ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ LEAVES 3 DEAD; PRAY & MAKE A DIFFERNCE IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two attacks on Christian families in the city of Kirkuk on Sunday evening left three people dead and two others wounded, police said.

The first occurred in a neighborhood in southern Kirkuk when a Christian woman and her daughter-in-law were murdered in their home late night Sunday. Police told CNN the attackers slit the women's throats.
In a neighborhood close by, gunmen attacked a Christian family in their home, shooting a father and his three sons, police said. One of the sons died instantly and the other son and the father were wounded.
Many of Iraq's estimated 1 million Christians have fled the country after targeted attacks by extremists.
In October, more than a thousand Iraqi families fled the northern city of Mosul after they were reportedly frightened by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists, who apparently ordered them to convert to Islam or face possible death.

At least 14 Christians were killed in Mosul in the first two weeks of October.
Kirkuk is 150 miles (240 km) north of Baghdad.

IN A SHOCKING SURVEY, MOST OF THE AMERICAN CHRISTIANS DOESN'T BELIVE IN SATAN AND HOLY SPIRIT

The majority of American Christians do not believe that Satan is a real being or that the Holy Spirit is a living entity, the latest Barna survey found.Nearly six out of ten Christians either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement that Satan "is not a living being but is a symbol of evil," the survey found.

Forty percent strongly agreed with the statement while 19 percent of American Christians somewhat agreed.In contrast, about 35 percent of American Christians believe Satan is real. Twenty-six percent strongly disagreed with the statement that Satan is merely symbolic and about one-tenth (9 percent) somewhat disagreed.The remaining eight percent of American Christians responded they were unsure what to believe about the existence of Satan.

Interestingly, the majority of Christians believe a person can be under the influence of spiritual forces, such as demons or evil spirits, even though many of these same people believe Satan is merely a symbol of evil. Two out of three Christians agreed that such forces are real (39 percent agreed strongly, 25 percent agreed somewhat).Likewise, most Christians in the United States do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force. Fifty-eight percent strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is "a symbol of God's power or presence but is not a living entity."Only one-third of Christians disagreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is not just symbolic (9 percent disagreed somewhat, 25 percent disagreed strongly). Nine percent expressed they were unsure.Interestingly, about half (49 percent) of those who agreed that the Holy Spirit is only a symbol but not a living entity, agreed that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. The Bible states that the Holy Spirit is God's power or presence, not just symbolic."Most Americans, even those who say they are Christian, have doubts about the intrusion of the supernatural into the natural world," commented George Barna, founder of The Barna Group and author of books analyzing research concerning America's faith."Hollywood has made evil accessible and tame, making Satan and demons less worrisome than the Bible suggests they really are," he said. "It's hard for achievement-driven, self-reliant, independent people to believe that their lives can be impacted by unseen forces."But a large majority of American Christians agree that a person must choose to side with either good or evil. More than six out of ten American Christians strongly agreed (61 percent) with the idea that a person must either side with God or with the devil - that there is no in-between position. Another 15 percent somewhat agreed.Just one out of ten adults disagreed somewhat (10 percent) and a similar proportion (11 percent) strongly disagreed. Only a few adults (3 percent) did not have an opinion on the issue.

Barna explained that because of the "sheer force of repetition" many Americans "intellectually" accept the idea that you either side with God or Satan and there's no in-between, even though this idea does "not get translated into practice."Other survey findings include a significant number of self-described Christians believing that Jesus sinned when he lived on earth, contrary to the core teaching of Christianity that teaches the divinity and perfection of Jesus.More than one-fifth (22 percent) strongly agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth, with an additional 17 percent agreeing somewhat.However, nearly half of American Christians (46 percent) strongly disagreed with the idea that Jesus sinned, and 9 percent disagreed somewhat. Six percent did not have an opinion on the statement.The Barna report is based on telephone interviews for two surveys among people who described themselves as Christians. A total of 1,871 adults were randomly selected from across the 48 continental states, with the first 873 interviews conducted in January and February 2008, and the remaining 998 interviews conducted in November 2008.

HINDU NATIONALIST ARRESTED FOR MAKING ANTI-CHRISTIAN SPEECH IN ORISSA ( INDIA )

BHUBANESWAR, India — Indian police Tuesday arrested a Hindu nationalist politician for an alleged anti-Christian hate speech at a poll rally in Orissa state, which was hit by Hindu-Christian riots last year.
Ashok Sahu, a member of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was charged with promoting hostility between communities during an election meeting in Kandhamal district, the centre of violence that erupted in August.
His arrest is a further embarrassment to the BJP, which has been accused of whipping up inter-faith tensions during campaigning.
One high-profile BJP candidate, Varun Gandhi -- a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty -- was jailed after threatening to cut off the hands of anyone who dared harm India's majority Hindus.


In his speech on April 5, Sahu, a former police officer, allegedly justified last year's riots in Orissa in which Christian groups say more than 100 people were massacred by rampaging Hindu mobs.
The riots were sparked by the murder of a revered Hindu holy man, whose killing was blamed on Christians.
"Who killed Swamiji? Did he not know that there would be dire consequences for such an act? If I say it too often, I am accused of being communal and blamed for spreading communal hatred," Sahu reportedly told supporters.
Sahu, who is the BJP's candidate for the Kandhamal constituency, was detained at Phulbani town, 220 kilometres (140 miles) from the state capital Bhubaneshwar, Pravin Kumar, police superintendent of the area said.
Orissa goes to the polls in two phases on April 16 and 23 as part of India's mammoth five-stage national elections slated to end on May 13.
Thousands of Christians still live in state-run relief camps after Hindu mobs burned their houses, churches, orphanages and schools in the impoverished state.

