a high-profile platform for clergy, and black clergy in particular. Wright has preached the service, run by clergy at the school's Rankin Chapel, on the Sunday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the past five years and was booked months before the election, school officials said.
Howard students, alumni and notables such as opera singer Jessye Norman and Morehouse College President Robert Michael Franklin Jr. attended the service, which overflowed into two other buildings. About 2,500 people came to see a man whose relationship with Obama became explosive, both among those who considered his words racist and anti-American and those livid with Obama for distancing himself from someone they saw as simply speaking truths about racism and war.
Wright was nothing but positive and conciliatory yesterday, rousing churchgoers again and again to their feet with a sermon about what he called the Bible's message of self-reliance and encouragement.
Wright went back and forth from Obama to a passage from the Gospel of John about people who overcome sickness and challenges. "No more seeing ourselves through the eyes of people who don't look like us!" he said. "How does God see us?"
In the impassioned oratory for which he is known, Wright said Obama was able, "as the Lord stepped into his story," to envision himself doing anything -- heading the Harvard Law Review, taking a U.S. Senate seat, even winning the presidency.

People who envision themselves as victims, he said, are like the sick and paralyzed in the Gospel of John.
"Stand up, downsized -- start your own business! Stand up, dropout -- go back to school! Stop wallowing in quicksand and stand up, black man -- and take care of your own family!"
But Wright's message wasn't all self-help. He told churchgoers that racism, capitalism and militarism remain strong negative forces and that people who don't recognize these forces at work in such things as the government's response to Sudan and Hurricane Katrina as well as the civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip are "blind." They, too, are like the crippled in John's Gospel, he said.
Outside the auditorium, communists handed out newspapers challenging the idea that Obama is a serious change agent. Vendors sold Obama souvenirs, including a T-shirt that depicts Obama outfitted like a member of hip-hop band Run-D.M.C. -- chunky glasses and gold chain -- with the words "Run DC." American flags were displayed everywhere, and people in coffee shops around Howard said to one another, "God bless America."
Wright saved his most provocative comments for another day. Kwandrick Sumler and Eddie Holiday, communications students at Howard, said they were drawn to the service out of curiosity about the controversial Wright and found him "neutral."
"He gave everyone what they wanted to hear," Holiday said. "The biggest thing African Americans need is solidarity, and he did that. He said, 'Do what you need to do.' "
Sumler agreed. "He was Obama's pastor, and Reverend Wright played on that: Only in America is Barack Obama's story possible."
Three alumnae from Spelman College, in town for the inauguration, went to Howard partly to be in church on Sunday and partly to hear Wright for themselves.
"He's still the minister he always was. I think he has a great ministry, but his time in the media wasn't very positive," said Michelle Bradley, 24, who came from Chicago. "And I feel today my constitutional rights have been lived out -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- by being here for the inauguration and Reverend Wright's sermon."

FAHEEM GETS PAID ONLY 10 PAISE PER SHOES !!!!! CAN SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE CHANGE HIS LIFE ?

Slumdog Millionaire has received tremendous international recognition and highlighted Mumbai's underbelly. While some hail it as a grand endorsement for the city, others think of it as a sorry stereotype.
One of the correspondents met children in Mumbai's slums to find out what life really means for them.
Faheem Khan, Dharavi
Faheem and his family, natives of Bijnore, Uttar Pradesh , have lived in Mumbai for 15 years. Faheem came to the city when he was just one year old.
The family of eight lives in Dharavi, often described as Asia's largest slum.
Faheem is 16, he is in Class X at the R C Mahim School. He also sews soles for shoes at one of the slum's many leather businesses.
His father works as a carpenter on daily wages. "He works if someone comes with work. He is jobless and has nothing to do if there is no carpentry work," says Faheem.
"I go to school in the morning and work in the evening. My brother fixes television cables and that again is on a daily wage. I get a very small amount from what I do. I put wooden heels on sandals and for every pair I get paid only 10 paise. I have another brother who studies in Class VIII and two sisters in Class X and IV," continues Faheem.
Amidst this financial constraint, Faheem forgets to mention his mother. "She is immobile," he says when this correspondent probes him. "She has calcium deficiency and cannot move. We cannot afford medication for her. We are just counting her days."
The government doctors provide free consultancy, but the family has to pay for the medication. "She needs to be medicated with an injection that costs us Rs 1,500 per injection. She needs this continuously for a month. That is going to cost us Rs 45,000. Where do we get this kind of money? We have left things to fate," he says with moist eyes.
"There have been days when none of us get money. We live in rented kholis (huts). We have to pay a rent of Rs 1,500. With no money coming in, we have starved for days. It happens quite often that we starve for more than 10 days a month. My father hasn't got any work for the past six months now."
Faheem goes to school from 7 am to 1 pm, he then goes for tuition after school and works from 4 pm to 11 pm. "I love to play like other kids, but I can't because of my schedule," he says.
"I want to study further and become a computer engineer," he says, confiding his dreams. "I know it is very difficult, but I will study hard. My brother has promised me that he will make me study as much as I want come what may. My sister wants to become a teacher and my dream is to be able to help my brother support my family."

