PASTOR CITED FOR HOLDING HOME BIBLE STUDY WITHOUT PERMIT IN SAN DIEGO, USA

A San Diego pastor is fighting a citation from the San Diego County that requires him to obtain a permit to host weekly Bible studies at his home.
Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been hosting a Bible Study fellowship at their home every Tuesday for the past five years. The meeting, averaging 15 people each week, is usually comprised of dinner, fellowship and Bible study.
The meetings have gone without government interference until recently. Jones told KGTV, an ABC News affiliate in San Diego, that the visitor to a neighbor's house alerted the County after a Bible study member hit the visitor’s car while leaving.
In April, a County employee visited the Jones' residence and informed the couple that they were not allowed to hold "religious assembles" in their home unless they obtained a major use permit. The employee warned that the couple would face fines upwards of $1,000 if they failed to comply with the County's order.
The County later sent the Joneses a written warning ordering them to "cease/stop religious assembly on parcel or obtain major use permit."
News of the County's order has re-ignited debate over the interpretation of the First Amendment.
The Joneses and their attorney of The Western Center for Law and Policy, based in Escondido, Calif, said the couple's rights to hold the Bible studies are protected by the U.S. Constitution.
The Administration Citation and Cease and Desist Order violate the "Jones' right to assemble peaceably and privately in their home for the purpose of religious worship," stated WCLP president Dean R. Broyles in a letter sent on behalf of the Joneses to the County Tuesday.
The letter alleges the County is discriminating against religious activity because it doesn't require a permit for secular assemblies such as cub scout meetings, friends gathering each week to watch sports on TV, book clubs, sewing clubs, or poker nights in residential zones.
Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, defended the Bible study meeting on Thursday, urging supporters to sign a petition to the San Diego County Board that calls the County's actions "anti-Christian."
"I am upset that you would shut down a home Bible study of 15 people and yet allow similar secular events," reads the petition. "Your actions appear to have an anti-Christian slant and should cease immediately."
The Joneses and WCLP, according to the letter, are giving the County until early next week to uphold the couple's right to continue holding the Bible study meeting. If the County refuses to comply, the couple is prepared to consider a lawsuit.
A meeting between the two sides this week was unfruitful, according to KGTV. The next meeting is scheduled for June 9.

CHRISTIAN COUPLE ARRESTED FOR ANTI-MUSLIM BOOKLETS IN SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE — A Christian Singaporean couple were found guilty of sedition on Thursday for distributing evangelical publications that cast Islam in a negative light, court officials said.
Ong Kian Cheong and his wife Dorothy Chan had been charged with distributing a seditious publication to two Muslims in October and March 2007 and sending a second such booklet to another Muslim in December that same year, a district court official told.
The publications were found to have promoted feelings of ill-will and hostility between Christians and Muslims, the Straits Times said on its website.
A hearing was set for June 4 for mitigation pleas and sentencing.
The sedition charge carries a jail term of up to three years or a fine of up to 5,000 Singapore dollars (3,437 US) or both.
Singapore, a multi-racial island nation, clamps down hard on anyone seen to be inciting communal tensions.
In 2005, two ethnic Chinese men were jailed for anti-Muslim blogs.
The following year, a Singaporean blogger received a stern warning after posting cartoons mocking Jesus Christ on his online journal.
Ethnic Chinese make up a majority of the city-state's resident population but there are significant numbers of Malay Muslims, ethnic Indians and other groups.

MANDATORY ' GAY DAY ' FOR K-5 STUDENTS IN CALIFORNIA: BOARD IMPOSES HOMOSEXUAL CURRICULUM ON CLASSES

A California school district has approved a mandatory homosexual curriculum for children as young as 5 – and parents will not be allowed to remove their children from the lessons.
The mandatory program, officially titled "LGBT Lesson #9," was approved May 26 by the Alameda County Board of Education by a vote of 3-2. Students from kindergarten through fifth grade will learn about "tolerance" for the homosexual lifestyle beginning next year.
The curriculum is in addition to the school's current anti-bullying program and is estimated to cost $8,000 for curriculum and training.
Parents will not be given an opportunity to opt-out of lessons that go against their religious beliefs. Some parents are threatening to sue the school board and mount a recall. Opponents presented a petition with 468 signatures from people who don't want the homosexual lessons in the curriculum.
At the board meeting, parent Julie Kim said, "The topics covered in this curriculum for all the grades should be left up to the parent to discuss with their children."
The district's legal counsel recommended against giving parents an opportunity to opt out of the lessons, claiming only health or sex education topics require opt-out provisions:

[T]he most prudent course of action for Alameda Unified School District's Board of Education in regards to the proposed lesson is to recommend providing notice to parents, not to allow an opt out of the instruction.
The school district claims it will re-assess the curriculum, but only after it has been in place for a full year.
According to the Island of Alameda, trustee Tracy Jensen addressed a crowd at City Hall following the vote.
"We are not telling anyone what to think," Jensen said. "We are letting children know that gay people exist and they deserve to be treated with respect, regardless of whether or not you believe that homosexuality is acceptable."
But Capitol Resource Institute's Karen England explored the curriculum and released a statement condemning the program before the board's vote.
"This curriculum ignores the fact that every child has a mom and a dad, to redefine ideas like 'family.' School absolutely should be a safe place, but this isn't just about safety. Students have to embrace highly controversial social values or risk being labeled as bigots," she warned. "Five year old kids aren't ready to think on their own about sexuality – and their families' values will be dismissed. That's not an education in critical thinking. It's social activism."

In kindergarten, children will be introduced to "The New Girl … And Me" by Jacqui Robins. The book is about a young girl who is new at a school and strikes up a friendship with another girl after a popular boy refuses to play with her.

In first grade, students will read "Who is in a Family?" By Robert Skutch. It explores different types of families. One page states, " … Robin's family is made up of her dad, Clifford, her dad's partner, Henry, and Robin's cat, Sassy."

"If a student responds that one family in the book is made up of a mother, a father and two children and a cat, you may acknowledge that some families look like this," the curriculum states, "but also ask students for other examples of what a family can look like."
Teachers are told to reflect and "reinforce to students that in our school and our community there are many different types of families that provide love and care to each other. Remind the students that all family structures are equally important."
Second grade students will read about two homosexual penguins that raise a young chick in the book "And Tango Makes Three" by J. Richardson and P. Parnell.
The two male penguins, Roy and Silo, are described as being "a little bit different."
"They didn't spend much time with the girl penguins, and the girl penguins didn't spend much time with them," the text states.
When the male penguins nurture an egg, it soon hatches. "We'll call her Tango," it states, "because it takes two to make a Tango."
The book declares, "Tango was the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies."
In the third grade, students will watch a film called "That's a Family," featuring some homosexual couples in addition to traditional families.
According to the lesson plan, it aims to "assist students in developing sensitivity to gay and lesbian family structures" and teach "respect and tolerance for every type of family."
Fourth graders will be required to read an essay titled, "My School is Accepting – but Things Could be Better" by Robert, an 11-year-old who has two lesbian mothers.
They are introduced to terms such as "ally," "gay," "lesbian" and "LGBT."
Teachers are instructed to ask, "How do you think Robert feels when he hears people say things like, 'this is gay' or 'You're so gay'?"
By fifth grade, students learn to "identify stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people." They are told that "LGBT people have made important contributions within the United States and beyond."
Teachers are asked to write the acronym LGBT and ask students the meaning of each letter. Students discuss why stereotypes are "incorrect and hurtful" to LGBT people and people with LGBT family members.
The children are provided with a list of famous LGBT people, including novelist James Baldwin, singer Elton John, comedian Ellen Degeneres, pop singer Christina Aguilera, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, poet Walt Whitman, singer Lance Bass, figure skater Rudy Galindo, homosexual politician Harvey Milk, Army veteran Jose Zuniga and basketball player Sheryl Swoopes.