FOUR SHOT, ONE DEAD AT THE KOREAN CHRISTIAN RETREAT CENTRE IN CALIFORNIA

Temecula, Calif. - A gunman opened fire at a remote Korean Christian retreat center Tuesday night, leaving one person dead and at least three people injured, authorities said. Authorities were first called to the rural area about 7 p.m. after receiving reports about a man shooting his wife, California Highway Patrol spokesman Mario Lopez said.

But investigators were still trying to learn the circumstances of the shootings, and were hindered by a language barrier in trying to sort out the facts, Riverside County Sheriff's spokesman Dennis Gutierrez said. "We have some nuns that are very distraught," he said.

The name and age of the suspected shooter was not released and the identity of the dead victim was being withheld until relatives were notified. At least two of the victims were critically injured. The gunman was also believed to be among the wounded at the Kkottongnae Retreat Camp, located in Temecula about 85 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

A nursing supervisor at the Inland Valley Regional Medical Center near the retreat said she had no information on any of the victims. Officers began interviewing people at what appeared to be a triage center for injured victims, Gutierrez said, but most of them spoke Korean. "That language barrier, that's the key to figuring out what happened," Gutierrez said. The retreat is one of four U.S. branches of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, a Roman Catholic organization dedicated to serving the poor and homeless. It was founded in the city of Cheongju, South Korea, by Father Oh Woong Jin in 1976.

The campground, previously used as a summer camp before the group bought it, was marked by a single white sign in English and Korean on the side of a rural winding road in remote southeast Riverside County. The retreat was a mile up a narrow road into the hills. Kkottongnae means "flower village," according to the organization's Web site. A woman who answered the phone at the group's Lynwood branch on Tuesday night said she did not speak English well and declined to discuss the shooting. Deputies had evacuated the campground and blocked off access. Nothing could be seen from the main road. Several women from the retreat sat wrapped in blankets outside the law enforcement lines. "This is the last place this is supposed to happen," Gutierrez said. "A lot of people are shaken up." Chang Kim of Los Angeles stood at the scene, saying his 88-year-old mother lives up the road that was blocked off. Kim said he was concerned because he could not reach her. "My mother lives up there," he said. "I can't go there. I can't get in. I'm stuck."

KOSUKE KOYAMA , 79, AN ECUMENICAL THEOLOGIAN, DIES

The Rev. Dr. Kosuke Koyama, a theologian internationally known for using arresting metaphors drawn from his experience as a missionary to convey an influential vision of Christianity as compatible with Asian traditions, died on last Wednesday, in Springfield, Mass. He was 79.

The immediate cause was pneumonia, said his son Mark, who added that his father had had esophageal cancer.
Dr. Koyama, who taught at the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, strove to make the teachings of Christ culturally meaningful to Asians, without sacrificing the essential Gospel message. His 1974 book, “Water Buffalo Theology,” was “one of the first books truly to do theology out of the setting of Asian villages,” Donald Shriver, president emeritus of Union, said in an interview on Tuesday.
In an online review, Herb Swanson, historian for the Church of Christ in Thailand, called the book “one of the classic works of contemporary Asian theology.”
Directed at the concerns of peasants, the book points out that Christianity and Buddhism do not communicate; rather, Christians and Buddhists do. Dr. Koyama advocated seeing God “in the faces of people” to achieve good neighborliness among religions. He spoke of trying to “season” the Aristotelian roots of Western theology with Buddhist “salt.”
The book favored communicating about Jesus in culturally comforting words but urged missionaries to criticize and reform a given culture if it was found to be against Christian values.
Dr. Koyama made the book’s case in poetic, not academic, language. As a missionary in northern Thailand, he said, he was inspired to write it as he listened to the “fugue of the bullfrogs” while watching farmers working with buffaloes in the rice fields.
“The water buffaloes tell me that I must preach to these farmers in the simplest sentence structure,” he wrote. “They remind me to discard all the abstract ideas and to use exclusively objects that are immediately tangible. ‘Sticky rice,’ ‘banana,’ ‘pepper,’ ‘dog,’ ‘cat,’ ‘bicycle,’ ‘rainy season,’ ‘leaking house,’ ‘fishing,’ ‘cockfighting,’ ‘lottery,’ ‘stomachache’ — these are meaningful words for them.”
Dr. Koyama’s 13 books also included “Mount Fuji and Mount Sinai: A Pilgrimage in Theology” (1984) and “Three Mile an Hour God” (1980), which reflects Dr. Koyama’s thought that God moves at walking speed through the countryside.
Dr. Koyama became an influential voice for ecumenism, speaking at conferences around the world and teaching classes on Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism at Union.
“I feel a mission to teach about different religious traditions,” he said in an interview with the Religion News Service in 1995. “I think it’s the Christian thing to do.”
Dr. Koyama was born on Dec. 10, 1929, in Tokyo. In 1945, as American bombs rained down on Tokyo, he was baptized as a Christian at the age of 15. He was struck by the courageous words of the presiding pastor, who told him that God called on him to love everybody, “even the Americans.”
Dr. Koyama graduated from Tokyo Union Theological Seminary in 1952 and earned a bachelor’s degree from Drew University in 1954 and a doctorate from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1959.
He was then sent by the United Church of Christ in Japan to be a missionary in Thailand. In 1968, he moved to Singapore to become dean of the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology and editor of The South East Asia Journal of Theology.
From 1974 to 1978, he lectured at the University of Otago in New Zealand. In 1980, he joined Union. Before he arrived, someone noticed that his “Water Buffalo” book had just landed on the discard pile outside the library door, Dr. Shriver said. Apparently, a librarian had concluded that the prestigious school had no program for teaching theology to water buffaloes. The book quickly and quietly returned to the shelves.
Dr. Koyama was the first holder of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Chair in Ecumenics and World Christianity. He retired in 1996.
In addition to his son Mark, Dr. Koyama is survived by his wife of 50 years, Lois; another son, James; his daughter, Elizabeth; and five grandchildren.
Once, in discussing death, Dr. Koyama recalled the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. He said Jesus would be with others the same way:
“Looking into our eyes and heart, Jesus will say: ‘You’ve had a difficult journey. You must be tired, and dirty. Let me wash your feet. The banquet’s ready.’ ”

