CASE COULD BAR COACHES FROM PRAYING WITH PLAYERS

To Coach Louis Thompson, praying with his Lincoln County High School football team is as important as leading them to winning seasons — maybe more important.
"Every day when we finish practice, we take a knee, bow our heads and say the Lord's Prayer — every day. We don't miss a day," Thompson said.
"Along with the Lord's Prayer at practice, we have a silent prayer before each game where I tell them to pray for themselves and their teammates.''
But a case making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court could prevent Thompson and other coaches of public schools from praying with their teams, even if the players initiate the prayer on their own.
School district policies and practices vary widely across Tennessee. In Metro Nashville, coaches and teachers are officially barred from taking part in student-led prayers, though some said they do so.
Knox County's policy states there is to be no prayer during school-sponsored activities, only a moment of silence.
"I don't know that we have a policy, but all of our coaches have been told that it's to be student-led,'' said David King, director of athletics for the Lincoln County Department of Education.
"I go to a lot of the games throughout the county and the majority of them do have student-led prayer before the game, and some of them do after the game, too."
High court to decide soon
The Supreme Court is deciding whether it wants to review a case that banned an East Brunswick, N.J., high school football coach from kneeling or bowing his head while his team prayed.
A ruling on whether the court will review the case is expected within the next two weeks.
While a U.S. Supreme Court ruling could clarify the issue once and for all, some legal experts say the law already is clear.
"There's a pretty bright line here — school officials may not pray with students during their contract day," said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center.
"I don't think the coach has to leave the room. He can just stand silently and watch. But he can't participate."
While acknowledging a 1962 Supreme Court decision that severely restricted the role public school employees may play in organizing religious activities, supporters of team prayers say banning any participation by the coach goes too far.
"I understand that a coach cannot lead the prayer, but just to be there bowing his head? This violates a person's personal faith," said Steve Robinson, Middle Tennessee director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
" … I really believe that some of our founding fathers who drafted the constitution would turn over in their grave if they knew that we were debating this. I don't believe this was their intent whatsoever."
'You just need to be careful'
Coach Marcus Borden went to court after East Brunswick school officials ordered him to stop praying or engaging in any religious activity with his high school football team.
A U.S. District Court ruled in 2006 that Borden could silently bow his head and kneel while his team prayed, but the case was appealed and the U.S. 3rd District Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the lower court ruling.
Borden filed a petition in October asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
"We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will grant (Borden's) petition … so that public school coaches throughout the nation will have a clear understanding as to how they may respond to player-initiated voluntary prayer," his attorney Ronald Riccio said.
Supporting the school district's side is Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a civil liberties watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.
"The main message we're trying to make to folks is that you just need to be careful about bringing any of these religions into school because the way you treat one is the way you must treat them all," said Rob Boston, senior policy analyst for the group.
"Coach Borden was leading his team in prayers that maybe many people in the community felt OK about.
"But what if he'd been saying other types of prayers from some tradition that folks were not so comfortable with? You have to be careful in opening that door."
Furthermore, Boston said, Borden's religious advocacy while coaching extended 23 years and went well beyond passively taking part in team prayers.
"Coach Borden said, 'All I really want to do is bow my head.' But from our perspective, he wants to do a good bit more," Boston said.
"He had a long history of organizing prayer, picking students to lead them, writing them and he even had a chaplain coming in and praying with students.
"He'd been involved with these religious activities for a long time and then all of a sudden he said, 'All I really want to do is take a knee and bow my head.' And the court just said, 'You cannot divorce yourself from your own history.' "
Effect could be profound
If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, its ruling would have broad implications, offering strong precedent that would be used by attorneys in cases around the country.
The effect could be profound.
In the moments after his last game as Tennessee football coach, Phillip Fulmer knelt with his players for a post-game prayer. Depending on the high court decision, such a display by a football coach at a public university could become an issue, noted Robinson, of the Christian athletes group.
"In that last game, an ESPN commentator was trying to interview Coach Fulmer and he said, 'Wait a minute, I want to pray with my guys,' " Robinson said. "They want to take his right to do that away?"
The American Football Coaches Association, which held its annual convention in Nashville last month, also filed a petition in favor of allowing the coaches to participate, after its board voted unanimously to support Borden's case.
"Anybody that believes in freedom and believes in the opportunity to express yourself as a coach and … to engage in activities with your team when they choose to do something should be very concerned about this," said Grant Teaff, executive director of the coaches association.
Maplewood High School football Coach Ralph Thompson, who is not related to the Lincoln County coach, worries about seeming unsupportive if he doesn't acknowledge the team prayer.
"The way we've handled it in Metro is that none of the coaches can actually be the ones that lead the kids in prayer," he said. " … As coaches, we'll stand a couple of feet back from the huddle that they get in and quietly, to ourselves, we'll say the Lord's Prayer.
"The concern for me as a coach is that it may look like I don't want to have anything to do with religion if I am not allowed to bow while they pray. It makes it look like I don't condone it or I don't like it.
"It's like I'm saying, 'If that is something y'all want to do, then you go ahead. I'm not going to be a part of it and my coaching staff is not going to be a part of it.' "
Haynes, of the First Amendment Center, acknowledges that this part of the country, in particular, could have a tougher time adjusting to the reality of the law.
"In the South especially, this is seen like Mom and apple pie and the flag — it's natural to pray before games," he said. "It's painful for people to give that up."
Players' views vary
Sam Morris, a senior on the Hendersonville soccer team who described himself as atheist, said he would prefer that coaches didn't take part in the team prayers.
"I have no problem with other players praying because that is their own personal belief and I can respect that," he said. "But when I think that the government or a teacher is imposing their beliefs on me, then it makes me feel uncomfortable."
Morris' father, Tom, says he's fine with a coach taking part, as long as the prayer is clearly the idea of the players.
"I don't think coaches should be allowed to lead or organize prayers in an athletic event," he said. "If the coaches are just there to participate, I don't have any problems with that."
Waled Tayib, 17, a Muslim student who plays on the Overton High School football and soccer teams, is accustomed to being surrounded before each football game by teammates who say the Lord's Prayer.
"I just bow my head and say my own prayer inside,'' said Tayib, who is of Kurdish descent. "I think that type of prayer is OK even with the coaches there kneeling or with their heads bowed or whatever."
Many opponents of team prayers hope the high court decides not to hear Borden's case.
"Since 1962, the Supreme Court has been pretty clear that any employees at public schools cannot lead students in prayer and that includes principals, teachers and coaches," Boston said. "Now I know a lot of coaches bend that rule, but technically they're not supposed to.
"If the Supreme Court declines to hear the case, all they're saying is they consider the 1962 decision to be good law. … If they decide to hear the case, it could mean the justices are interested in taking another look at what role prayer should play in the public school system."
Any move in Tennessee to strengthen the ban on teams' or coaches' ability to pray would probably be met with hostility, said Louis Thompson, the Lincoln County coach.
"I'm going to continue to do it," he said, "and I couldn't care less what the Supreme Court says or does."

UN GENOCIDE COURT JAILS RWANDAN PRIEST FOR 25 YEARS

DAR ES SALAAM - A UN court trying the masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide jailed a former military chaplain for 25 years Friday for sexual assault and killing ethnic Tutsis who sought sanctuary at a seminary.
Emmanuel Rukundo is one of two clergymen the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicted for their role in the 100-day slaughter in which troops and Hutu militia butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
"The Trial Chamber ... found Rukundo guilty of genocide, murder as a crime against humanity and extermination as a crime," the ICTR said in a statement.
The Arusha, Tanzania-based tribunal said Rukundo, who was often escorted by soldiers and militiamen during the violence, kept a list of local Tutsis whose movements he monitored.
As well as being involved in the abduction and murder of villagers seeking sanctuary at a seminary, it found the 50-year-old guilty of sexually assaulting a young Tutsi woman.
"The accused was found to have abused his moral authority and influence to promote the abduction and killing of Tutsi refugees," the court said.
Rukundo, a former captain in the Rwandan armed forces, was arrested in Geneva in 2001. He will receive credit for the time he has already been spent behind bars.
The tribunal began work in 1997 and has delivered 37 judgments, of which six were acquittals.
It had been meant to wind up its cases by the end of last year and then hear all appeals by the end of 2010. The U.N. General Assembly is considering whether to extend its mandate.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is visiting Tanzania and was due to tour the ICTR later Friday.

