CHURCH BELLS COULD PUT BISHOP IN JAIL IN PHOENIX

The leader of a Valley church could go to jail for ringing church bells.
The bells, which chime every hour between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., were not music to the ears of four people who live by the Cathedral of Christ the King near 29th Ave. and Greenway.
Bishop Rick Painter was found guilty in Phoenix Municipal Court of violating noise ordinances.
"I am guilty of honoring God," said Bishop Painter. "I apologized on the stand that the people are disturbed."
The Bishop added that many neighbors have expressed support for the electronic church bells. The neighbors who complained testified that the bells affected their daily routine and held them captive at home.
"Any church in Phoenix that rings bells have got a problem."
Bishop Painter was convicted without any set standard or noise dosimeter readings, just testimony from the upset neighbors.
Sentencing is July 3.
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BOMB EXPLODES NAER A CHURCH IN CAIRO ( EGYPT )

CAIRO — A small bomb exploded near a revered church in the Egyptian capital but caused no casualties or damage, police officials said Monday.
The officials said late Sunday night's explosion was caused by primitive bomb planted under a parked car near Saint Mary Church in Cairo's Zeitoun district. The church is one of the holiest sites for Egypt's Coptic Christian minority because an apparition of the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared there in 1968.
The bomb went off around 9 p.m. and the car burst into flames while a wedding was under way in the church, causing a panic among passers-by in the mainly Coptic neighborhood, witnesses said.
"Shop owners closed their stores, and most people ran in panic," said a pharmacist working in a near by drug store. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government harassment for speaking about the attack. Most shops in the neighborhood remained shut Monday.
A police official said the bomb appeared to be intended "to scare rather than to kill." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Egypt's Christians, estimated at 10 percent of Egypt's nearly 80 million people, often complain of discrimination at the hands of the Muslim majority. A government decision to slaughter all the pigs in the country in reaction to the swine flu scare angered some Christians, who argued that the order targeted their community, which is the only one that raises or eats pigs.

OUTRAGE OVER BIBLES DESTROYED IN AFGHANISTAN BY THE U.S MILITARY

A Pentagon adviser is blasting what he calls an "egregious" and "politically correct" decision by the U.S. military to destroy Bibles sent to troops in Afghanistan.
Reuters reported earlier this week that Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated by chaplains and later destroyed to make sure that troops did not violate rules which bar them from sharing their faith. According to the report, the Bibles were destroyed after Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) is a Pentagon adviser and military and national security analyst.

He finds it mind-boggling to think that military officials would allow Al Jazeera to walk through the front gate of a forward operating base and videotape soldiers conducting a Bible study. "This is a bit disingenuous, I think, that you would have a Saudi Arabian-sponsored Al Jazeera television network making tapes on an American facility of a Bible group so that they could target and discriminate against our soldiers," he notes.

Christian troops give up a great deal to put themselves in harm's way, so they should not have to give up their own personal witness in that environment, according to Maginnis. "By and large, soldiers should have the right to share their faith wherever they are," he contends, "and for the political correctness crew to come aboard and declare that we're going to destroy Bibles because of the sensitivity of the local command, I find egregious."

OBAMA URGED TO APPOINT FIRST ' GAY ' TO SUPREME COURT

With a vacancy soon on the U.S. Supreme Court, homosexual blogs are discussing the potential of a homosexual being appointed.

Politico.com reports homosexual-rights groups are upset with President Barack Obama for not choosing an openly "gay" person for his Cabinet, and are urging him to appoint the first openly homosexual justice. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund is hailing the candidacy of First Amendment scholar Kathleen Sullivan, while Stanford law professor Pam Karlan is also frequently mentioned. Both have been open about their sexuality and have been active for homosexual legal causes. Matt Barber is a spokesperson with Liberty Counsel. "Well, in light of this nation's undeniable Christian heritage, it's hard to believe we're even having a conversation about whether a sitting United States president will count deviant sexual behavior as a favorable qualification in determining a nomination to the highest court of the land," he says.

Barber offers a message for members of the Senate to send to President Obama. "We insist upon a Supreme Court justice who will strictly interpret the Constitution -- which was the clear intent of our Founding Fathers -- and not use the Constitution [or] abuse the Constitution as a means to an ideological end, which I fear this administration intends to do," he concludes. The new justice will replace Justice David Souter, who has announced he is retiring at the end of the current session.

U.S MILITARY DESTROYS SOLDIER'S BIBLES

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.
Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion.
Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed."

According to the military officials, the Bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. Reuters says the soldier brought them to the Bible study class where they were filmed.
The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, told a Pentagon briefing Monday that the military's position is that it will never "push any specific religion."