Teachers then ask if students are surprised to learn that those famous people are members of the LGBT community. The curriculum also provides a list of LGBT vocabulary words for students, including the following: bisexual, transgender, gay, LGBT and lesbian.

WHILE NORTH KOREA LAUNCHES NUCLEAR MISSILES, CHRISTIANS LAUNCHES PRAYER CAMPAIGN

N. Korea ― North Korea remained defiant in the face of international community condemnation by firing two more short-range missiles Tuesday after launching three on Monday, according to Reuters. More test launches are expected
Spokesman for Open Doors USA Jerry Dykstra says this aggression emphasizes North Korea's importance on the military. "Right now there are 1.2 million people in the army of North Korea and a back-up force of 5 million of their population of 26-million." He says they're on a war footing right now.
Even though North Korea is focused on the outside, Christians aren't getting a pass. Dykstra says, "The average Christian now is under even more danger, if that's possible. There are spies everywhere. If they even see a Bible with a Christian, they are imprisoned."
The spread of Christianity is one of the greatest fears of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. "He feels that the fall of Eastern Europe, the fall of communism, was caused by Christians and that this could also happen in North Korea. That's why there's an increase in surveillance of house churches and Christians."
Meanwhile, North Korean church leaders have started a prayer campaign. "They're praying they can evangelize inside North Korea. And they really feel something is going to happen in North Korea. It may be the fall of the current regime, and they have to be ready," says Dykstra.
The North Korean society is extremely unstable. Believers see this as an opportunity to develop and reinforce their church organization.Open Doors' World Watch List has ranked North Korea as the Number One persecutor of Christians for seven years in a row. Last month, North Korea was re-designated by the U.S. State Department as one of eight "Countries of Particular Concern" for their severe religious freedom violations.North Korean believers are asking the church in the West to support them and keep them in special prayer because of their difficult situation. They are also spending additional time in prayer for each other. They are sensing that the day of opening of North Korea is near. They are actively getting ready for the changes the North Korean churches will face in the future, according to the report."Christians in North Korea are suffering terribly for their faith. Of the estimated 200,000 in political prison camps, an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 are Christians," says Open Doors USA President/CEO Carl Moeller. "Now with the firing of several missiles and the war footing, the scrutiny of believers has increased. "What an awesome testimony that Christians inside North Korea have started a prayer campaign for evangelizing the entire country. We need to keep them in our prayers as they risk their lives for their faith."A pastor inside North Korea writes: "We thank God there are so many people who are praying for our country. Your prayers strengthen the Christians in North Korea."

PAKISTAN: PASTORS ARRESTED FOR USE OF LOUD SPEAKERS,POLICE CLAIM AMPLIFIED EASTER SUNDAY SERVICE DEFAMED ISLAM

ISTANBUL– Nine pastors from two neighboring villages in Pakistan could face prison time for using loudspeakers to broadcast prayers and sermons from their churches on Easter Sunday.
Martinpur and Youngsnabad, 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Lahore, are majority Christian villages. The nine pastors who lead congregations there say that local Muslim security forces have twisted the law to solicit a bribe.
Police arrested and detained Hafeez Gill, Fahim John, Maksud Ulkaq, and a catechist from the Catholic Church in Youngsnabad identified only as Saqab at 10 a.m. on May 16. While en route to the police station, the officers told them they would be released if they offered a bribe, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). The pastors refused and were detained, but following a public outcry from their parishioners they were released at 2:30 p.m.
Reports indicate the arrest was premeditated. A leader in the village council invited the pastors to his house for a meeting, but when they arrived in the morning local police were waiting for them.
They were taken to the police station, where Station House Officer Mirza Latif showed them two First Instance Reports (FIR) registered on May 11 claiming they had misused their speakers. The FIRs, however, state the pastors misused the speakers on Easter Sunday, which happened nearly a month earlier.
The FIRs accused the pastors of misusing their loudspeakers under Section 3/4 of the Amplifier Act. Their attorney said the reasons for their arrest were both religiously and financially motivated.
Police claimed that the church leaders had used their loudspeakers to amplify messages defaming Islam. The FIRs, however, make no mention of the content of their remarks.
“The police wanted to cause humiliation to the pastors and were also asking for money,” said CLAAS attorney Akhbar Durrani.
The case was registered by a special branch of local police forces charging the four Youngsnabad pastors. On the same day, they filed charges against the five pastors in Martinpur: Shahazad Kamarul-Zaman, Mumbarab Kuhram, Hanuk Daniel, Amar Sohail, and a fifth pastor unnamed in the police report.
Nasir Bahatti, president of the Youth Welfare Association in Youngsnabad, a Christian social organization, said the church had permission to amplify the service and that the arrests were religiously motivated.
“There is no reason to ban the loudspeaker,” he said. “They are banning our worship and prayer. But we have permission [to use them] on particular days such as Christmas and Easter.”
If the FIRs are not withdrawn, the pastors will go to court over the alleged loudspeaker violation. Police released them from jail on May 16 under the condition that they obtain bail at an upcoming hearing.
The church loudspeakers broadcasted the church prayers and sermon for villagers unable to attend the service, as is custom in some Christian villages. Pakistani law limits the use of loudspeakers in Christian worship services to a specific time allotment (and usually to villages and towns with a small Muslim population), but these restrictions were not enforced in the almost-entirely Christian villages of Youngsnabad and Martinpur.
Few such restrictions, however, are placed on Pakistani mosques. The five daily calls to prayer, Friday sermons, and Quran recitations on Islamic holidays are frequently amplified on loudspeakers. The double standard follows a traditional Islamic dictum in which church bells were not allowed to ring in areas under Islamic rule.
“The Muslims in this nation can worship according to their prayer method, so why can’t we if we are all given equal rights?” Bahatti said.
The standard of living is relatively high in these villages due to a well-educated population. There are longstanding missionary schools in the villages, and much of the population has lived abroad. English missionaries founded Youngsnabad and Martinpur 120 years ago during British colonial occupation.
Some rights groups worry that the harassment of Pakistani Christians in villages such as Martinpur and Youngsnabad could mean deteriorating conditions for religious minorities in areas once considered secure.
CLAAS reported that vandals completely ransacked a church in Bannu Cantt, in the North West Frontier Province, on May 12. They destroyed the altar, burned Bibles, and broke pews. Although the city is located in a province that borders Afghanistan, where Taliban rebels have been active, it was thought to be a relatively secure area, according to the report.
Pakistan remains in turmoil as the military moves into Swat Valley to uproot the Taliban, which has established Islamic law (sharia) in the embattled area. An estimated 2 million Pakistanis have become refugees by fleeing the area after a government evacuation order.

LONGTIME PENTECOSTAL CHURCH LEADER ROLF.K.MCPHERSON DIES AT 96

Rolf K. McPherson, a major figure in the Pentecostal movement who for 44 years guided the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel founded by his mother, charismatic evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, died of natural causes May 21 at his Los Feliz home, according to a church spokesman.