EGYPT: ISLAMIC LAWYERS URGE DEATH SENTENCE FOR CONVERTS; PRAY ANDMAKE A DIFFERENCE..

ISTANBUL, February 26 – In the latest hearing of a Muslim-born Egyptian’s effort to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death.
More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday (Feb. 22) in Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s case to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religious affiliation. Two lawyers led the charge, Ahmed Dia El-Din and Abdel Al-Migid El-Anani.
“[El-Din] started to talk about the Quran being in a higher position than the Bible,” one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Said Fayez, told Compass. “[El-Din said] people can move to a higher religion but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam because it is highest in rank.”
Memos submitted by opposing lawyers asserted that cases such as El-Gohary’s form part of a U.S. Zionist attack on Islam in Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam at their own peril.
“We received 150 pages from them that talked about religion,” said Fayez. “We are not in a position to talk about religion, we are only talking about the law.”
El-Gohary Beaten
El-Gohary was not present at the hearing, as attendance would put him at extreme personal risk. He had planned to obtain papers authorizing attorney Nabil Ghobreyal to act as his proxy representation in court, but staff members at the registry office swore at and beat him, lawyers said.
Judge Hamdy Yasin was forced to adjourn the case until March 28 because El-Gohary did not obtain the necessary proxy representation documents.
“I am now in a position where I can’t do anything else,” El-Gohary, who has been in hiding, told Compass. “I have to go [to court] despite the danger. I believe God will protect me. It’s a very hard decision, but I have to go.”
Copts and Christian converts have to face such systemic prejudice daily in the battle for their rights, he said.
“Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.”
El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.
But he also has received text messages, he said, of encouragement from other Muslim-born converts too fearful to take a similar stand.
“Everyday I get calls from people who have converted but are secret,” said El-Gohary. “They ask me every day about what is happening, because it affects their future.”
The danger to himself and his daughter has led El-Gohary to suggest that he will most likely leave Egypt, but not until the case is over.
“He wouldn’t go without doing this trial, he doesn’t want to leave before it is finished,” said attorney Ghobreyal. “Because it [conversion] is his right, then he will do whatever he likes.”
El-Gohary said he feels a responsibility to witness about God and Jesus. “I have to do what I am doing for the sake of God and the sake of the converts, to the glory of God,” he said.
He decided to legally change his religious affiliation out of concern over the effects that his “unofficial Christianity” has on his family, saying he was particularly concerned about his daughter, Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem. Though raised as a Christian, when she reaches age 16 she will be issued an identification card stating her religion as Muslim unless her father’s appeal is successful.
At school, she has been refused the right to attend Christian religious classes offered to Egypt’s Christian minorities and has been forced to attend Muslim classes. Religion is a mandatory part of the Egyptian curriculum.
Encouraging Horizon
Despite setbacks, delays and the vitriol on display in the courtroom, El-Gohary and his lawyers reserve optimism not only about the future of the case but the future of the country as well.
“There is evidence and signs on the horizon that are very encouraging, that there will be a time in the future that equal rights will be achieved,” said Fayez. “People have started to ask for their rights and demand to have the freedom of religion. This is a good sign.”
Mohammed Hegazy, the first Muslim-born Christian convert to attempt to have his new religion officially registered, is also in hiding after receiving death threats.
Despite a constitution that grants religious freedom, legal conversion from Islam to another faith remains unprecedented. Hegazy, who filed his case on Aug. 2, 2007, was denied the right to officially convert in a Jan. 29, 2008 court ruling that declared it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam.
The judge based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian constitution, which enshrines Islamic law, or sharia, as the source of Egyptian law. The judge said that, according to sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and cannot return to an older belief (Christianity or Judaism).

CRACKDOWN ON CHURCHES AND CHRISTIANS IN MYANMAR; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN MYANMAR....

MYANMAR -- In a recent crackdown on Christians in Myanmar (Burma), at least 100 churches were ordered to stop holding services. About 50 pastors were forced to sign at least five documents each to cease church services—and warned repeatedly they could face time in jail if they disobeyed.

The crackdown is of great concern to Christians in Myanmar and a serious violation of religious freedom. Most of the churches meet in homes, and Christians are now left wondering if they will be prohibited from worshipping in their own homes.
In a recent crackdown on Christians in Myanmar (Burma), at least 100 churches were ordered to stop holding services.Some think it could be the military regime’s response to churches helping with relief for victims of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar’s coast in May 2008.
“The regime does not like the fact that Buddhists have been receiving help from churches, and fears this may possibly result in conversion,” one pastor living in exile said. “It does not want Christianity to grow in Burma. Ultimately, the regime seeks the destruction of Christianity.
What I find interesting about this story is that unbelievers even see that when the love of Christ is manifest through the good works that God calls His people to do, conversion is a result.

MALAYASIA TO ALLOW CHRISTIANS USE THE WORD ' ALLAH '

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Malaysian government has softened an earlier ban on the use of the word "Allah" by Christian publications to refer to God and is allowing them to use it as long as they specify the material is not for Muslims, a church official said Thursday.
The government had earlier argued that the use of Allah in Christian texts might confuse Muslims, who might think Allah refers to their God.
The revised order was issued Feb. 16 by Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, said the Rev. Lawrence Andrew, the editor of the Herald, the Roman Catholic Church's main newspaper in Malaysia. He said the publication has already started printing "For Christianity" on its cover.
The Herald publishes weekly in English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay with an estimated readership of 50,000. The ban on "Allah" concerns mainly the Malay edition, which is read mostly by indigenous Christian tribes in the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak. The other three editions usually do not use the word "Allah."
The dispute has become symbolic of increasing religious tensions in Malaysia, where 60 percent of the 27 million people are Muslim Malays. A third of the population is ethnic Chinese and Indian, and many of them practice Christianity.
Malaysia's minorities have often complained that their constitutional right to practice their religions freely has come under threat from the Malay Muslim-dominated government. They cite destruction of Hindu temples and conversion disputes as examples. The government denies any discrimination.
Andrew, the Herald's editor, said although the order "makes things easier" for the Herald, the newspaper will not drop a legal challenge against the ban. A court is due to hear arguments in the case Friday.
The Herald is arguing that the Arabic word is a common reference for God that predates Islam and has been used for centuries as a translation in Malay.
Andrew said the new order is still a violation of religious freedom guaranteed by the constitution because Christians will not be able to use any literature that does not carry the warning on the cover, including much imported material.
He said most Malay-language Bibles in Malaysia are imported from Indonesia, which uses a variation of the same language.
"If this (order) is enforced, it will be difficult to possess materials ... from Indonesia, and thus practicing our religion will not be easy. This goes against ... the constitution," he told The Associated Press.
Andrew said the order also prohibits the use of three other Arabic words — "solat," or prayer, "Kaaba," a holy site in Saudi Arabia, and "baitullah," or house of God — without the warning.
Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Home Minister Syed Hamid's aide said he would not be available for comment until Monday.