RED RIVER RECEDING; FLOODS ARE BRACED FOR SNOWSTORM; PRAY FOR NORTH DAKOTA AND MINNESOTA

USA ― U.S. President Barack Obama has declared a federal emergency in response to flooding in the United States along the Red River in North Dakota and Minnesota.

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee Disaster Response Services staff asked local Christian Reformed church members in North Dakota and Minnesota to "use prayer chains, word of mouth, or whatever means you have at your disposal to make potential volunteers within your communities aware of this urgent need."

The churches sent hundreds of volunteers to help sandbag. Now, residents are braced for an early spring snowstorm that could dump over a foot of snow, even as record floodwaters recede.

Officials said the winds from the new storm will cause waves in the floodwaters that will put more pressure on the sandbag dikes along the Red River, but the river levels were expected to continue their gradual decline.

Art Opperwall, CRWRC-DRS groups manager, said traffic, bad weather, and other congestion concerns are causing crisis management personnel in Fargo to request that only local volunteers respond at this point.

The ministry staff is collaborating with local authorities in Fargo and other relief organizations on a near-daily basis this week. DRS regional manager Jay DeBoer says, "There are minimal folks in shelters at this point. Residents in this area are known to stay with relatives rather than shelter, although some neighborhoods, nursing homes and hospitals have been partially evacuated."



CRWRC's Bill Adams says their DRS team is on alert. "They actually would come in and help with the cleanup. In the case of flood, you have to wait for the immediate rescue to occur; you have to wait for the water to go down. They were pretty much ready to go, but we've got them on hold, right now."

Even while the teams are asking for additional funding help, they're looking for ways to share Christ. "Anytime our people go into the community, it's to work, but it's to be the hands of Christ. That's really what it's all about. You go in, and you lend a hand, and you're invariably offered the opportunity to pray and to encourage. The ministry opportunities abound whenever you have a disaster in a community."

ANOTHER HINDU LEADER MURDERED IN ORISSA; PRAY THAT THIS WOULDN'T RESULT IN ANOTHER WAVE OF PERSECUTION

India ― Suspected Maoist rebels murdered another Hindu leader of the fundamentalist organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), last week in Orissa, according to reports .
According to reports ,a group of about 15 attacked 30-year-old Prabbhat Panigrahi in Orissa's Kandhamal district and shot him on Thursday, March 19. Panigrahi was recently released after being arrested in connection with anti-Christian riots; he was one of 14 local RSS leaders targeted on a hit-list released by Maoists.
The RSS is an all-male organization designed to foster nationalism in India's Hindus. To the RSS, Hinduism isn't simply a religion; it's a way of life. Maoists targeted local RSS leaders for their alleged anti-Christian activities during the riots.
As they have in the past, Hindus are accusing Christians of being involved with the Maoists. They accuse believers of working with Maoists to kill their enemies; some hold that Maoists aren't killers but the church's "paid goons."
In August 2008, fundamentalist groups blamed Christians for the murder of Hindu swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. A wave of anti-Christian attacks followed, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.We asks you to join them in urgent prayer that this recent murder wouldn't result in another wave of persecution.

POPE WARNS AGAINST WITHCRAFT IN ANGOLA

LUANDA — Pope Benedict XVI issued a warning against witchcraft Saturday during his visit to Angola, after calling on African leaders to battle corruption and drawing a tough line against abortion.
The pope celebrated a private Mass for Angola's clergy and laypeople in the modernist Sao Paulo church, which along with much of the surrounding neighbourhood has been freshly painted and upgraded for his visit.
He praised the work of activists within the Church, and called on them to work to convert people to Catholicism, saying evangelising remains as important today as it was when Catholics first arrived in this region of Africa 500 years ago.
"Today it is up to you, brothers and sisters, following in the footsteps of those heroic and holy heralds of God, to offer the risen Christ to your fellow citizens," he said to the invitation-only crowd.
"So many of them are living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they end up even condemning street children and the elderly as alleged sorcerers," he said.
The issue has particular resonance in Angola, where traditional and home-grown faiths are flourishing, even though some sects have been linked to child abuse and human sacrifice.
Benedict criticised the idea that seeking to convert people was an affront to believers of other faiths.
"We do no injustice to anyone if we present Christ to them and thus grant them the opportunity of finding their truest and most authentic selves, the joy of finding life," he added.
Sao Paulo claims the largest congregation in Luanda, with seating for 1,500 people. Next door is the headquarters of Radio Ecclesia, a Catholic radio station that is one of the few independent voices in Angolan media.
Local Church leaders hope the pope's visit will push Angola's government -- run by the formerly Marxist Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola -- to allow the station to broadcast nationwide, rather than only in the capital.
In a speech at President Jose Eduardo dos Santos's residence late Friday, Benedict urged African leaders to allow greater press freedom, as he made a stern call for the continent to do more to fight poverty and corruption.
Dos Santos has ruled Angola for 30 years, and the country is ranked among the most corrupt in the world by Transparency International.
But in a country still recovering from decades of war, two thirds of the population lives on less than two dollars a day, despite Angola's oil riches.
"The multitude of Angolans who live below the threshold of absolute poverty must not be forgotten. Do not disappoint their expectations," Benedict said Friday.
He called on Africa to show "a determination born from the conversion of hearts to excise corruption once and for all".
"Armed with integrity, magnanimity and compassion, you can transform this continent, freeing your people from the scourges of greed, violence and unrest," he said.
Benedict has also sought to reinforce Catholic teachings on social issues, taking aim at a part of the African Union's charter that guarantees women a right to an abortion in cases of rape, incest, or major health risks to the mother, saying abortion was not a health issue.
Those remarks followed his controversial denunciation of condoms as a tool to prevent AIDS, which has sparked an international uproar among activists and some governments.