He was 96.After his mother's death in 1944, McPherson became the leader of the church and the pastor of Angelus Temple, the domed landmark in Echo Park where his mother delivered fire-and-brimstone sermons with Hollywood pageantry during the 1920s and '30s.

McPherson lacked his mother's flamboyance but brought a steady hand to the management of the finances and day-to-day operations of the church, which now claims 8.4 million members in 144 countries.

"His most important legacy was laying the foundation for the explosive growth of the church in the second half of the 20th century," said Washington State University historian Matthew Avery Sutton, who wrote a 2007 biography of McPherson's mother. "He never had his mom's charisma, energy or excitement, but he was very sharp, a savvy and brilliant administrator" who guided the denomination into "the mainstream of American evangelicalism.

"As president of the church, McPherson oversaw its LIFE Bible College (now called Life Pacific College) in San Dimas and radio station KFSG-FM, which his mother founded in 1924. KFSG was one of the first radio stations in Los Angeles and was among the oldest continuously operating Christian radio stations until it went off the air in 2003.
McPherson was one of two children of the famous evangelist. He was born in Providence, R.I., on March 23, 1913, two years after his half-sister, Roberta Semple Salter. His father was Harold S. McPherson, a businessman who wanted his wife to stay home and take care of their son and Roberta, but she chafed at the constraints the role placed on her. They were divorced after a few years, freeing her to hit the revival circuit in a stylish sedan she called the "Gospel Car.

" In 1918 the itinerant evangelist settled in Los Angeles, where she eventually built a grand, 5,000-seat temple across from the lake in Echo Park north of downtown. For many followers, the highlight of her worship services was the altar call, when the sick and infirm surged forward to ask for healing. Young Rolf witnessed many of the sessions."They used to bring ambulances and stretchers, and they left empty," McPherson recalled in a 1996 interview with Charisma magazine.

"Often Mother would . . . go down and pray for someone on a stretcher. They would get up off the stretcher and the stretcher would be carried off empty."By the time he was 13, he and his half-sister were leading children's services at the temple. According to Sutton's book "Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America," the services regularly attracted "about a thousand of the smallest worshipers" in the Foursquare movement.Although his mother and half-sister displayed more talent in the pulpit, McPherson "was a good preacher," said author Daniel Mark Epstein, who spoke to McPherson numerous times while writing "Sister Aimee," a biography published in 1994.

"He didn't have that sort of star power, but in his own quiet way he was very articulate," Epstein said Wednesday. "His faith was very deep and authentic and he spoke from the heart."Because his mother was often traveling, McPherson lived with other church families during much of his childhood, Sutton said. He had been staying in Yolo County when his mother mysteriously disappeared in 1926 after going swimming near Venice Beach. The incident turned scandalous after she resurfaced a month later in Mexico, claiming she had been the victim of a kidnapping. Authorities suggested she had made up the kidnapping to cover up an affair with a church employee, but she stuck to her story and was embraced by her flock upon her return.McPherson had studied engineering but shifted his focus to the church after his mother became seriously ill in 1930. In 1936 he took her side in a management dispute with his half-sister. Salter lost the dispute and was removed from the church's leadership in 1937. She died in 2007 at 96.He became church president in 1944 when Aimee McPherson died of an accidental overdose of barbiturates. Under McPherson's stewardship, the Foursquare movement grew from 29,000 members in 410 churches and meeting places in 1944 to 1.2 million members in 19,000 churches and meeting places worldwide in 1988, when he retired. "He laid a foundation that made it possible for the Foursquare Church to move forward around the world," Pastor Jack Hayford, the current church president, said in a statement after McPherson's death.McPherson is survived by his second wife, Evangeline Carmichael McPherson; a daughter, Alicia McPherson Santacroce, from his marriage to Lorna De Smith that ended with her death; a stepdaughter, Carol Parks; three grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and a niece.A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Angelus Temple, 1100 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles.

For more information on the services and memorial donations, go to www.foursquare.org/articles/841,1.html.

JESUS FILM TO TRAGET MORE SOPHISTICATED COUNTRIES

Nearly 30 years after "The Jesus Film’s" debut, the ministry that created the most translated movie in history is working to develop more sophisticated tools to reach western and highly developed countries.

“We are going to make probably more effort because we don’t have the equipment, tools and resources that are really speaking well to the first world and the media sophisticated, the U.S. and Europe,” said Greg Gregoire, senior associate at The Jesus Film Project, to The Christian Post.
“So we are going to spend a little more focus on developing tools that work there,” he said, noting countries and cities such as Berlin, Singapore, and Los Angeles.
Since "The Jesus Film" debuted in English on Oct. 19, 1979, it has been translated into 1,055 languages and has been seen by more than 6 billion people from every country in the world. Out of the billions of people that have seen the film, there are a recorded 225 million that have indicated a decision for Christ.
The Jesus Film Project is a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, International, one of the world’s largest nonprofit, interdenominational organizations. Although the film began as a ministry tool for CCC, it has now been accepted by many groups in the body of Christ as their primary evangelistic tool, Gregoire pointed out. More than 1,500 Christian organizations are using the film to share the Gospel.
In addition to "The Jesus Film," the ministry in recent years has created derivative products from the film to respond to the need of churches. Some of the products include a film made for children that answers questions only kids would ask, and a movie about Jesus told through the eyes of Mary Magdalena.
The film "Magdalena: Released from Shame," released last year, has received strong positive support from women around the world. It has been shown in parts of the world where women face discrimination because of their gender to communicate to oppressed women that there is a man who cares for them and wants to extend dignity to them.
In the short time since it debuted, Magdalena has been translated into over 40 languages with another 50 translations in progress.
The ministry is also currently working with other groups to produce a new version of "The Jesus Film." Gregoire noted that the film is 30 years old and does not “compete” well in the market place.
Furthermore, the ministry has recently produced several short films to reach out to youths who are not interested in watching or talking about Jesus, but are typically interested in discussing films. The short six- to seven-minute films are meant to initiate conversations about spirituality.
There are also plans for an anime version of "The Jesus Film."
The ministry does not plan to hold any special events to mark the 30th anniversary of the film’s debut, according to Gregoire. Instead, staffs will gather for the biannual meeting this summer to pray and remember what God has used the ministry for over the years.

GODTUBE FOUNDER BUYS AMERICANLIFE TV NETWORK: NETWORK REACHES 13 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS,TO BE TURNED INTO "FAMILY VALUES" CHANNEL

Dr. Robert Schuller, former pastor of Crystal Cathedral Ministries, and Chris Wyatt, the founder of religious video site GodTube, have acquired baby boomer targeted cable network AmericanLife TV.
ComStar Media Fund, for which Wyatt currently serves as CEO, will purchase the cabler, which reaches nearly 13 million subscribers, for an undisclosed sum. The plan is to turn the network into a “family values” channel, though they claim it will not become a religious network per se. The on-air look will change, as will the syndicated programs the network seeks to acquire.

“We are not creating another religious network but rather a family-values channel,” Wyatt said. “We’ve tapped into a huge underserved market and have the opportunity over time to increase distribution to exceed 40 million homes. As the founder and former CEO of GodTube.com, one of the fastest growing website’s of 2007, I have experience to apply to achieve this type of growth in cable and satellite distribution.”
Schuller is no stranger to television, having hosted global religious program The Hour of Power for many years. He will host a show on the reworked network, though the details are still being worked out.