CHRISTIAN MILKMAN BRUTALLY MURDERED IN PAKISTAN BY THREE MUSLIM MEN

Imagine with me that you were doing a job you were hired for and when you were expected to get paid, that your employer told you to wait another month for your wages. Understandably, that would be upsetting. And I'm not sure exactly how these events took place, but it appears this happened to a Christian milkman in Pakistan.
It is being reported that the Christian man was desperate to support his family and needed the money. So he confronted his Muslim employers and they murdered him. Here's part of what is being reported:
Desperate to support his family, Ashraf returned on February 1 and demanded his wages. This enraged the three Muslim men, who said, "You are Esai [a derogatory term for Christians] and you demanded your pay from Muslims, what courage you have. We will finish you right now. Then go to your Esa [Christ], He will give you everything." After killing Ashraf, the three men fled.
We know that Ashraf (the Christian) had a family that he left behind. Please take a moment today to pray for his family and also those Muslims that murdered him.

BILLY GRAHAM ASSOCIATION FEELING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY MELTDOWN; PLANNING FOR 10% LAYOFFS

CHARLOTTE – The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association will lay off 10 percent of its workforce, or 55 employees. Ken Barun Sr., vice president of communications and development at the Charlotte-based BGEA, said most of the cuts will come in areas such as grounds keeping and food service, important areas but not essential to the core mission of evangelism.
The layoffs will affect six employees at The Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Swannanoa.
Barun said about a year and a half ago BGEA President Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, “asked us to see how we could do a much more efficient job of proclaiming the word of Jesus Christ around the world.”
The layoffs are particularly painful because the employees are “family and friends,” Barun said. He noted that most of the jobs will be outsourced, and BGEA employees will have a good chance of working for those companies.
The laid-off employees will be given 30 days of notice with pay, plus a severance package based on years of service. They also will receive outplacement and spiritual counseling, Barun said.
Barun said probably 75-85 percent of the BGEA's funding comes from donations, which have remained flat this year. Barun said he expects donations to increase as people realize the BGEA is focusing even more intently on its main mission of evangelism.

CHRISTIANS MARK ASH WEDNESDAY WITH AGE-OLD RITUAL IN WESTERN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

Western Christian churches today mark Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, the traditional 40-day period of fasting, prayer and penitence before Easter.
To observe the day, Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans hold services during which the foreheads of the faithful are marked with the sign of the cross with ashes made from last year's Palm Sunday palms as a sign of repentence and reminder of mortality.
A clergy person or, in some cases, a lay person, applies the ashes with variations of the phrase: "Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return."
The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays. Easter falls on April 12 this year.
The fasting associated with Lent spawned pre-Lenten celebrations such as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and Carnivale as a last chance to eat, drink and be merry before the 40 days of self denial began.
Tradition holds that a Philadelphia staple -- the soft pretzel -- was created by a monk as a Lenten food at a time when the faithful abstained from meat and animal products, such as milk and eggs.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, which follows a different calendar, will mark the start of the Great Lent on what is called Clean Monday on March 2. Orthodox Easter is April 19.

MUSLIM YOUTHS WENT ON A RAMPAGE ATTACKING CHRISTIANS AND BURNING CHURCHES IN NIGERIA; THOUSANDS DISPLACED DUE TO RIOTS; PRAY FOR NIGERIA

BAUCHI, Nigeria— At least 4,500 people have been displaced by sectarian violence in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi which left 11 dead and 100 hospitalised, police said Tuesday.
"About 4,500 people have been displaced and they have been camped at two army barracks in the city", Bauchi police commissioner Adanaya Tallman Gaya told AFP after rioting between Muslims and Christians began on Saturday.
"We have recorded 11 deaths and 100 casualties in the two-day violence and our men have succeeded in making 30 arrests in connection with the disturbance", Gaya said.
The city was calm but tense on Tuesday. Troops were deployed there and seven neighbourhoods affected by the violence were under dusk-to-dawn curfew.
"The curfew is still in force, it will only be lifted when normalcy is fully restored and anybody who defies it will certainly be apprehended and prosecuted", Gaya said.
Over 200 houses, six churches and three mosques were torched, according to Bauchi Red Cross secretary Adamu Abubakar.
"We have been providing food items to the displaced but our tent supplies have been exhausted and many of the displaced sleep in the open," Abubakar said at the Shadawanka barracks where 3,000 people were sheltered.
"I'm still apprehensive and afraid to go back to my house because the situation is still tense and I can't risk my life and that of my family," said Yohanna Moses who fled to the barracks from his home.
Muslim youths went on a rampage Saturday, attacking Christians and burning churches. They said their acts were reprisals for the burning of two mosques overnight in the state capital Bauchi.
Tensions have risen in Bauchi, a city of four million, since February 13 when Pentecostal Christians barricaded a pathway used by Muslims attending Friday prayers at a nearby mosque, residents said.
Bauchi suffered bloody sectarian strife in 2004 when Muslim-Christian violence in the town of Tafawa Balewa, some 100 kilometres (62 miles) away, spilled over to the city, and houses, mosques and churches were burnt.

MAN STABS HIS SON FOR WEARING A HAT IN CHURCH IN BALTIMORE

BALTIMORE — Police said a 58-year-old man stabbed his teenage son after he refused to take off his hat at church earlier in the day. The father and his 19-year-old son got into an argument on Sunday afternoon. That's when police said the father went to a car, got a knife and stabbed his son in the left buttock and fled.
The son was taken to University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment. The father's name was withheld pending his arrest.
Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com

INDIAN CHURCH LEADERS QUESTIONS PROMISED SECURITY AFTER ANOTHER MURDER IN ORISSA

Nearly four months after tension in riot-hit Kandhamal, Orissa, India, had subsided, the murder of a Christian last week has raised eyebrows on the security of Christians and claims of "normalcy."

On Feb. 19, the body of Hrudayananda Nayak, 40, was found in a jungle near his home village of Rudangia, in Kandhamal district.
Local people claimed that Nayak, a Christian, was living in relief camps after violence broke out in the district. However, a day after his return to the village, he was killed.
"Somebody may have hit him on the head, causing his death," District Superintendent of Police S. Praveen Kumar said.
Rabindra Parichha, a social activist, claimed that Nayak, among other Christian leaders, was on the hit list of Hindu radicals.
Nayak, he said, was the fourth Christian to be abducted and killed after violence ebbed down by the end of October.
“The state should take strong action against the culprits," Parichha said.
According to Father Prasanna Singh, a parish priest in Kandhamal, the murder revealed to the world that violence against Christians still continues in sensitive areas. The murder committed during an afternoon has shocked the Christians in the state, the prelate added.
Violence broke out in August last year and has rendered thousands homeless, dozens murdered and hundreds of churches razed down.
The violence was sparked after Hindu fundamentalists accused Christians of slaying a local Hindu leader on Aug. 23, 2008, for which the Maoists had repeatedly claimed responsibility.
Earlier this month the state government had announced the shutdown of relief camps in Kandhamal district.
Despite church leaders opposing the hasty decision of the government, the Kandhamal district collector announced the closure of several relief camps, forcing many to return to homes that may have been destroyed and with little money and no immediate employment.
The National Council of Churches in India told Christian Today that victims in the state are reluctant to return to their villages, due to increasing "religious segregation" and scurrilous threats demanding "re-conversion to Hinduism."
Nayak’s murder is indeed a case in point to affirm that government claims of "safety" for Christians returning to villages are distrustful, the Church body commented.
Earlier this year, India’s Supreme Court ordered the state government of Orissa to protect the tens of thousands of Christians being targeted by Hindu extremists. Church leaders have accused the Orissa government of failing to protect the state’s persecuted Christians.

CHRISTIAN BOOK STORE VADALIZED IN TURKEY:PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN TURKEY

On Feb. 12, a Turkish Bible Society bookstore in the city of Adana was vandalized by Muslim extremists for the second time in a week,News reported.