FATHER RAPED ' DAUGHTER ' FOR 9 YEARS AT THE BEHEST OF AN OCCULTIST TO BRING PROSPERITY TO THE FAMILY; HEY INDIA, ARE YOU HEARING THIS.....

MUMBAI: In a shocking case, a man allegedly raped his daughter repeatedly over a span of nine years at the behest of an occultist, who said the act would bring prosperity to the family.
The 21-year-old victim, who had been silent about the incident, mustered courage to approach the police after her businessman-father attempted to rape her 15-year-old younger sister. Besides the father, the Mira Road police in neighbouring Thane district arrested the victim's mother for abetting the crime and also the occultist, Hasmukh Rathod. The 60-year-old businessman K Chavan has been sent to police custody till March 21. The court has also sent Chavan's wife and a 'tantrik' to police custody till March 21st. According to police, the husband and wife were under the influence of the occultist, who told them in July 2000 that the family would prosper if the father were to have a sexual relationship with his elder daughter, who was then 12. The victim told the police that she could not muster the courage to approach anyone about the incident. But when her father attempted to rape her younger sister, she approached her maternal uncle after which a police complaint was filed, Additional Superintendent of Police Sashikant Mahavarkar told In November 2008, Rathod told the businessman to start having a sexual relationship with his younger daughter also. Police arrested the three last evening. The occultist (tantrik) was manhandled by local residents when he was being taken to the police station. The family, originally from Gujarat, resides in an apartment on Mira-Bhayander Road. Both the girls are currently staying with their maternal uncle and grandmother.

SUDAN WANTS AID GROUPS TO STOP DISTRIBUTING RELIEF; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

KHARTOUM - Sudan's president said on Monday he wanted foreign aid groups to stop distributing aid in Sudan within a year, in an escalation in the country's defiant response to an international war crimes warrant against him.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir expelled 13 international aid groups this month, accusing them of helping the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against him, accusing him of orchestrating atrocities in Darfur. Aid groups deny working with the court.In an emotional speech to thousands of soldiers and police, Bashir said he had ordered Sudanese aid groups to take over the distribution of all relief inside the country -- a move that could freeze the work of more than 70 foreign organisations still operating in Darfur and other strife-torn areas.

If carried out, the order will also create a dilemma for international donors, including the governments of the United States and Britain, over whether they will be able to continue to pour millions into projects across the underdeveloped country without full control over how their aid is distributed."We have ordered the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to completely Sudanise the voluntary work in Sudan within one year and after that we don't want international organisations to deal with Sudanese citizens with relief," Bashir told the rally."If they (the international organisations) want to continue providing aid, they can just leave it at the airport and Sudanese NGOs (non governmental organisations) can distribute the relief."

"CLEAR OUR COUNTRY OF ANY SPIES"

"We need to clear our country of any spies," he told the cheering crowd in Khartoum's Green Square rally ground, close to the city's airport.Bashir said Sudan's neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea had carried out similar programmes to distribute foreign aid through local groups.Bashir did not specify how the order would be carried out. It was not clear whether more than 70 foreign aid groups still working inside Sudan would also be expelled, or how the order would affect U.N. agencies.It was also not certain whether the order would cover aid programmes in Sudan's semi-autonomous south. The earlier expulsion of 13 aid agencies, including Oxfam, Save the Children and two branches of Medecins Sans Frontieres, only affected operations in the north.Thousands of soldiers from the regular army and the state-aligned Popular Defence Forces militia pledged allegiance to Bashir during the rally, the latest in a series of demonstrations against the ICC's warrant in Khartoum.Bashir was a career army officer when he overthrew a democratically-elected civilian government in 1989. The army remains one of his strongest power bases.

MUSLIMS HACK ' CHRISTIANS ON FACEBOOK ' SITE

Chicago (IL) - The Facebook group, Christians On Facebook, has become the latest target of attack for hackers who are posting pro-Islam messages. At 11:15am CDT today, the group's name was changed to "La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah", which means "There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Since then the name has changed no fewer than ten times.The Christians on Facebook group itself has over 327,000 members from all variations of the Christian faith. This channel or group hack appears to have been designed to replace the fundamental tenants of Christianity with those of Islam.At 11:58am, the name began changing repeatedly to variations of the following:

La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah"
"La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah -- In ALLAH We Believe"
"La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah - There Is No God But ALLAH"

"There is No God but ALLAH; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah"The attack appears to be ongoing as the group's image has been changed, and the group's Basic Info section has also been changed to carry several paragraphs which claim to report on the foundation of Islam, including the first principle declaration in two parts, and several passages relating to the deity Allah and his prophet/servant/apostle Muhammad.

JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF HOMOSEXUAL STUDENT CLUB

Jacksonville - A federal judge has ruled that a student club that promotes tolerance for gays at a north Florida high school must be allowed to meet.