“Having been on television for 32 years, I’ve witnessed first-hand the decline of family-values programming in America,” Schuller said. “I’m looking forward to pioneering a new definition of ‘family-values’ programming that speaks to all generations. “

STUDENTS ,FACULTY RALLY TO SAVE THE FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY RELIGION DEPARTMENT : PRAY & MAKE A DIFFERNCE...

As Florida International University trustees prepare to vote on budget cuts next month, students and professors are campaigning to save an ancient tradition: the study of religion.
FIU's religion department is one of three slated to close as the school faces a $27 million cut from its state general revenue allotment. Closing the department, which has about 125 undergraduate and graduate students and 12 full-time faculty members, would save $600,000 a year. FIU has a $642 million total operating budget.
''This is a very strange time to say the study of religion is dispensable when virtually every conflict in the world revolves around religion,'' said Christine Gudorf, the department chair.
The other departments scheduled to close are Recreation and Sports Management, and Athletic Training. Another 16 degrees that are mostly in the College of Education and have single-digit enrollment will also be eliminated, saving another $400,000 a year. Millions more would be saved by cutting academic affairs expenses, such as library purchases.
The religion department would phase out over three years and most undergraduate and all graduate students would be able to complete their degrees, said Kenneth Furton, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Some religion classes would be offered through other departments, where many faculty members would retain jobs, but teachers with less seniority could lose employment, he said.
There is a small chance the program can be saved, Furton said.
Since the plan was announced in early April, people such as Yanery Andreu, a recent graduate, have circulated petitions, campaigned through Facebook and made e-mail and in-person appeals to FIU leadership.
''Hate and misunderstandings come when we don't understand the differences in our beliefs. Learning about the comparative studies of world religions creates an atmosphere of respect throughout the world,'' Andreu, 24, wrote in a letter presented to FIU President Modesto A. Maidique during a town hall meeting Monday.
Jewish, Christian and Muslim clergy, many who have put their support behind the department for its interfaith work -- such as hosting the Dalai Lama five years ago -- also attended the meeting among more than 200 people.
FIU is not the only university cutting back. The University of Florida also plans steep reductions in its religion department. UF President Bernie Machen has said that more than 150 faculty and staff positions will likely be eliminated among $42 million in cuts that are pending approval.
In January at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, leaders proposed merging the religion and philosophy departments.
The merger is being reconsidered
''There is a remarkable amount of ignorance and illiteracy about world religions in the U.S. and all over. . .religious studies are vital to making global citizens,'' said Jack Fitzmier, executive director of the Atlanta-based American Academy of Religion, which has sent a letter to FIU's Maidique asking him to reconsider.
Dean Furton said the religion cut is ''not based on quality of the program,'' but based upon comparison to similar-sized schools that don't have religion departments.
FIU is not the only South Florida university to offer a religion program.
The University of Miami and St. Thomas University have undergraduate degrees, and Florida Atlantic University offers a certificate in religion.

CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY PUTS ATHEISTS AD'S ON 25 BUSES WITH THE HELP OF AMERICAN HUMANISTS ASSOCIATION

CHICAGO - For the past week, 25 buses from the Chicago Transit Authority have been bearing an unusual advertising slogan. The large ads read "In the Beginning, Man Created God," and they're scheduled to remain on the sides of the buses through June. They're part of an effort by the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign, with the help of the American Humanist Association.

The board that runs South Bend's city bus system recently agreed to allow ads on that city's buses reading: "You can be good without God." The group had hoped to have the ads installed on 20 South Bend buses before President Barack Obama's appearance at the University of Notre Dame last Sunday, but that move was delayed.

Bloomington, Indiana's city bus service recently rejected similar ads, prompting a lawsuit.

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND ABANDONS BIBLE - ALLOWS GAY PASTOR

LONDON - The Church of Scotland has approved the appointment of an openly homosexual minister - the latest case of tensions over sexuality to prompt division in the Anglican Communion.
The church's ruling body voted Saturday by 326 to 267 to support the appointment of the Rev. Scott Rennie, 37, who was previously married to a woman and is now in a relationship with a man.
Rennie was first appointed as a minister 10 years ago, but has faced opposition from some critics since he moved to a church in Aberdeen, Scotland, last year.
The case threatens to divide Scottish religious leaders and follows tensions within the worldwide 77 million-member Anglican Communion. About 900 elders and ministers took part in a debate on Rennie's case, but many chose to abstain from casting a vote.
Anglican have conducted lengthy debate over sexuality issues since the Episcopal Church - the Anglican body in the U.S. - consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.
Rennie said he believed religious conservatives were behind attempts to oust him from his post. "The same talk was about when women were ordained and I think that argument suits those that don't want any change," he told Britain's Sky News television on Saturday.
Following the vote to back Rennie, Scotland's Equality and Human Rights Commission said the Church of Scotland had proven itself to be "a modern church for a modern Scotland."
Protesters had lobbied the Kirk - the Church of Scotland's ruling executive - over Rennie's case, saying his appointment was not consistent with the teachings of the Bible.
"We are absolutely opposed to that on the basis of what God has to say about homosexuality in the Bible," one opponent, Pastor Jack Bell of the Zion Baptist Church in Glasgow, Scotland, said.

RALPH.D.WINTER DIES AT 84 : HE WAS ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST INFLUENTIAL EVANGELICALS

Ralph D. Winter, a Christian missionary who was named one of America's 25 most influential evangelicals by Time magazine in 2005, died Wednesday at his home in Pasadena after battling multiple myeloma and lymphoma. He was 84.

Winter stepped onto the world stage in 1974 at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. There he issued a call for other Protestant evangelists to proselytize to the world's "unreached people," those who had not been exposed to Christianity.

In identifying mission fields, Winter looked for "ethnic pockets," isolated areas where language, ethnicity, culture and social status as well as religion had hindered the spread of the Christian Gospel.

He began his career as a Presbyterian missionary in Guatemala in 1956. Ten years later he returned to the United States to become professor of missions at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. At Fuller he trained missionaries, sharing with students his experiences working with the indigenous Maya people of Latin America.

In 1976 he decided to leave the classroom to become a strategist for Christian outreach, founding the interdenominational U.S. Center for World Mission on the former campus of Pasadena Nazarene College. A year after establishing a research institute there, he founded the related William Carey International University.
By 2005 he was included along with such figures as Rick Warren and James Dobson in Time's compilation of influential American evangelicals.Winter was born in South Pasadena in December 1924, the middle son of Hugo H. Winter, a prominent freeway designer with the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering, and his wife, Hazel.

He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Caltech before serving in the Navy during World War II. After his discharge, Winter switched gears and studied for a doctorate in linguistics, anthropology and mathematical statistics at Cornell. He then attended Columbia, where he received a master's degree in teaching English as a second language, and Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1956. By then he was prepared for his missionary calling to Guatemala, setting out with his wife, Roberta, a registered nurse whom he had married in 1951. They had four daughters, all of whom became involved in missionary work. Roberta died in 2001.

Winter is survived by his second wife, Barbara; daughters Elizabeth Gill, Rebecca Lewis, Linda Dorr and Patricia Johnson; 14 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and two brothers, Paul, a structural engineer, and David, president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara.A memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. June 28 at Lake Avenue Congregational Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena. More information: http://www.uscwm.org/.