Security cameras showed two Muslim youth vandalizing the storefront of the Soz Kitapevi bookstore. They were kicking and smashing glass in both the window and the door. The door frame was also damaged.

On Feb. 7, the glass of the front door was smashed and the security camera mangled. The bookstore had in the past received threats from Muslim extremists. Last November, a man reportedly entered the bookstore and began making accusations that the bookstore was linked to the Unites States Intelligence Agency and said, “You work with them killing people in Muslim countries, harming Muslim countries.”

VOM actively supports believers in Turkey with encouraging radio broadcasts. VOM assists local Christian workers who share the gospel with their neighbors in the communities they live in. Pray for the safety of the bookstore and its owners and workers. Ask God to protect believers in Turkey and that these acts of vandalism will not develop into more serious attacks.

SOMALIA: NUNS KIDNAPPED BY ISLAMIC MILLITANTS RELEASED ; PRAY FOR SOMALIA

NAIROBI, Kenya – Two nuns working in northeast Kenya who were kidnapped last November have been freed and arrived here from Mogadishu, Somalia on Thursday (Feb. 19), but they are still traumatized.
Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Oliviero, 61, both of Italy, are receiving medical care, and top leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are providing them spiritual counseling. Pastor Alois Maina of Mandera, a close friend of the nuns, told that a representative of the pope and the Cardinal of Kenya are among those counseling the nuns, who on Nov. 10 were abducted at gunpoint by suspected Islamic militants.
Father Bongiovanni Franco, who worked with the sisters in Mandera, told Compass by telephone that the sisters are fatigued.
“Their movement from one place to another, and living in house confinement most of their stay in Mogadishu, seems to have affected their health – it was like a prison cell,” Fr. Franco said. “Apart from the spiritual attention being given to the sisters, there is also the need for intensive medical examination for them.”
The nuns had been kidnapped from Elwak, near Mandera, and taken across the nearby border into Somalia. Some 20 armed Somali men suspected to be members of the Islamic insurgent group al Shabaab – said to have links with al Qaeda – had taken them away in a midnight attack using three vehicles.
Asked about the circumstances surrounding their release, Fr. Franco said, “At the moment, our focus is on spiritual and medical needs for the sisters.”
Fr. Franco added that the two nuns cultivated friendly relations with some Muslims while in Somalia, in spite of being taken there by force.
“Thank you for your prayers and concern – indeed this has helped our sisters to be released,” Fr. Franco said. “We have just completed our evening prayers with them. We are planning for a two-day retreat with the sisters.”
Fr. Franco told that the delicate security situation of the two nuns at the moment preempted the possibility of interviewing them about their ordeal. Last week Sister Giraudo reportedly told Italian television channel Sky Italia by telephone, “We are very happy ... We were treated well, we are fine.”
Sources said the two sisters are staying somewhere in Eastleigh, a few kilometers from the city center of Nairobi.
Working in Kenya since the early 1970s, the nuns had provided medical and nutritional care to poor children, the elderly and expectant mothers. They are reportedly members of the Contemplative Missionary Movement P. de Foucauld.

INDIAN NUN CLAIMS SEX IS RIFE WITHIN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Bookshops throughout India's Christian communities in Kerala have already sold out of Amen, the autobiography of Sister Jesme, who has alleged that priests and nuns not only broke their vows of celibacy with each other but regularly forced novices to have sex with them.
The Catholic Church in India is mired in a series of sexual controversies, and has only just begun to recover from the dismissal of a senior bishop who "adopted" an attractive 26-year-old female companion as his "daughter".
The book by the former nun reveals how as a young novice she was propositioned in the confession box by a priest who cited biblical references to "divine kisses". Later she was cornered by a lesbian nun at a college where they were teaching. "She would come to my bed in the night and do lewd acts and I could not stop her," she claims.
When she was sent to Bangalore to stay with a priest known for his piety, he lectured her about the need for "physical love" and later assaulted her.
"Back in his room, he tried to fondle me and when I resisted, got up and asked angrily if I had seen a man. When I said no, he stripped himself, ejaculated and forced me to strip," she writes.
According to Sister Jesme, senior church officials twice tried to admit her into rehabilitation clinics and claimed she had mental problems after she complained about the scale of sexual abuse and the number of illicit affairs between nuns and priests.
Dr Paul Thelekkat, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar Catholic church said he had some sympathy for sister Jesme, and respected her freedom to express her views, but he believed her claims were trivial. "How far what she says is well-founded I can't say, but the issues are not very serious. We're living with human beings in a community and she should realise this is part of human life," he told the Daily Telegraph.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH RELICS FROM ERAS OF FIRST AND SECOND TEMPLES

The Israel Antiquities Authority on Monday announced the discovery of a large building dating to the time of the First and Second Temples during an excavation in the village of Umm Tuba in southern Jerusalem.

The excavation was conducted by Zubair Adawi on behalf of the antiquities authority, prior to the start of construction there by a private contractor. The archaeological remains include several rooms arranged around a courtyard, in which researchers found a potter's kiln and pottery vessels. The pottery remains seem to date from the eighth century B.C.E. (First Temple period).

According to the antiquities authority, the site was destroyed along with Jerusalem and all of Judah during the Babylonian conquest. Jews reoccupied it during the Hasmonean period (second century B.C.E.) and it existed for another two hundred years until the destruction of the Second Temple. During the Byzantine period, the place was re-inhabited during the settlement of monasteries and farmsteads in the region between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The excavators also found royal seal impressions on some of the pottery fragments that date to the era of Hezekiah, King of Judah (end of the eighth century B.C.E.). Four "LMLK" impressions (which indicate the items belonged to the king) were discovered on handles of large jars used to store wine and oil. Seals of two high-ranking officials named Ahimelekh ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar, who served in the government, were also found. The Yehokhil seal was stamped on one of the LMLK impressions before the jar was fired in a kiln and this is a rare example of two such impressions appearing together on a single handle.

Excavators also discovered a Hebrew inscription - dating 600 years later than the Kingdom of Judah seals - on a fragment of a jar neck. An alphabetic sequence was engraved below the vessel's rim in Hebrew script that is characteristic of the beginning of the Hasmonean period (end of the second century B.C.E.). Three years ago, the remains of a monastery from this period were also excavated. Together with the current findings, they confirm the identification of the place as "Metofa," which is mentioned in the writings of the church fathers in the Byzantine period.

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS URGE POPE TO CALL OFF MAY VISIT TO ISRAEL

A group of Palestinian Christians has asked Pope Benedict XVI to call off his planned visit to Israel and the West Bank this coming May. The 40 community activists wrote to the pope that his visit would "help boost Israel's image and inadvertently minimize Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation." The group urged the pope to link his visit to a series of Israeli measures, including improved access to Christian places of worship and halting taxation of church properties.

Christians from the West Bank, like their Muslim counterparts, need special permits to reach Jerusalem and its holy places. The pontiff is to visit the Holy Land May 8-15, including stops in Jordan, the West Bank and Israel.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week confirmed the pope's spring pilgrimage, avoiding any mention of tense Catholic-Jewish relations over the pontiff's rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop. This will be first by a pope to the Holy Land since John Paul visited in 2000. Catholic-Jewish relations have been extremely tense since Jan. 24, when Benedict lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops in an attempt to heal a schism that began in 1988 when they were ordained without Vatican permission.