OBAMA'S INAUGRATION THE COSTLIEST ONE IN AMERICAN HISTORY

This weekend, America's capital city will welcome thousands of government officials and dignitaries from the US and around the world. Over 10,000 buses will carry 500,000 riders into Washington, DC, doubling the city's population.
On Inauguration Day, the Metro is expected to have a 17-hour rush hour. District bars will be open 24 hours a day for five straight days.
To manage an event of this scale, the District of Columbia will spend a mammoth $47 million. It is not enough.
Obama's Inauguration is expected to be the largest inaugural event in American history -- and the most challenging to orchestrate. A committee of local elected officials estimates that ensuring the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in the festivities will cost over $75 million.
Security is one of the largest expenses. The Department of Homeland Security classifies presidential Inaugurations as 'National Special Security Events,' which means there is potential for terrorism or assassination attempts. In these cases, the Secret Service, with the help of local law enforcement, is put in charge of security.
The Inaugural Parade route alone requires 4,000 police officers and almost 100 other law enforcement agencies from around the country to help the Secret Service manage the masses.
Extra money will be spent not just to control crowds but also to transport them.
Transportation costs will set Washington, DC, back about $5 million as visitors enter the capital by bus, train, plane and automobile. Dulles International Airport and Reagan National Airport expect to see a combined 300,000 passengers walk through their terminals. And with no parking on Capitol Hill, limited parking in Washington, D.C., and countless road closures, driving a car into the city will be dreadful.
The Inauguration may be a logistical nightmare, but that shouldn't prevent anyone from having a good time. The Presidential Inauguration Committee will spend about $45 million on entertainment expenses, including the 10 official Inaugural Balls and big screen TVs placed around the city to let the public witness events they can't reach.
Much of the $45 million will go toward creating a dynamic Inauguration experience for the everyday visitor, not just funding exclusive events.
"We don't even consider these events to be extravagant," says Linda Douglas, a spokeswoman from the Presidential Inauguration Committee. "With crowds of this size, most of our attention is being devoted to opening up as many events to the public."
Six of the official balls, including the popular Neighbourhood Ball and the Obama Home States Inaugural Ball, are being held at the Washington Convention Center in the heart of the capital.
If the Secret Service thinks they face challenges, they should compare notes with Convention Center caterers. Over 1,800 hours will be spent prepping food for the six balls. About 9,000 pounds of tortellini and 8,250 pounds of Italian chicken roulade will be eaten. Toasts will be made with over 10,000 bottles of wine opened by over 700 bartenders and wait staff.
It may be possible to put a price tag on security and festivities, but some things can't be bought- - at least not by the general public.
One of those things is Obama's new, heavily armoured 2009 Cadillac limo, which will debut at the Inaugural Parade. It may look like a regular limo, but it's hardly your average sedan. The presidential limos are created by a secret team of individuals from both Cadillac and the US government. Understandably, the Secret Service won't share information about the protective elements of the president's car.

POPE TO HAVE OWN GOOGLE CHANNEL WITH VIDEO

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI is getting his own channel on Google.
It says the Vatican TV Center and Vatican Radio are collaborating with Google on the project.
The Vatican's press office said Saturday that texts and video of the pope's speeches as well as news about the pontiff would be posted directly onto the channel.
It says more information will be given next week.
The Vatican began using its Web site widely to publish teachings and pronouncements under the late Pope John Paul II.