U.S. District Judge Henry Adams issued the decision Wednesday in a case involving two students from Yullee High School near Jacksonville. Adams ordered a local school board to grant official recognition to the Gay-Straight Alliance and afford it the same privileges as any other student organization.

The school district had argued in court that it would grant school access to the group if its name were changed, citing the name as its chief objection. But the judge ruled that the group did not need to make a change. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of two gay students.

SEX-Y SERMONS CAUSE STIR AT RURAL ALABAMA CHURCH

GOOD HOPE — It’s one thing for a church in a big city like Dallas or Atlanta to tackle the ticklish topic of sex. It blends in with the urban scene.
It’s another thing when a ll-town congregation puts up billboards with the phrase “Great sex: God’s way” on rural highways to promote a sermon series. You can’t even legally buy beer in Cullman County, and a preacher is talking about S-E-X on Sunday morning?
Daystar Church, whose congregation has grown dramatically under pastor Jerry Lawson, has run up against the sensibilities of a conservative north Alabama community with a monthlong focus on sex.
Sex just isn’t an appropriate topic for church, some say, and others are upset over the church’s signs, which advertise the sermon series and accompanying Web site.
“It’s really stirred up the people here,” said Good Hope town clerk Joann Jones.
Evangelist Roland Belew, a self-described fundamentalist and former trucker who now preaches at a truck stop, said the whole idea goes against the teaching of New Testament apostles.
“Paul said preach the Gospel,” said Belew. “Talking about sex ain’t gonna get nobody to heaven.”
The controversy is a bit ironic considering the church’s overall point is about as straight-laced as they come: That God intends for sex to be enjoyed solely within a heterosexual marriage, and that anything else — adultery, pornography, homosexuality, even “sexual arousal” outside of marriage — is sin.
Churches have been talking about sex and sexual purity more often. In November, the Rev. Ed Young of the Fellowship Church based in Dallas drew nationwide attention by challenging married couples to have sex for seven straight days in the name of strengthening marriages.
But an expert who tracks evangelical Christianity, Larry Eskridge, said few are addressing the subject as directly as Daystar.
“It sounds like an example of one of those church-growth, market-savvy campaigns going out to an area where you wouldn’t normally see it,” said Eskridge, associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College in Illionis. “I could see where in that particular setting, that could raise some eyebrows.”
City Hall has gotten a few complaints about the church’s sexy signs from a handful of people like Belew, 71, who preaches in a trailer off Interstate 65.
Even the 22-year-old mayor, Corey Harbison, worries that the “great sex” message will force parents to talk about the birds and the bees with inquisitive young children before either is ready.
“I understand what they’re trying to do. I get it,” said Harbison. “(But) some people just aren’t ready for that. Good Hope is just a good old, country town.”
Lawson, the pastor at the center of the debate, said the purpose of his sermons and the billboards was to get Christian parents talking to their kids about sex before they learn too much immorality from TV or playground buddies.
“I think some people are kind of missing the point,” said Lawson.
Lawson is the lead pastor at Daystar Church, which is affiliated with the Church of God and draws about 2,000 people on Saturday nights and Sunday to its $5.7 million campus on a hilltop beside I-65. People come from as far away as the northern suburbs of Birmingham, 45 miles to the south.
The church’s attendance is slightly larger than the entire population of Good Hope, which has three other churches in its town limits and five others within a stone’s throw. The community is a mix of farm homes, middle-class subdivisions, mobile home parks and a few McMansions.
Daystar was a country church called Glory Hill Church of God when Lawson arrived nearly nine years ago. The church “relaunched” itself in the pattern of an urban megachurch in 2002 — there’s Starbucks coffee in the lobby and video screens everywhere — and took off.
“In the next seven years 100 people became 2,000 people,” said Lawson, who sports the hip, young megachurch look — short hair, a goatee and dark clothes, minus a tie.
The church has a second-hand clothes shop for needy neighbors, and Lawson said it sends out 100 volunteers at a time for local work days. Members even are trying to raise $10,000 to put new sod on the baseball field at the local high school.
But it’s the “great sex” series — timed to coincide with Valentine’s Day — that got people talking about Daystar. More than anything, people noticed the blue billboard along Alabama 69 with the “GreatSexGodsWay.com” Web address beside a drawing of a bride and groom.
Belew worries that vulnerable teenagers will get the idea from the sign that God says it’s OK for them to have sex.
“It’s a delicate subject. Preach the word of God and people will live right and get right,” said Belew, who has a big wooden cross and U.S. flag in his front yard.
The mayor said some longtime residents already were a bit leery of Daystar because it’s gotten so big so quickly, drawing members from other cities and dwarfing everything else in town. The focus on sex — particularly the billboards — turned some off even more.
Lawson said his sermons are more than marketing at Daystar, which dreams of opening satellite churches in big cities. The church needs to be out front on the topic of sex when even kids’ TV shows depict illicit relationships and homosexuality, he said.
“It comes down to God saying the most healthy place for sex and the only right place for sex is within a marriage — one man, one woman, and one marriage,” Lawson said.
Ed Scarborough’s landscaping company is almost directly beneath one of Daystar’s “great sex” billboards. He doesn’t go to Lawson’s church, and he likes the idea behind the signs and the sermons. But still ....
“For Christian people I think it’s portraying the message God sent in the Bible,” Scarborough said. “But I do wonder if a non-Christian would get it.”

MUSLIM BACKGROUND CHRISTIANS TORTURED IN LIBYA; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN LIBYA.....