One of the bishops, Richard Williamson, denies the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers. The Vatican has ordered him to recant but he so far has not done so, saying he needs more time to review the evidence. Faced with Jewish anger over Williamson's remarks on the Holocaust, the pope said during a meeting with American Jewish leaders on Thursday that "any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable." A detailed itinerary of the pope's visit is not yet available. It would be the third visit of a reigning pontiff to Israel since the state was created in 1948. Pope Paul VI made a one-day stopover from Jordan in 1964, but since the Vatican and Israel did not yet have diplomatic relations, he avoided any statement or act that could be interpreted as even indirect recognition of the Jewish state. In March 2000, Pope John Paul II made a five-day pilgrimage to Israel and the Palestinian territories, during which he visited Christian and Jewish holy sites.

TWO CHRISTIAN NURSING STUDENTS AND A CHRISTIAN HOSTEL WARDEN TERMINATED OVER BLASPHEMY ACCUSATION IN PAKISTAN;PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE...

Two female Christian nursing students and a Christian hostel warden have been terminated from college over a blasphemy accusation that was leveled against the students by their Muslim roommates on February 13.
Trouble for the Christian nursing students, Amara and Sitara, began when they hung a picture of Jesus Christ in a shared hostel room.
Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits images of Allah, Muhammad and all the major figures of the Christian and Jewish traditions.
Muslim students desecrated the picture by tearing it up and hurling it down after the Christian students refused to remove it voluntarily.
The administration of the nursing college allegedly took no action against the Muslim students, who committed the alleged incident.
Christian-Muslim tension among students at the nursing college escalated after Muslim students accused their Christian roommates, Amara and Sitara, of desecrating Quranic verses on February 13.
Their Muslim accusers and some staff of the hospital have threatened legal action against the Christian students.
Martha, the hostel warden, told the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan that she had served Fatima Memorial Hospital for 15 years.
She said: “I would stay at the hostel even on my day-offs and give very little time to my family. “The nursing students and hospital administration gave me due respect before this incident,” the terminated Christian warden told SLMP.
ANS has learnt that the Muslim students allegedly turned against Martha when she asked them to restrain from blowing a trivial matter out of proportion.
The Medical Superintendent, Ayesha Nouman did not take any action against the Muslim students, who spoke harshly to Martha.
Instead of taking some disciplinary action against the Muslim students the medical superintendent terminated her.
Martha told SLMP: “I am ready to face any sort of persecution for Christ.
“This is just a termination. I don’t care about my career. I can sacrifice my life for Christ because He died for me.
“I am not afraid of persecution rather I feel honoured to be persecuted for Christ. I also encouraged Amara and Sitara to remain strong in Christ.”
Muslim students still want legal action be taken against the terminated Christian nursing students.
According to the SLMP situation at the nursing college remains tense and they received reports which said Muslim students allegedly thrashed Christian nursing students at the college.
The Ministry alleged that Pakistan TV Geo News and Channel 5 did partial reporting on the incident.
SLMP urged Christians across the world to pray for protection of Amara, Sitara and Sister Martha.

THREE-SELF PATRIOTIC MOVEMENT ( TSPM ) IN COLLISSSION WITH GOVERMENT OF CHINA TO PERSECUTE HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS ; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE..

HEILONGJIANG-- Mrs. Cheng Fengying's house was seized illegally in January 2009 by officials from the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) after years of continual persecution.

Cheng Fenying, 54, is a preacher and evangelist. She, her husband Xie Tongxing and her 25-year-old son Xie Chengwei hosted a house church in their home with more than 200 members, but government officials threatened each believer to keep them away from the house church.
Photo: Mrs. Cheng Fengying holds a banner "Innocent Citizen From HeilongJiang Province" standing in front of the house of former Communist Party chief, Zhao Ziyang, who was under house arrest after he showed sympathy to the students in the 1989 protest.
Cheng Fengying sent the following letter on February 17, 2009:
My name is Chang Fengying and I am 54 years old. My husband's name is Xie Tongxing and he was a native of Guangming Village, Fulu Township, Muling City, Heilongjiang province. Both my husband and I were disabled in our childhood years. I gave myself to the Lord and became a Christian in 1990. I went to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement church between 1990 and 2003, then I came to see the true nature of the TSPM. I left the TSPM and began to meet in house churches. In July 2006, the TSPM church of Muling City colluded with the government. They worked in cooperation with the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), the Public Security Bureau and the head of Guangming Village and came to put sealing tape on my house and to forbid us to meet at my house. The TSPM also sent groups of thugs to raid my house again and again in which they looted, beat up people and smashed our belongings. I called 110 (the equivalent to 911 in the U.S.) and the police wouldn't intervene. With no other alternatives, I went to Beijing and sued the authorities there. During the consecutive lawsuits, my husband was so scared that he died... Soon after my husband passed away, the TSPM colluded again with the government on July 3, 2007 and canceled my house ownership title through illegal means.
During the 2008 Olympic Games, I was detained in a black prison (prison cells privately established by government officials) where I was injured in my arms. In January 2009, the TSPM took away my housing property by making use of the court. During this time, we could not have normal meetings. In the meantime, my family was so persecuted by the TSPM and the government that it is ruined with death and misery. My child has fled from the persecution and there is no way for him to come back home.
I hereby implore my brothers and sisters around the world to pray for me and show concern for me. I also implore the Lord to protect my family so that we can still hold gatherings. I implore the Lord to enable the court to rule on a fair basis and hope that legal professionals can assist me in this case.
Your humble fellow Christian,Chang Fengying

JESUS CHRIST GOES ' KABUKI ' IN JAPAN SUPERSTAR PLAY

TOKYO - A rickshaw, women in elaborate brocade kimonos, the echo of bamboo flutes. And Jesus of Nazareth, his face painted white with the flaring red lines typical of makeup in Japan's kabuki theater.
All share the stage at Gekidan Shiki, one of Japan's best-known theater troupes, in its revival of the hit rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" -- with some very Japanese twists.
First adapted by Shiki founder Keita Asari in 1973 from the original, a 1970 album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice followed by a 1971 Broadway production, the "Japonesque Version" is one of several local adaptations of the play around the globe. Shiki also does a more conventional "Jerusalem Version."
"There was a New York version, and I thought I should do a kabuki version," Asari said recently, surrounded by cast members after the musical's final dress rehearsal in Tokyo.
"Then later I was told it was too avant-garde, so I made another version, the Jerusalem Version, in response."
"Superstar" depicts the last week of Jesus Christ, including his betrayal by Judas Iscariot, his arrest, his appearance before Pontius Pilate and, finally, his crucifixion.
Asari's production is a powerful, if sometimes disconcerting, blend of Japan and Jerusalem.
Jesus, Judas and the others have faces made up with the ghostly white foundation and flaring lines, in red or black, of kabuki. One woman flaunts a Japanese parasol.
A man wears a version of a sumo wrestler's wrapped mawashi loincloth over white jeans, and some musical numbers include bamboo flutes and Japan's traditional three-stringed shamisen.
JAPAN, JERUSALEM, THE SIXTIES
But Japan really comes to the fore in a surreal scene where Jesus meets King Herod, who appears on stage in a white rickshaw accompanied by two women in kimonos.
Herod, who sings the honkytonk number "King Herod's Song," has elaborate tattoos covering his upper body in the style of Japanese gangsters and wears a garish happi coat.
Adding to the bizarre nature of the production are 1960s touches such as the white jeans worn by all the cast and the long, crocheted vests worn by the otherwise bare-chested Jesus and Judas, who also appears to have an Afro hairdo.
To Toshihide Kaneta, who plays Jesus in the current production, this melange is all part of the appeal.
"Even though over 35 years have gone by since it was first performed, this very original combination of kabuki makeup and jeans still hasn't lost its freshness," he said in a statement.
Inevitably, some poetry is lost in translation.
The line "To conquer death, you only have to die" that Jesus sings in "Poor Jerusalem" becomes the less stirring "to overcome death," while "blood money" in another song is simply "money."
How many of the story's deeper echoes come through in Japan, which has only a small Christian minority, is another question.
Among the more mundane admonitions of Asari's post-rehearsal critique of the cast's performance, such as telling Jesus to "collapse a bit more when you're being held by the soldiers," were urgings for them to "feel awe" as they performed.
"Judas' betrayal was dramatized well, it was easy to understand," said Setsuko, a woman in her 60s who was in the audience and who said she hadn't known the story before.
"You can't think of it as religion. The songs and dances were powerful, it was enjoyable as a play."