PASTOR CHARGED IN PARISH THEFT : ACCUSED OF TAKING $291,000 FROM THE CHURCH AND THE TRUST

The conservative Colorado Springs pastor who broke away from the Episcopal Church to form a new Anglican congregation in May 2007 now is accused of stealing $291,000 from Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish.
The Rev. Don Armstrong was indicted on 20 counts of felony theft by an El Paso County grand jury Wednesday. He surrendered to authorities Thursday but was soon free on bond, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.
Armstrong's spokesman did not return calls Friday.
Police and a special prosecutor conducted a two-year investigation into allegations of Armstrong's financial wrongdoings at the church.
In the indictment, Armstrong, 60, is accused of using the Clarice Bowton Trust, a scholarship fund for new ministers, to pay his own children's college expenses, including rent and tuition bills.
The trust was activated after Bowton's death in the late 1970s, and its terms were never amended.
The indictment further states that Armstrong's use of the trust was eventually questioned by a trust officer, who terminated its distribution to the church as of December 2001.
Once Armstrong's access to the trust was cut off, the indictment said, the pastor began using the general funds of the church to pay for his son's and daughter's educations. Court records say Armstrong siphoned $291,000 from the church and the trust over a 7 1/2-year period.
When Armstrong left the Episcopal Church, he said the split was over theological differences, such as his opposition to gay marriage and the church's ordination of openly gay clergy.
But Colorado Episcopal Diocese officials countered that they believed Armstrong, who had been Grace's pastor for 20 years, had left to escape reckoning for embezzlement uncovered by diocesan officials. The diocese notified police of its suspicions in May 2007.
In fall 2007, an Ecclesiastical Court in Denver found Armstrong guilty of financial and pastoral misconduct that included theft of almost $400,000.
Armstrong also was removed from active ministry in the Episcopal Church. The diocese would not comment further Friday.
In 2007, Armstrong affiliated his parish with the theologically conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
Armstrong and his group kept possession of Grace Church and St. Stephen buildings on Tejon Street until an El Paso County judge ruled March 24 that the pastor must surrender the $17 million property to the diocese around April 1.
Armstrong and followers then moved to a new house of worship, St. George's Anglican Church on Fieldstone Road. Officials there issued a statement Friday expressing full support for Armstrong and belief in his innocence, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.
Convocation of Anglicans in North America Bishop Martyn Minns said Friday that the indictment was a painful but necessary step in Armstrong's journey of publicly proving his innocence.
The case will be prosecuted by Pueblo County District Attorney Bill Thiebaut because the El Paso County DA at the time the case was opened had been a parishioner of Armstrong's and recused himself.

TWO PEOPLE KILLED & 14 INJURED IN NEPAL CHURCH ATTACK

TWO people were killed, including a teenage girl, and 14 wounded when a bomb exploded today in a Roman Catholic church packed with worshippers on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital, police said.
A Christian leader said the attack, the first on a Christian church, marked the "saddest day'' in the history of the religion in the impoverished mountain nation.
The church - Kathmandu's only Roman Catholic place of worship - was jammed with 500 people when the device went off at the start of morning Mass, creating panic as people rushed for the exits, police said.
A pamphlet of an obscure Hindu extremist group called the National Defence Army was found at the blast site in Lalitpur, a district adjoining Kathmandu, police said.
But police said it was too soon to assign blame for the attack on the Church of Assumption which came hours before lawmakers were due to vote in a new premier after weeks of political instability in the world's newest republic.
"A 15-year old student, Celestina Joseph, and 30-year-old Pabitra Paitri died in the bomb blast.
Five of the injured are in serious condition,'' police officer Ram Brish Chaudhary said.
It was the first attack on a Christian church in the Hindu-dominated Nepal.
The bombing came as lawmakers were due to choose a new premier, three weeks after Maoist prime minister Prachanda quit, plunging the nation into a crisis triggered by a stand-off between his ex-rebels and the army.

PENTAGON REPORTS NO LONGER BIBLE QUOTE ON THE COVER PAGE OF DAILY INTELLIGENCE

The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography.
For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians and the epistles of Peter. At the time, the reports focused largely on the war in Iraq.
The Bible quotes apparently aimed to support Bush at a time when soldiers' deaths in Iraq were on the rise, according to the June issue of GQ magazine. But they offended at least one Muslim analyst at the Pentagon and worried other employees that the passages were inappropriate.
On Thursday, April 10, 2003, for example, the report quoted the book of Psalms — "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him. ... To deliver their soul from death." — and featured pictures of the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down and celebrating crowds in Baghdad.

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand," read the cover quote two weeks earlier, on March 31, above a picture of a U.S. tank driving through the desert, according to the magazine, which obtained copies of the documents.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, on Monday said U.S. soldiers "are not Christian crusaders, and they ought not be depicted as such."
"Depicting the Iraq conflict as some sort of holy war is completely outrageous," Lynn said in a statement. "It's contrary to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and it's tremendously damaging to America's reputation in the world."

KRIS ALLEN'S " AMERICAN IDOL " VICTORY MARKS THE RETURN OF PEOPLE OF FAITH TO AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC

Apparently it took the Allen-Lambert showdown for Newsweek to figure out what has been happening all along with “American Idol” — the return of people of faith into the mainstream of American popular music, both as voters and performers. I’ve written about the trend in two books, The Rock & Roll Rebellion and Faith, God & Rock ‘n’ Roll, and I look closely at how religion has affected “American Idol” in my next one, “Rock Gets Religion.”
“…Most of his groupies have overlooked a possible roadblock to the title,” Newsweek observed about Lambert’s chances of winning. “Idol is the No. 1 show on TV at least in part because it’s so family-friendly, and it also appeals to a large demographic of Christian viewers….Many of Idol’s previous winners–Jordin Sparks, Carrie Underwood, Ruben Studdard–are devout Christians. Coincidence? Perhaps. But we don’t know much about Lambert’s faith, and that might hurt him with Christian voters. He could be extremely religious, but he’s kept his religious beliefs quiet.”
If my Facebook wall is any indication, Christians did indeed vote in large numbers for the “Christian” AI contestant for yesterday alone I saw several Facebookers urging fellow Christians to vote for the “worship leader” Allen.

Not that there’s anything wrong with affinity voting — after all 96% of African-Americans voted for Obama. Still, the voting patterns of “Idol” viewers and the large presence of Christian performers heralds a new era of integration into mainstream culture by people of faith which, I think, is a welcome one, but which is already producing radically different pop icons from those of a generation ago.
Beginning in the late 1960’s as many devout artists left mainstream music to join the “Christian music” sub-culture — often never to be heard from again — their influence on pop culture waned. But for the last decade the trend of Christian artists leaving the subculture behind and singing for mainstream record labels — and talent contests has been unmistakable. To be sure there have been attempts to create faux “Christianized” versions of ” American Idol” like this one, called Gifted, but they flopped and the net result means that, a strong presence by the most devout segments of our culture, both as performers and voters, will result in “American Idol” winners who go on to become pop icons of a radically kind different kind compared to those who were created in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s when the music business was run by highly secularized record executives who picked future stars instead of fans from the heartland as with “American Idol.”
For those who like their rock and religion served separately, the future of rock music may be bleak as more and more people of faith step up to the microphone and the “Idol” voting booth. But they can also take heart from at least one outcome of the Allen-Lambert showdown, the fact that the allegedly-gay guy and the Christian guy have been the best of friends throughout the competition, even rooming together at one point. If more Americans can hold to their strongly held beliefs and still build bridges of friendship as Allen and Lambert apparently have, it may portend well for the country and the red-blue divide.