Libya ― International Christian Concern (ICC), a Christian human rights group, says it has learned that Libyan intelligence officials have detained and tortured four Christians for converting from Islam, adding that the Christians have been imprisoned for the past seven weeks in Tripoli, Libya's capital.
A spokesperson for ICC told ANS, "Libya's External Security Organization is believed to be behind the detention and torture of the Christians, according to our sources. The security agents have barred the families from visiting the detained converts and are putting severe physical and psychological pressure on the Christians in order to force them to reveal the names of other converts. Fearing for their lives, other converts from Islam are on the run.
"The detention and the torture of the Christian converts come at a critical time in Libya's relations with the international community. The country has been improving its relations with the international community following the lifting of sanctions imposed on it due to its involvement in the bombing of an American airliner in which 270 people were killed.
"By torturing the four Christian converts and stifling religious freedom, Libya is once again violating basic principles of the international human rights law."
ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho, said, "We call upon Libyan officials to stop torturing the four Christians and release them from detention. Libya must respect the rights of its citizens to worship freely and not to be tortured. We particularly ask the Libyan leader and the current head of the African Union, Mr. Muammar Gaddafi, to set the prisoners free and demonstrate his country's commitment to respect human rights."
The ICC spokesperson added, "Please pray for the safe release of the detained believers. Also pray for comfort and strength for their families."
You can help secure their release by contacting the Libyan embassy.

SUPPORTERS OF ' ANTI-CHRIST ' MINISTER PROTEST MIAMI-DADE JUDGES; PROTEST AGAINST HIS PERSECUTION

Wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with ''666'', about a dozen followers of Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, the Miami-based minister who proclaimed himself the Antichrist, protested his ''persecution'' by the justice system in front of the family courthouse on Tuesday.
Last year, after a bitter divorce that featured dueling claims of lesbianism and physical abuse, Miami-Dade judge Roberto Pineiro awarded more than $2.2 million to the minister's ex-wife, Josefina de Jesus Torres.
In his ruling, Pineiro determined that de Jesus' Growing in Grace church was a personal business, rather than a religious nonprofit, so the ex-wife was entitled to half of its assets.
Jo-Ann de Jesus, the minister's daughter who also handles the church's finances, said the judge based his decision on a ''prejudice against my dad'' and not on evidence.
De Jesus and her father's followers are hoping to get the multimillion dollar judgement overturned.
Pineiro could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The minister, who claimed his teachings have replaced those of Jesus Christ and therefore he should be known as the Antichrist, has refused to pay up.
He has been ''moving around a lot lately'', his daughter said, to avoid the arrest warrant issued against him for contempt.
''My father is afraid if he is captured, people will sell their houses to help him because they love him so much,'' she said.
Many of de Jesus' followers say his clash with the secular justice system is further proof that he is the Second Coming. The original Messiah also faced significant legal difficulties, they note.
''It just makes me more secure,'' said 38-year-old de Jesus follower Angel Toro. ``His persecution means he's really divine.''
While de Jesus cannot preach before a live congregation for fear of being dragged away in handcuffs, he still records video sermons that are broadcast to more than 20 nations through a sister church in Colombia, his daughter said. In explaining his decision to treat de Jesus' and the church's finances as one, the judge wrote that de Jesus ``dominates the ministry like only a god can. . . . In what other corporation does the board of directors literally worship the president?''
De Jesus exploded into popularity -- and controversy -- in the past few years after he declared himself to be Christ. His ministry, Growing in Grace, quickly expanded to more than 300 churches in 30 countries. Eventually, de Jesus amended his title to Antichrist and he, his ex-wife and many followers got tattooed with the number of the beast, a practice that generated headlines worldwide.

15% OF AMERICANS HAVE NO RELIGION; FEWER CALL THEMSELVES CHRISTIAN; NON DENOMINATIONAL IDENTIFICATION INCREASES; STUDY OF U.S RELIGION

The percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians has dropped dramatically over the past two decades, and those who do are increasingly identifying themselves without traditional denomination labels, according to a major study of U.S. religion being released today.

The survey of more than 54,000 people conducted between February and November of last year showed that the percentage of Americans identifying as Christians has dropped to 76 percent of the population, down from 86 percent in 1990. Those who do call themselves Christian are more frequently describing themselves as "nondenominational" "evangelical" or "born again," according to the American Religious Identification Survey.
The survey is conducted by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and funded by the Lilly Endowment and the Posen Foundation. Conducted in 1990, 2001 and last year, it is one of the nation's largest major surveys of religion.

The increase in people labeling themselves in more generic Christian terms corresponds strongly with the decline in people identifying themselves as Protestant, the survey found. People calling themselves mainline Protestants, including Methodists and Lutherans, have dropped to 13 percent of the population, down from 19 percent in 1990. The number of people who describe themselves as generically "Protestant" went from approximately 17 million in 1990 to 5 million.
Meanwhile, the number of people who use nondenominational terms has gone from 194,000 in 1990 to more than 8 million.
"There is now this shift in the non-Catholic population -- and maybe among American Christians in general -- into a sort of generic, soft evangelicalism," said Mark Silk, who directs Trinity's Program on Public Values and helped supervise the survey.
The survey substantiated several general trends already identified by sociologists: the slipping importance of denomination in America, the growing number of people who say they have "no" religion and the increase in religious minorities including Muslims, Mormons and such movements as Wicca and paganism.
The only group that grew in every U.S. state since the 2001 survey was people saying they had "no" religion; the survey says this group is now 15 percent of the population. Silk said this group is likely responsible for the shrinking percentage of Christians in the United States.
Northern New England has surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country; 34 percent of Vermont residents say they have "no religion." The report said that the country has a "growing non-religious or irreligious minority." Twenty-seven percent of those interviewed said they did not expect to have a religious funeral or service when they died, and 30 percent of people who had married said their service was not religious. Those questions weren't asked in previous surveys.
The survey reflects a key question that demographers, sociologists and political scientists have been asking in recent years: Who makes up this growing group of evangelicals? Forty-four percent of America's 77 million Christian adults say they are born again or evangelical. Meanwhile, 18 percent of Catholics also chose that label, as did 40 percent of mainline Christians.
"If people call themselves 'evangelical,' it doesn't tell you as much as you think it tells you about what kind of church they go to," Silk said. "It deepens the conundrum about who evangelicals are."