FIVE KILLED IN CHRISTIAN - MUSLIM CLASHES IN NIGERIA; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE....

KANO, Nigeria — Five people were killed and four injured Saturday in sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians over places of worship in northern Nigeria's Bauchi state, residents said.
Government officials, however, blamed the violence on disaffected local politicians and said they had asked troops to take over security duties from the police in the immediate area affected.
Muslim youths attacked Christians and burned churches in reprisals over the burning of two mosques overnight in the state capital Bauchi, which the Muslims blamed on Christians, residents told AFP by telephone from Bauchi, 300 kilometres (200 miles) northeast of Abuja.
"I saw five dead bodies on the streets this morning, one of them was burnt," resident Muazu Hardawa said.
"One of the dead bodies was one of five Muslim youths shot by police deployed to the area to restore calm when a mob insisted on burning a church," he said.
Hardawa said three churches in nearby Kofar Dumi neighbourhood were burnt during the violence.
Bauchi state governor Isa Yuguda said he had ordered troops to be deployed to restore order in the city.
The region was rocked by religious and political violence in November that killed hundreds of people in the central city of Jos.
Tensions have risen in Bauchi since February 13 when members of a pentacostal church opposite a mosque in the area barricaded a pathway outside the church used by Muslims attending Friday prayers, residents said.
A truck had broken down in the middle of the road separating the church and the mosque, blocking the passage and the Muslims had to use a narrow path between the truck and the church, further inflaming tensions, according to resident Babayo Hassan.
He said a police detachment stationed in the area had to intervene by removing the barricades and appealing for calm on both sides.
"Angered by what they saw as provocation, an unprecedented number of Muslims attended the Friday prayers and the congregation overflowed to the church's gate but there was no incident," Hassan said.
"But around 3:00 a.m. two mosques in the area went up in flames. The Muslims accused the members of the church for the arson and enraged Muslim youths went on a rampage," he added.
The Christian-dominated neighbourhood was a centre of bloody sectarian strife in 2004 when Muslim-Christian violence in the town of Tafawa Balewa, some 100 kilometres away spilled over to the city, and houses, mosques and churches were burnt, Hardawa said.
The north of Nigeria is predominantly Muslim, with many states introducing Sharia law, but there are significant Christian communities in the region as well, leading to sectarian tensions and clashes.
The Bauchi state government blamed disgruntled politicians for the latest mayhem.
"This is a crisis fomented by troublemakers intent on causing disaffection in the state," state governor Yuguda said in a broadcast aired on state-owned radio.
"It is fuelled by disgruntled political elements who do not wish the state well and the government will not condone it," he said.
"I have ordered soldiers to take over the restoration of normalcy in the affected area from the police," the governor added.
The police authorities in the city have refused to comment on the violence.

COUNSELLOR SUSPENDED AFTER TEENS HEAR ' CHRISTIAN MUSIC ' IN CALIFORNIA; ACCUSED OF EXPOSING CHILDREN TO UNAPPROVED RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES

A Southern California counselor with nearly two decades of experience with foster children is challenging a decision that she be punished after four teens she took on an approved day-long outing encountered a beach festival – and heard Christian music.
The 18-year employee, according to the lawsuit, took four teen girls from the Orangewood Children's Home, which was launched as a private facility but now is owned and run by Orange County. "What happened to this counselor was insane and unjust," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, who is defending the counselor.
"Allowing teenagers to overhear a few minutes of Christian music while at the beach should not result in a six-week suspension," insisted Dacus, who said the counselor's name is not being released.
A county spokeswoman said officials had not seen the complaint. But it was a personnel issue, they said, so there would be no comment.
Pacific Justice said the lawsuit was filed after an extensive course of "administrative remedies" proved fruitless.
The complaint explains the counselor took the four teen girls on the field trip during the summer of 2006, first to a 5 kilometer run and then to the beach.
"At the beach, the group encountered a 'Surf Jam' taking place at the Huntington Beach Pier. The group also overheard Christian music for about 10 minutes while they were eating," the institute said.
After the outing, the counselor was ordered into a "disciplinary meeting" that focused on the inappropriateness of Christian music.
No punishment was imposed immediately, but weeks later after another meeting at which the same subject was reviewed, the counselor was suspended six weeks for "exposing children to unapproved religious activities."
The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court seeking to recover the financial losses from the suspension and vindicate her constitutional rights, the institute said.
Dacus told WND the circumstances were disturbing.
"It just goes to show how anti-faith some [people] are," he said.

RAY COMFORT Vs RICHARD DAWKINS A $10,OOO CHALLENGE; CHRISTIAN AUTHOR THROWS DOWN GAUNTLET IN CHALLENGING ATHIEST CELEBRITY FOR DEBATE

Ray Comfort, author of the new book, "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can't Make Him Think," is challenging celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins to a debate – and sweetening the offer by offering him $10,000, win, lose or draw.
"Richard Dawkins is arguably the most famous living atheist, now that Anthony Flew doubted his doubts and backslid as an atheist," said Comfort, bestselling author and co-host, along with actor Kirk Cameron, of the award-winning TV show "The Way of the Master." "Flew said that he simply followed the evidence. I would like to see Richard Dawkins follow his example."
Comfort has spoken at Yale University on the subject of atheism. In 2001, American Atheists, Inc. flew him from his home in California to Orlando, Fla., to be a platform speaker at its national convention. He debated atheistic evolution on ABC's Nightline in 2007, and early in 2009 debated on the BBC. He is the author of some 60 other books including "God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists," "How to Know God Exists," and "Evolution: the Fairy Tale for Grownups." He is the publisher of "The Evidence Bible" and more recently, "The Atheist Bible (Unauthorized Version)" and, "The Charles Darwin Bible." His booklet, "The Atheist Test" has sold over a million copies.

On Darwin Day (Charles Darwin's 200th birthday – Feb. 12), Comfort's latest, "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can’t Make Him Think," published by WND Books, pushed Dawkins' "The God Delusion" out of the No. 1 spot in the atheist category on Amazon.com.
"One of Dawkins' major gripes is against religion," said Comfort. "I am in total agreement on that one. I abhor religion. It is the opiate of the masses. It has left a bloody trail of destruction and human misery throughout history. Hitler even used it for his own ends. His other big beef is that he believes that the God of the Old Testament is a tyrant. If I had the image of God Dawkins has created in his mind, I, too, would be an atheist. The problem is that the god Mr. Dawkins doesn't believe in, doesn't exist."
Comfort added, "I will donate $10,000 to him, or give it to any children's charity he names. All I ask is that he goes into a studio and gives me 20 minutes on why there is no God and why evolution is scientific. Then I will give 20 minutes on how we can know God exists and why evolution is nothing more than an unsubstantiated and unscientific fairy tale for grownups. Then we both will have 10 minutes to respond.
"Sadly, I have found that even evolution's most staunch believers are afraid to debate, because they know that their case for atheism and evolution is less than extremely weak," Comfort said. "I would be delighted (and honored) if Mr. Dawkins has the courage to debate me, but I'm not holding my breath."
Comfort recently became the "Creationism Examiner" on the website of the secular newspaper, the Examiner.