SIX CABINET MINISTERS OF INDIA ARE ' NON-BELIEVERS' ; THEY DOESN'T BELIEVE IN GOD

NEW DELHI: Six cabinet ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's new team are 'non-believers'. These ministers "solemnly affirmed" that they would bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution while taking oath today.

The Prime Minister and 13 of his ministers took the oath in the name of God.

This who didn’t, are A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Sushilkumar Shinde, M Veerappa Moily, S Jaipal Reddy and C P Joshi, a first-timer in the cabinet. The other ministers who took oath in the name of God include Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Vayalar Ravi, S M Krishna, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kamal Nath, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, B K Handique and Anand Sharma.

U.S MUSLIM SCHOLARS INCH CLOSER TO FULFILLING THE VISION OF FIRST ISLAMIC COLLEGE IN UNITED STATES

PLAINSBORO, N.J. - A group of American Muslims, led by two prominent scholars, is moving closer to fulfilling a vision of founding the first four-year accredited Islamic college in the United States, what some are calling a "Muslim Georgetown."
Advisers to the project have scheduled a June vote to decide whether the proposed Zaytuna College can open in the fall of next year, a major step toward developing the faith in America.

Imam Zaid Shakir and Sheik Hamza Yusuf of California have spent years planning the school, which will offer a liberal arts education and training in Islamic scholarship. Shakir, a California native, sees the school in the tradition of other religious groups that formed universities to educate leaders and carve a space in the mainstream of American life.
"As a faith community our needs aren't any different than the needs of any other faith community," Shakir told the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals, as he sought donations at a recent conference near Princeton, N.J. "As Muslims, we need to develop institutions to allow us to perpetuate our values."
Others have tried to start Muslim colleges around New York and Chicago, but those schools remained obscure or quickly folded.

Shakir and Yusuf are believed to have a better chance than most to succeed.
Shakir, an African-American Air Force veteran, and Yusuf, a native of Washington state, are converts who spent years studying with Islamic scholars in North Africa and the Mideast. They speak flawless Arabic and have become widely respected teachers. Yusuf draws thousands of people to his talks and tens of thousands of viewers to his online lectures.
In 1996, Yusuf founded Zaytuna Institute, now based in Berkeley, Calif., which is dedicated to classical Muslim scholarship. Zaytuna means "olive tree" in Arabic.
The institute expanded to provide distance learning, workshops in multiple cities and conferences with prominent scholars. Shakir, a Zaytuna teacher for six years, ran a pilot seminary program from 2004-2008, partly to test the viability of a school. An intensive Arabic language summer course, in its second year, has doubled its enrollment.
"It is far and away the single most influential institution that's shaping American Muslim thought," said Omid Safi, an Islamic studies professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "On the one hand they speak so much about being American. On the other hand, they have also plugged these American Muslim students into the global Muslim curriculum, that has all the rigor of traditional Islamic scholarship."
In earlier years, Shakir and Yusuf had made some anti-American statements, but that rhetoric is not part of their teaching. Zaytuna Institute has clips on its Web site of a lecture by the two scholars called "Curing Extremism." Following a White House meeting with President George W. Bush soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Yusuf made the now widely repeated comment that "Islam was hijacked" by the terrorists and he has condemned the attackers as "mass murderers."
A working motto for the school: "Where Islam Meets America."
Zaytuna College will start with two majors: Arabic language, and Islamic legal and theological studies.
It will not be a seminary, although some graduates could become prayer leaders, or imams. Most U.S. mosques are led by imams from overseas, considered an obstacle to Islam's development in America.
Other students could go on to start American Muslim nonprofits, or become Islamic scholars through advanced study at other schools, said Hatem Bazian, a Zaytuna adviser who teaches at the University of California-Berkeley and Saint Mary's College of California.
But administrators aim to teach analytical skills, along with ethics and theology, that can prepare students for many professional careers.
Zaytuna will start in rented space in Berkeley and will seek accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. All faiths will be welcome, academic freedom will be protected, and there will be no separation of men and women, Bazian said.
"It is a daunting task, there is no question about it," Bazian said. "But I'm completely confident and comforted that almost every major private university began with one classroom and possibly one building and sometimes it was a rented facility to begin with."
The college needs $2 million to $4 million to launch, a fundraising goal Bazian says organizers will comfortably meet by next year. Zaytuna will soon start raising the tens of millions of dollars needed for an endowment and a capital fund to build a campus in the Bay Area years from now, Bazian said.
Mahmoud Ayoub, a retired professor of Islamic studies Temple University, is among those who don't support the idea of a U.S. Muslim college, not only because of the enormous expense and risk involved, but also because he believes Muslims are better off attending established American schools. He said U.S. Muslims badly need a seminary since there are none in the country.
"I don't know that I would send my child to go to a college where they can only learn tradition. Young people have to live," said Ayoub who has worked with the U.S. State Department, representing America in the Muslim world. "I like mixing people. I don't like ghettos."
But Zaytuna considers the state of Muslim scholarship in the West so "anemic" that a crisis is looming. The Muslim community in North America and Europe, now in the millions, is growing, and has few properly trained leaders to guide them.
"Who will talk for the religion?" Shakir asked. "We have to train a generation."

UZBEKISTAN : BIBLE AND MEL GIBSON FILM BANNED IN KARAKALPAKSTAN

Nurulla Zhamolov, the senior religious affairs official for the Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] Autonomous Republic of north-western Uzbekistan, has banned specific religious books and films confiscated from religious believers on at least three occasions known to Forum 18 News Service in 2009.


The confiscations happened during police and National Security Service (NSS) secret police raids. Among works Zhamolov has "banned for import, distribution or use in teaching on the territory of the Republic of Karakalpakstan" are the Bible, a hymn book, a Bible Encyclopaedia, a Bible dictionary, a children's Bible, and the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson, although this has legally been shown in cinemas in the capital Tashkent.

The bans were set out in "expert analyses" provided for court hearings of local Protestants, and revealed in court documents and a prosecutor's office letter seen by Forum 18. Forum 18 has been unable to obtain copies of Zhamolov's "expert analyses".
The authorities in Karakalpakstan routinely confiscate religious literature they find in the homes of religious believers during raids. It remains unclear what further activity the authorities will undertake in the wake of the bans on specific works.It also remains unclear whether Zhamolov's ban on the Bible includes a ban on the Russian-language Synodal version, a nineteenth-century translation widely used not only among Russian-speaking Protestants but by the Russian Orthodox for private reading outside church services (which are in Church Slavonic).

Forum 18 tried to find out from Zhamolov of the Religious Affairs Committee why peaceful religious communities have been raided, why peaceful religious believers have been detained and fined, why religious literature has been confiscated and why he has issued "expert analyses" banning the import, distribution and use of named religious books in Karakalpakstan. However, the man who answered his phone on 20 May told Forum 18 it was a wrong number.

Subsequent calls went unanswered.Officials in the Uzbek capital Tashkent were likewise unwilling to talk about the raids, the confiscation of religious literature or state censorship of religious literature. The official who answered the phone at the government's National Human Rights Centre of Uzbekistan told Forum 18 on 20 May that its director Akmal Saidov and deputy director Akhmat Ismailov were out of the office, while Ikrom Saipov, who heads the department dealing with citizens' complaints, was on leave.