ANOTHER NU METAL BAND KORN MEMBER BECAME A CHRISTIAN

A member of nu metal band Korn will release a book on Tuesday about his journey through addiction, faith, and recovery.

And, no it’s not former guitarist Brian “Head” Welch, who split from the group in 2005 following his conversion to Christianity.
This time, it’s bass guitarist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, who is still a member of the band but reveals how different he is now from his former self in Got the Life.
“I was an expert at drinking, smoking dope, popping pills, using foul language, being mean, and partying without any remorse,” Fieldy recalls in his soon-to-release book, published by Harper Collins. “You don’t get that good at anything without lots of practice.”
The turning point for now 39-year-old came after his father became ill.
“When Dad got sick, I thought I could fix him because I had money, power, and influence,” he recalls. “I was rich and famous, right? I thought I could fix anything.”
As time went by, however, his father’s condition went from bad to worse. Every doctor Fieldy took his father to insisted that he had cancer, though all the tests returned negative.
To cope with the mounting frustration, Fieldy turned to partying, drinking, smoking, and pill popping – activities he had been engrossed with for the last twenty years of his life.
But Fieldy’s “deep denial” of his father’s illness would soon come to an end. In 2005, Fieldy’s father – a “total Holy Roller, completely into Jesus” – died.
And following his father’s dying wish, Fieldy found God.
“I’ve been clean for three years. I don’t fight with my wife anymore. I don’t lust or cheat anymore .... I don’t wake up feeling like hell anymore. I don’t spend money on things I later regret anymore. I don’t deny my blessed life that has been waiting for me ... anymore,” Fieldy writes since his father’s death.
“Losing Dad was my wake-up call to see that I had to change the way I lived or I was going to die, too,” he adds.
With never-before-seen photos and never-before-heard stories, Got the Life offers Fieldy’s raw, candid, and inspiring story of rock and redemption.
The bassist’s hope is that his thoughts will somehow inspire readers.
“Don’t waste your life. There are only so many hours in a day and you can never get those back,” he writes. “You were made to make a difference.”
Today, Fieldy is a happily married father of three who lives in Southern California. He is also still a member of Korn and working on a new album with the band as well as a few side projects. Among the side projects is his own clothing line, Immanuel One Twenty Three.

CHURCH SHOOTING SUSPECT HAS MENTAL ILLNESS FROM LYME DISEASE

MARYVILLE — A man suspected of killing the Rev. Fred Winters during a church service in Maryville on Sunday morning had developed mental illness from a tick bite, his family has said.

Police did not release the name of the suspect, who was seriously injured in a struggle with members of the congregation after the shooting of Winters at the First Baptist Church.

But a source close to the case confirmed late Sunday that it is Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, who was the subject of a Post-Dispatch story in August about how Lyme disease had attacked his brain.
His home in the first block of Zachary Court in Troy, Ill., about three miles from the church, was searched late Sunday
afternoon by police, who seized some gun cases and a computer. They would not comment.Vehicle records show that Sedlacek is part-owner of a Jeep Wrangler parked outside the crime scene.Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said that the vehicle, which was kept under guard, was believed to have been used by the attacker. Trent described the gunman as a 27-year-old who lives in Troy with no criminal record and no state firearms-owner identification.Trent declined to confirm the suspect's name, pending filing of charges.Winters, 45, was shot about 8:30 a.m. by a man who walked down the aisle during the service, exchanged words with Winters and fired his .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun four times before it jammed, police said.The first shot shredded Winters' Bible, sending paper shreds into the air like "confetti," Trent said. One of three more shots hit Winters in the chest. Nobody else was hit.Two church members wrestled the attacker down as he slashed them, and himself, with a knife.The attacker and one of the wounded congregation members, Terry Bullard, 39, of Troy, were treated at nearby Anderson Hospital and airlifted to a St. Louis hospital for surgery, officials said. Both were reported to be in serious condition. Winters died at Anderson.The other injured congregation member, Keith Melton, 51, of Troy, was treated at a hospital and released. Melton could not be reached, but his home answering machine has a message thanking callers for their concern.Trent called Bullard and Melton "heroic" for stopping something that could have been worse.Police and some congregation members said the shooter had no known connection to the 1,200-member church at 7710 Illinois Route 162, a short distance west of Interstate 55-70.Trent said the motive for the shooting was unknown."We haven't spoken with him yet," Trent said at midafternoon. "He's still in surgery." He said the gunman suffered a stab wound to his neck.

It appeared that nobody was home late Sunday afternoon at the house on Zachary, where a state trooper stood guard until other officers arrived, ostensibly with a search warrant.The home is listed as the address of Sedlacek and his mother, who co-owns the Jeep.Neighbors told a reporter that Sedlacek appears to be mentally ill and would sometimes stand in the street and shout obscenities for no apparent reason.He was the subject of an Aug. 6, 2008, Post-Dispatch article about his battle with mental illness attributed to Lyme disease.

The man's mother, Ruth Abernathy, said her son, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, may have contracted the disease after being bitten by an infected tick on a family farm in the late 1990s.He became ill during his junior year at Edwardsville High School and had taken several medications, including anti-seizure drugs, to combat the disease. It nearly killed him in 2003, but he survived after a series of treatments and was reported to have lesions on his brain.Abernathy could not be reached for comment Sunday.