LUTHERANS IN UNITED STATES CONSIDERING FOR AN ACTIVELY GAY CLERGY; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....

America's largest Lutheran body inched closer to ordaining actively gay clergy with a recommendation Thursday that the 4.7-million-member church vote on the matter at its convention this summer.
A 15-member task force of theologians, academics, bishops and laity with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) released in a 17-page statement Thursday afternoon a proposal for delegates to vote on at the ELCA's next convention, Aug. 17-23 in Minneapolis. To pass, the proposal needs the support of a simple majority of the delegates representing the ELCA's 65 synods.
According to the proposal, each geographical synod would be allowed to decide whether to “call people in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships” to the ministry. Only celibate gay clergy can now serve in any ELCA churches.
Although stressing repeatedly that the ELCA must vote decisively on the matter at its biennial meeting, the task force said a homosexual candidate in a “publicly accountable” relationship may sometimes be the “best-suited” person for a certain church.
The recommendation was accompanied by a 33-page treatise defining human sexuality as a “gift and trust,” along with a series of proposed resolutions for a liturgical rite for divorce, for partners of gay clergy to be included in denominational pension plans, and for sex-education programs in public and private Lutheran schools.
Local Lutheran bishops had mixed reactions.
“I think the church should move toward inclusion, diversity and the maximum amount of flexibility,” said Bishop Richard H. Graham of the 40,000-member Metropolitan Washington Synod. “The question is how fast and to what expense.”
He has one celibate homosexual serving in one of his 130 churches, he added, plus “several people in our candidacy process who are in various stages of coming out publicly.”
Bishop H. Gerald Knoche of the 94,000-member Delaware-Maryland Synod called the series of proposals “a detriment to our church.”
He said, “What they are proposing here is that different synods and churches can handle the problem according to their conscience. That will make it difficult to have clergy mobility in the national church. There will be different standards in different places.”

He added, “my conscience says homosexuality is sinful and we shouldn't be holding it up as a lifestyle.”
While the “recommendations” statement stressed repeatedly that some Lutherans are under “bound conscience” to oppose gay clergy, it called its existing policy mandating that homosexuals stay celibate “undesirable and unrealistic.” The task force said the denomination has studied and debated the matter for seven years and that it already allowed celibate homosexuals in leadership posts.
The task force listed four proposed resolutions to be put to a vote in August. The first would decide whether Lutheran synods and congregations can support monogamous same-sex relationships.
If that passes, a second resolution would ask whether Lutherans would allow someone in such a relationship to join the ranks of Lutheran clergy.
A third would bind Lutherans into “respecting the bound consciences of those with whom they disagree,” presumably those opposed to gay clergy.
A fourth would grant a local option to synods that wish to accept gay ministers.
“Step one is the critical piece,” said Bishop James F. Mauney of the 43,000-member Virginia Synod. “It's like a serve on a tennis rally. What you do with the serve depends on whether you get to the second, third or fourth shot.”
ELCA conventions in 2005 and 2007 “wouldn't budge” on allowing gay clergy, said the bishop, adding that he is not aware of any of any gay clergy in his synod.
“There seems to be a spirit and mind of the assembly that doesn't follow easily what one would assume,” he said.
Lutherans Concerned, a gay advocacy group based in St. Paul, Minn., applauded some features of the “recommendations” statement but said it offered no rite for gay marriage.
Allowing some synods to not ordain homosexuals amounts to “institutionalized discrimination,” it said in a statement.
WordAlone Network, a conservative Lutheran group in New Brighton, Minn., called the recommendations “smoke and mirrors” and promised to work to defeat all the proposed resolutions in August.

JAMES BRADFORD NAMED GENERAL SECRETARY OF ASSEMBLIES OF GOD

James Bradford, pastor of Central Assembly of God in Springfield, is the new general secretary of the Assemblies of God, General Superintendent George O. Wood announced this morning.

Bradford, 56, was unanimously appointed by the Executive Presbytery following the resignation of John M. Palmer Feb. 13 after admitting to ethical misconduct.Bradford will assume the duties of the General Secretary’s office effective immediately. However, he will also continue as pastor of Central Assembly through Easter.

The general secretary maintains information about the denomination's ministers and churches, oversees the chartering of churches and credentialing of ministers and keeps official statistics about the Assemblies of God, which is based in Springfield.Wood said the search for the new general secretary was one “bathed in prayer and conducted with a list of qualities in mind. Included in the list were godly character, respect among ministers and constituency, competency for the office, preaching and communication skills, chemistry with the current executive leadership, ability to connect with young people and leadership skills, among other things — all qualities that were carefully and prayerfully evaluated.”

Bradford, who holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Minnesota, grew a small Chi Alpha campus Bible study at the university into a university church. Upon graduation in 1979, he went into full-time ministry with that campus outreach. In 1982, he was ordained by the Minnesota District. He and his family moved to Southern California in 1988 where he pastored Newport-Mesa Christian Center in Orange County. In 2000, the Bradfords moved to Vancouver, B.C., to pastor Broadway Church, and in 2003 he came to Springfield to pastor Central Assembly.

“He is a popular speaker both in the States and abroad,” Wood adds. Bradford works with university student ministries, missionaries and pastoral leadership training. “We pray God’s wisdom and presence on Jim and the family.” Bradford and his wife, Sandi, have two daughters, Meredith and Angeline, both students at Evangel University in Springfield. A video of the chapel introduction of Dr. Bradford as general secretary will be available at http://ag.org/ later this morning.

FAITH BASED SERVICES HURTED BY GOVERMENT CUTBACKS IN UNITED STATES

Faith-based charities, which provide an enormous array of private social services to the nation's sick, elderly and poor, are facing unprecedented cutbacks from one of their biggest funders: the government.

The nation's economic woes have led local and state government agencies across the country to reduce contracts and grants or delay payments to the groups, which have been forced to eliminate programs, lay off staff or try to borrow money in a tight lending market. In the Washington region, where the Maryland, Virginia and District budgets are being developed, faith-based charities from Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington to the Salvation Army's National Capital Area Command are freezing job vacancies, postponing initiatives and rallying their religious congregations to dig deeper into their pockets.
Government leaders are also urging the organizations to increase their fundraising, but political leaders and the groups say that the economy is causing deep cuts in private giving. Ken Kozloff, chief executive of the Jewish Social Service Agency, with offices in Montgomery and Fairfax counties, has seen its private donations fall almost 10 percent, but its client roster has grown 35 percent. It gets half of its revenue from federal, state and local governments.