Asked what the Human Rights Centre has done to defend the religious freedom of Uzbekistan's residents, the official – who would not give his name – responded: "I cannot provide any further information. Come to our Centre and you can read our last annual report in our library." Asked whether the report is available on the internet, he responded: "I'm afraid not."The official who answered the phone on 20 May of the government's Religious Affairs Committee in Tashkent – who gave his name as Murat – told Forum 18 he was a trainee and was unable to answer any questions. He said no other Committee official was in the office.

INDONESIA : MUSLIM GROUP THREATENS NEWLY ELECTED CHRISTIAN TO CONVERT TO ISLAM

JAKARTA – An Islamic group in West Sumatra province, Indonesia, has issued threats against Dominikus Supriyanto, the only Catholic to win a seat in the district legislature in recent general elections, warning him that he should convert to Islam if he wants to retain the seat.
On April 23, after results were announced, a group identifying itself as the Islamic Forum of West Pasaman attacked Supriyanto’s home, slinging stones and breaking several windows. Supriyanto, who was in the house at the time, said the attackers also shouted threats and demanded that he become a Muslim if he planned to stay in politics.
Supriyanto reported the incident to police and requested protection. After a brief investigation, police concluded that the attackers had most likely acted on behalf of unsuccessful election candidates.
Elections took place on April 9, but the election commission has only recently confirmed the names of those who will take up positions at district, provincial and national levels.
Supriyanto stood as a candidate for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in West Pasaman, West Sumatra, and won a seat in the district legislature from 2009 to 2014. The district is 98 percent Muslim, but Compass sources said voters supported Supriyanto because of his rapport with the Muslim community.
Supriyanto’s party supports pancasila, Indonesia’s national policy of tolerance for all religions.
Earlier this year, supporters of other candidates engaged in a so-called “black campaign,” warning that Supriyanto would likely “Christianize” West Pasaman if elected.
Despite such accusations prior to and following the elections, Supriyanto is determined to retain his seat.
“I was elected not just by Christians and Catholics, but by Muslims,” he told Compass. “I’m going to remain Catholic no matter what happens.”
Supriyanto has requested support from fellow party members in Jakarta.
The bishop of Padang diocese, Monsignor Martinus Situmorang, said Supriyanto had won the vote fairly and that if threats continued the diocese would take the issue to a national level.
Members of the Islamic Forum, meanwhile, have pledged to demonstrate publicly against Supriyanto during his inauguration in July.

KIDA SETS CHURCH ON FIRE WHILE 50 PEOPLE WHERE INSIDE THE CHURCH IN NAPERVILLE

Police on Tuesday were continuing their investigation into an aggravated arson where a boy or girl apparently set a fire inside a church while 50 parishioners were socializing in the basement after Sunday worship services.
No one was injured during the blaze, which did about $500 damage to Naperville Congregational Church at 1 Bunting Lane.
Naperville police Cmdr. Dave Hoffman on Tuesday would not reveal the age or gender of the accused youth or say whether he or she is a member of the church. Hoffman would say only "police are investigating an apparent arson involving a juvenile."
The fire was set about 11:15 a.m. Sunday after a church service. A written police report indicated it erupted beneath the pulpit while 50 people were down in the basement.
Hoffman said the flames and damage were confined to the pulpit area. The blaze was extinguished "almost immediately" by either a church staff member or worshipper, he said.
The police report classified the crime as "aggravated arson."

READ THE STORY OF A MAN FROM VARANASI WHO DIDN'T HAD BATH FOR 35 YEARS IN AN ATTEMPT TO HAVE A SON

Kailash ‘Kalau’ Singh is from the village of Chatav outside the holy city of Varanasi. He is 63-years-old and the father of seven daughters. He has gone for 35 years without bathing apparently in an attempt to have a son. Read about it below and see his photo.

One of Singh’s neighbors, Madhusudan, says that a seer told Kalau years ago that if he didn’t take a bath, he would be blessed with a male child. It seems that many Indians prefer sons for financial reasons. Sons are breadwinners. Girls have to have the matrimonial dowry for the grooms family when they marry. Also, in Indian culture, all their earnings go to their husband’s family. For those reasons, girl children are considered a burden.
So for 35 years Singh hasn’t bathed. It appears his efforts are not working so far.
This has been costly for him. He used to own a grocery store, but had to go out of business when customers quit coming to his store because of his ‘unhealthy personality’. He now works in the fields. He also incurred the anger of his family when he refused to take a ritual dip in the river Ganges even after the death of his brother five years ago.
In spite of what his neighbors have said, Kalau claims he doesn’t remember how it all began. He claims his pledge to not wash is in the ‘national interest’. ‘I’ll end this vow only when all problems confronting the nation end,’ he said.
Even though he refuses to take water baths, he does take fire baths. That involves standing on one leg next to a bonfire, smoking marijuana and saying prayers to Lord Shiva. He claims its just as good as using water to bath and the fire kills germs and infection in the body.
Oh, and he doesn’t brush his teeth either.
Considering this whole scenario its not surprising that he hasn’t had a male child. The surprising thing is that he’s had any children at all.

NEWYORK TIMES FUELLING WAR ON RELIGION ?

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 14, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: The liberal media's war against religion is alive and well. A recent front-page story in The New York Times reported on the alleged rise of atheism in America. And, of course, a story like that didn't go unnoticed by Bill Maher.
Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER")
BILL MAHER, HOST: Now, what do you think of the fact that it seems to be a movement that's gaining credibility as of late?
Well, it was on the front page of The New York Times this week in a number of places around the country that you might not think it would be happening, when they put up a billboard that says, "Atheists, please call," you know, there was no complaints. It was just people saying, "Hey, I want to join."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So, is The New York Times and other liberal outlets responsible for pushing an atheist agenda?

Joining me now is the author of the New York Times best-selling "A Slobbering Love Affair: The True, Pathetic Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media."
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: I still laugh at the title.
Bernie Goldberg is with us.
Bernie, good to see you.
BERNARD GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Good to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: All right.
There is — and I have said this for years — a hostility in the media towards Christian conservatives. Do I overstate that case?