Without government funding, "where are the resources going to come from?" asked Kozloff. "How do we serve people? How do we keep people's lives whole?"
Faith groups elsewhere in the country are feeling the strain. California is soon expected to make its payments to faith groups, and other organizations, as IOUs instead of cash. In Illinois, a local Lutheran social services agency is owed $4 million. A Lutheran social services agency in Minnesota closed four residential facilities for troubled adolescents after the state slashed its funding. And in Newark, New Jersey cut a $1 million contract to the local Catholic Charities, which provided job training and other assistance to 400 mentally ill welfare recipients, forcing it to shut down the program and lay off about a dozen people.
"It's only going to continue to get worse," warned Larry Snyder, chief executive of Catholic Charities USA, one of the country's largest nonprofit organizations, which gets about 65 percent of its revenue from government contracts. "Our folks out in the field are feeling a little overwhelmed because they can't see the end, and all they see are more and more people coming and fewer resources coming their way. And yet we don't have the luxury to say, 'You know what? We're going to close our doors for a while.' "
Faith-based charities' services run the gamut of social programs: They own hospitals and nursing homes, run substance-abuse and foster-care programs, operate homeless shelters and mental health clinics, build affordable housing and distribute food to the needy.
Researchers say it is impossible to calculate what percentage of total social service assistance comes from faith-based organizations, although they agree it is large. One San Jose State University study estimates the value of the social services provided by faith-based charities and other religious organizations across the country at $50 billion a year.
In the Washington area, at least one-third of faith-based charities and congregations get government money, according to a survey by Scott W. Allard, a professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Allard said that estimate is probably low because it misses many smaller congregations and social service organizations that also receive contracts.
But across the country, caring for the poor is growing more and more difficult, faith organization leaders said. The passage of the economic stimulus package is expected to do little to reverse the trend. In Virginia, for example, even with the funds expected from the stimulus package, the budget shortfall is anticipated to be at least $2.7 billion, with cuts for faith-based services all but certain.
In a survey of 50 Catholic Charities affiliates nationwide, about half have experienced cutbacks or unpaid state contracts. The problem appears slightly better locally, but not by much, because state and local governments are finalizing budgets. A survey by the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations found that at least one-third of its members experienced a reduction in state funding or anticipate a reduction.
Not long ago, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) met with local nonprofit social service agencies, including a number of faith-based organizations, to warn them to expect significant cuts. "Government's ability and the ability of nonprofits [to respond] becomes more challenging when there is a greater need," Leggett said. "And that's the real irony of what we face."
In normal times, nonprofits can tap into bank credit lines to cover lags in payment. But faced with swelling late payments, many organizations have hit their maximum or struggling banks have cut their lines of credit.
Independent Sector, a coalition of charitable groups that represents nonprofits, estimates that at least $15 billion -- 18 percent of all government funding to nonprofit human service providers -- is delayed or will be delayed if the problem is not addressed.
Nonprofits unsuccessfully lobbied for a $15 billion bridge loan package for human services nonprofits, administered by the federal government, to be included in the fiscal stimulus package.
The charities say the cutbacks will only boomerang on the states. When California slashed more than $300,000 from a contract with Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, it had to cut 70 slots from a program that kept poor elderly people out of nursing homes by providing them with services in their homes.
"Unless their families had some alternative," said Chief Executive Paul Castro, "they undoubtedly ended up in a nursing home," potentially costing California taxpayers even more money.

JADE GOODY ( big brother fame) INFLUENCED BY BIBLE , AS SHE IS TOLD SHE MAY HAVE ONLY WEEKS TO LIVE DUE TO CERVICAL CANCER

Jade Goody is reading the Bible as she comes to terms with her death - and may only have a few weeks left to live.

The 27-year-old has become so influenced by the book and its teachings, she is planning to have her sons Bobby, five, and Freddie, four, Christened before she passes away.
Her publicist Max Clifford also revealed in an exclusive web chat with Sky News Online this lunchtime that a trust is being set up to look after the youngsters after she is gone.
Asked by one Sky reader who would get custody of the two lads, he replied: "She is assembling a memory box for her boys.

"There is a team of trustees - three very close friends - who will be overseeing the interest of her boys in the years ahead."
Her estate will be in her fiancé Jack Tweed's name for seven years to avoid inheritance tax before it passes to her children.
Asked how long Jade had got left to live, he replied: "She was told a week ago that we are talking about months. It could be weeks."
Mr Clifford also spoke of Jade's wedding to 21-year-old Jack this Sunday, and how planning her big day is taking her mind off her excruciating pain.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has lifted Jack's curfew to allow the couple to spend their wedding night together.
"She is being very brave and planning the wedding gives her something positive to look forward to and focus on," Mr Clifford added.
"Jade has a tremendous lift from the vast thousands of messages of love and support she has received from all over Britain."
Her wedding will take place in front of 150 pals - including TV host Jonathan Ross - in Down Hall, Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire.

"The wedding won't be on live TV. It is being filmed by Living TV, which will bring their contract to an end and will be shown in a couple of weeks time," Mr Clifford said.
"She won't be having a honeymoon - she's not well enough. And she's under constant medical supervision."
Asked whether she had spent too much time in front of the cameras as she battled her disease, Mr Clifford added: "Jade is doing what she wants to do with the time she has left.

"Since she went public with her cervical cancer in August, there has been a huge increase all over Britain in young women having cervical cancer smear tests.
"She will save many lives and Jade is very happy she has achieved that by going public."
A huge media circus is camped outside her mansion in Upshire, Essex. And the reality TV star has sent trays of teas and coffees out to the waiting pack.
Earlier, a nine-year-old girl who met Jade when she was in hospital with leukaemia as a baby, visited the star's house with her family.
Shelby Rolls, from Southgate in north London, brought flowers and a card and congratulated her on her forthcoming wedding.
A delivery man brought an enormous bunch of pink flowers from singer Robbie Williams.

VATICAN IRKED BY ' BLASPHEMOUS' VIRGIN MARY TV SPOOF IN ISRAEL

The Vatican said Friday it has formally complained to the Israeli government about an Israeli TV show that ridiculed Jesus and Mary in an offensive act of intolerance.

The Israeli foreign ministry said the segment wouldn't be shown again and that its host, well-known Israeli comedian Lior Shlein, had apologized. In the program, Shlein sarcastically denied Christian traditions - that Mary was a virgin and that Jesus walked on water - saying he was doing so as a lesson to Christians who deny the Holocaust.
It was a reference to the Vatican's recent lifting of the excommunication of a bishop who denied 6 million Jews were killed during World War II. The rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jews. A statement from the Vatican press office said its representative in Israel complained to the government about the segment, which was broadcast recently on private Channel 10, one of Israel's three main TV stations, during Shlein's late-night comedy talk show. In the clip, the Vatican said, Mary and Joseph were ridiculed with blasphemous words and images that amounted to a vulgar and offensive act of intolerance toward the religious sentiments of the believers in Christ.

In the show, Mary is said to have become pregnant at 15, thanks to a schoolmate. It said Jesus could never have walked on water because he was so fat he was ashamed to leave the house, let alone go to the Sea of Galilee with a bathing suit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the ministry approached Channel 10 based on the papal nuncio's complaints, and was told the segment would not air again. Palmor said the station's legal adviser had also already sent a letter of apology to an attorney who represents a Christian group who had been offended by the segment. Palmor said Shlein apologized live on Wednesday, and said he didn't mean to offend anyone. The clip was a sarcastic response to the Vatican's rehabilitation of Bishop Richard Williamson, who said in an interview broadcast on Swedish state TV that no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust and that only 200,000 or 300,000 Jews were killed. he Vatican's rehabilitation of Williamson sparked outrage that only abated after Pope Benedict XVI met with Jewish leaders at the Vatican last week. During his audience, the German-born pope issued a strong denunciation of anti-Semitism and said it was unacceptable for anyone - particularly a clergyman - to deny or minimize the Holocaust. The Vatican has demanded that Williamson, a member of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, recant before he can be admitted as a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church. On Thursday, the government of Argentina, where Williamson had been living, ordered him expelled within 10 days. It cited an immigration problem but also said his comments about the Holocaust had profoundly insulted Argentina, Jews and all of humanity. The British-born Williamson had already been removed as director of the society's La Reja seminary. He has apologized for causing distress to the pope but has not recanted. He has said he would only correct himself if he is satisfied after a review of the evidence, but has said that would take time.

BARACK OBAMA HAS BEATEN JESUS CHRIST TO BE THE NO:1 HERO IN UNITED STATES; PRAY FOR THIS NATION WHOSE FOUNDATION WAS BASED ON GOD

Blessed is the Nation whose God is the LORD; OBAMA beats Jesus

US President Barack Obama has beaten Jesus Christ to be American's number one hero, according to a new rris poll. The top 10 list based on the poll showed Obama at number one position, Christ at number two, and Martin Luther King at number three. Take a look at the heroes of America...