GOLDBERG: No, no.
Let's take this — this New York Times story as one example. It's a perfectly legitimate journalism story to talk about the rise of atheism in America, if, indeed, the facts are correct.
Now, The Times put it on page one. Now they're sending a message. The message is: We think this is important.
Well, here is what they didn't think was important. When a book came out by a Syracuse University professor saying that conservatives are more generous than liberals when it comes to giving money to charity, and the reason that they're more generous is because of their Christian faith, or their religious faith, that story didn't wind up on page one of The New York Times or page two or page five page 10. In fact, there was no news story about that.
There was no book review of the guy's book. There was an op-ed. But that was all.
HANNITY: Yes.
GOLDBERG: Now, why is that? Why is a story that says people of faith — by the way, even liberals of faith are generous when it comes to giving money to charity. So, religion was the key. That story didn't interest the editors at The New York Times, but the rise of atheism did.
I report. You decide.
HANNITY: Yes.
I don't know what — whether The New York Times has — has ever reviewed your books. I don't know what shows you have been invited on. Now, in fairness, my book was number one for five weeks in a row, my last book, on The New York Times list.
Mark Levin's book is now seven weeks in a row. He has not been invited on any of the mainstream media shows. You went through this same type of treatment as a conservative. Is this more broadly conservative and less about religion? Is this about political philosophy?
GOLDBERG: Yes, that's a good question.
The two seem to meld in the minds of many liberal elites. When it comes to religion, for instance, a lot of liberal elites, including liberal elites inside news rooms, think that people who believe in an invisible man who lives in the sky and, you know, can send fire down with his fingertips, people who believe that, the elites think, aren't too smart, because that's irrational, they think.
Well, what is the opposite of that? Atheism. Atheism is rational to them. It's smart to them. It's hip in places like Manhattan. So, that's why atheism is given this kind of prominence on page one, and a lot of things having to do with religion in a good sense just aren't.
But — but we can't separate the religious part from the conservative part, because they're very closely linked together.
HANNITY: Well, is that why Barack Obama, in spite of the overwhelming history about America being founded on Judeo-Christian principles, can say, this is not a Christian nation? Is that why he can say, we are not at war with Islam?
We have never been at war with Islam. We have been at war against radical Islam and we have been at war against — against terrorism. So, is that where maybe this is — look, because I agree with you. I think there is a certain — a fundamental belief that if — well, if you believe in God, or you believe in faith, that you have — well, you are not quite as smart as they are. There's a certain elitism.
GOLDBERG: Right.
HANNITY: But — but they...
GOLDBERG: That's right.
HANNITY: In my view, they believe something can come from nothing. Even if you believe in the Big Bang theory, well, where did all that energy and all those molecules come together to bang together and create universes within universes?
It's...
GOLDBERG: Right.
HANNITY: It seems like a far greater miracle to me.
GOLDBERG: I know. That — that's a tough one, isn't it?
Look, let me...
(LAUGHTER)
GOLDBERG: Let me tell you about a true story that happened — that I witnessed when I was at CBS News that may put some of this in perspective.
There was a conference call with producers from all around the country, New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami. And they were talking about the stories that were going to go on the air the next day. And it — I wasn't part of the call, but I heard it on the speakerphone.
And the producer in Washington said, well, there is a rally tomorrow with Gary Bauer. Gary Bauer was the head of a family values organization.
HANNITY: Family Research, yes.
GOLDBERG: And she said — she — yes, she said, there is a rally tomorrow with Gary Bauer — and this is a verbatim quote — "you know, that little nut from the Christian group," right?
HANNITY: Wow.
GOLDBERG: "That little nut from the Christian group."
And not one person on the conference call said anything, like, "You can't say that."
HANNITY: Yes.
GOLDBERG: Could you imagine if a CBS News producer said, "Jesse Jackson, the nut from the black group," or "some nut from the Hispanic group" or "some nut from the gay group"?
HANNITY: Good point.
GOLDBERG: That would never be tolerated, but — but saying somebody is a nut from a Christian group, no problem.
HANNITY: Did you notice, as I did — and maybe — maybe some will say I am being a bit picky here.
At the Correspondents Dinner, putting aside — we have — we have dealt with the "Wanda Sykes wishing Rush Limbaugh dead, the president laughing" aspect of this, which I think is unforgivable to me, because, if it was ever said about the president, we know the reaction would be.
Were you as surprised? The one thing that Barack Obama said, which was funny — and all good humor is rooted in truth — is when he goes, "And I know you all voted for me," meaning the press.
GOLDBERG: Oh, yes, that — thank you.
HANNITY: Yes.
GOLDBERG: Thank you for asking me about that. Thank you.
Listen, he said, "Most of you covered me." Pause. "All of you voted for me." They didn't just laugh. They applauded.
All good humor has a ring of truth to it. This had a lot more than a ring of truth to it. They all knew it was true. And the most important thing is, they didn't care and they weren't embarrassed.
HANNITY: Yes.
GOLDBERG: That's the important thing.
HANNITY: Wow. I have got to tell you something. Journalism is dead in America. And, by the way, that's why we say thank you to all of our viewers, because you know what? This is alternative media.
And, Bernie, we appreciate it. We always love hearing your voice. Thanks for being with us.
GOLDBERG: Thanks a lot, Sean.

PARENTS BATTLE OVER FREE BIBLES FOR STUDENTS IN FRISCO SCHOOLS IN DALLAS

FRISCO — There is a book battle of sorts taking place in Frisco schools. This isn't about a textbook — it's about the "Good Book."
The district permits free Bibles to be put out for students; but there's a fine line between nonschool literature that's "put out" and "given out."
Debbie Lutz has two children in Frisco schools. "How is that allowed?" she asked. "It makes me very mad."
Gideon volunteers have visited both her children's campuses with Bibles in tow. It's part of the Frisco ISD's rotating schedule that permits the religious group in some schools for one day.
"That is unbelievable," Lutz said. "No one has ever sent a letter home from the school district telling me that."
District policy says nonschool literature is allowed as long as it doesn't "attack ethnic, religious, or racial groups." It also can't "interfere with school activities or the rights of others."
"I just think religion should be out of schools," Lutz said.
Another Frisco mom, Nicki Wilks, has a son who attends Griffin Middle School. "He said, 'Oh yeah, mom, somebody was handing out Bibles at school today, and some of the kids started getting upset, and the parents started showing up.'"
Wilks tries to read the Bible daily, and is stunned at the outcry of negativity. "It's not like it is in the curriculum," Wilks said. "It's not like we're making them take Bible classes."

But Wilks says offering — not pushing — the Bible should be fair game. "I believe in freedom of religion, but I think there are people from the other religions who would like to completely stifle the Christian side of it," she said.
The Gideons once handed out their Bibles along a public sidewalk in Frisco, but after too many parent complaints to the police department and the school, the district decided to move things inside. School officials said it's the only way to control the situation.
"We cannot pick and choose which materials are allowed to be left at a designated location for display/pickup based upon the viewpoint expressed in the materials," a Frisco ISD spokeswoman said in a statement.
The district admits that it has had to remind representatives of the Gideons to not approach children; that's the only way the volunteers are allowed in schools.
Either way, Lutz says it puts her kids in a tough spot. "Not maybe 'forced,' but maybe [they] they feel a sense of obligation to pick it up? Just so they're not uncomfortable," she said.
Wilk disagrees. "This should be made available if our children want it."
And at least at some Frisco public schools, Bibles are made available for students.

UN CHIEF CALLS ON THE WORLD TO REMAIN ALERT ON SWINE FLU: FLU CASES RISES NEARLY TO 10,OOO

GENEVA: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday told the World Health Organisation's 193 member states that the world must remain "vigilant and alert" against the new swine flu virus.

Ban said previous pandemics had shown that outbreaks of flu could start as mild and worsen. "That is why the world must remain vigilant and alert to the warning signs," he added in a speech to the WHO's annual sssembly.
The global tally of confirmed swine flu cases in 40 countries rose by 1,001 in a day to 9,830, with 79 deaths, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

Some 545 of the new confirmed cases and four of the additional deaths recorded since Monday were reported by Mexico, while 409 new cases and one additional death were reported by the United States, data posted on the WHO's website showed.

third most infected country was Japan, which has been the focus of most recent concern because of the sudden spike in infections there that has prompted authorities to close thousands of schools.

Japan reported 34 new cases bringing the national total to 159, according to the WHO's daily update. The other new cases were recorded in Chile (three, for a total of four), China (one, total seven), El Salvador (two, total six), Panama (five, total 59), Peru (one, total two) and Britain (one, total 102).

The WHO data refers to laboratory confirmed cases reported by countries at 0600 GMT on Tuesday, and includes cases from previous days or weeks that have only just been confirmed by testing. On Monday, the tally stood at 8,829 cases in 40 countries with 74 deaths.