The attack stunned about 150 church members attending the early service. "Some thought it was some type of skit or program at the time," Trent said.Police will review video and audio tapes made of the service, Trent said.Church member Linda Cunningham said she was sitting in the back of the church when the shooter walked up the center aisle.Winters' wife, Cindy Lee, and their daughters, Alysia Grace, 14, and Cassidy Hope, 12, were in the church but not in the sanctuary when the shooting occurred, church members said. The couple were married in 1987.Some churchgoers initially believed the shooting was part of a dramatic sketch — something that is common during Winters' services.After the first shot was fired, Cunningham said, "All you could see was confetti."Andy and Kris Nothnagel, of nearby Glen Carbon, were sitting about five rows from the pastor when the gunman opened fire.They, too, said they thought it was part of a play."We didn't know if it was real," Andy Nothnagel said. The couple, who have belonged to the church for about 12 years, said they had never seen the gunman before."He didn't look scary," Kris Nothnagel said. "He could have blended in with anybody."Security experts say church shootings are particularly shocking because worship sanctuaries are so often thought of as a respite from the world's evils, where people come together for the sole purpose of praise and love.Yet that very notion, say safety experts, leaves them more susceptible to danger.

"The biggest thing churches need to do is get over the 'it can't happen here' mentality," says Jeffery Hawkins, who has worked in law enforcement and security for 30 years and last year started the Christian Security Network. "It's the No. 1 stumbling block of churches."Officials said the church had been working with some of its members to develop an emergency readiness strategy.The Rev. Mark Jones, its worship minister since 2002, told reporters assembled outside the church: "People cannot stop living their lives. They cannot be paralyzed with fear."The sprawling grounds of the church are on the east edge of Maryville, tucked between farmland and an unfinished subdivision.

The website says Fred Winters is the former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.T.J. Beckman, a church member whose twin 12-year-old sons, Jordan and Canaan, were baptized by Winters last fall, described him as a "man of courage and integrity" who dedicated his life to the church."He is a modern-day martyr," said Beckman, 47, of Collinsville. "We're shattered, shocked by this heinous crime, but we know there is hope beyond this."Beckman said Winters' death should bring the church's members closer."This is not the end of this church," she said. "I think this church is going to grow even stronger. We have that hope."

ONE MINUTE PRAYER MOVEMENT OR JUST A MINUTE PRAYER TIME ; JOIN AND MAKE DIFFERENCES IN YOUR COLLEGES,HIGH SCHOOLS AND IN YOUR CITY

Dear friends,

Prayer has a great significance in our life which we often forget in our day today busy life. our lives have become so busy that prayer has been erased from our life now. realizing that fact and the power of prayer we the ICPF DELHI, is going to start a new movement called one minute prayer movement. i believe that one minute can make a great difference. We are starting this movement mainly focussing on the high school and college going students. A one minute prayer for your college , for the students and the staffs can make differences. As well as for the office going people, tak a minute and pray for the office , he staffs as well as for your friends. Pray for them and just see the difference that God is going to bring. We are not asking your precious time , just only .ONE MINUTE

I belive this movement is going to make a great differences in the colleges , high schools as well as in the offices. Yes we together are going to change the destiny and the history of the nations.

In World War II an advisor to Prime Minister Churchill organized a group of people who stopped what they were doing each night at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace. This had an amazing effect as the bombing raids over England stopped.

Fast-forward to 2009 where another group of people are taking a page out of the history books to organize the same sort of Prayer Movement in New Delhi,India.
Everyday,students and office going people is going to stop whatever they are doing and spending at least one minute praying for the youth’s in the colleges,our national leaders, our President, our citizens and that our nation would remain, "One Nation Under God."
We are inviting everyone to join in this movement with us .

II Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) - "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have, and someone once said that if we really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless.
Please encourage everyone you know to join this new Prayer Movement along with ICPF , NEWDELHI and let's believe that God will turn His face toward us and will pour out a blessing that we could not contain!

One minute prayer movement is a prayer evangelism strategy for high school,colleges campuses and also for those who are busy in their office schedules . this is small prayer format to which our prayer should focus on.
Segment 1: God, Thanks!God, I bow my knee in humility to You. I know your loving presence will be with me all day. Thank you for loving me today. I love you, too! "...love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." ( Matthew 22:37 )
Segment 2: God, Touch Them!Prayer: God, touch the teachers, administration and students on my campus today. One touch from you, Father, can change someone's destiny. Touch them through me. "...Love your neighbor as yourself." ( Matthew 22:39)
Segment 3: God, Tell Them! God, the message of Jesus' love for my campus must be told. Use me as the messenger. I will tell those around me how much you love them. "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:19 )

Those who love to be a part of this prayer movement , please do mail me, call me or SMS me on titto.nidhi@gmail.com, mobile no: 09810243273 .please do tell me the one minute time slot you are going to take. love and prayers ICPF , DELHI

MAN IN ARMOURED GUARD UNIFORM RIPPS OFF NEBRASKA BEREAN CHURCH WITH MORE THAN $ 145,OOO

LINCOLN, Neb — Police in Lincoln, Neb., say a man posing as an armored car guard made off with more than $145,000 from a church.
Police Officer Katie Flood said Wednesday that a man dressed as a guard walked into the financial office of the Berean Church on Tuesday and told an employee he was there to pick up the weekly deposit.
The employee said the man appeared to know what he was doing, so she gave him the deposit of more than $145,000 in cash and checks.
The real armored car and driver arrived about 15 minutes later and church employees realized they had been robbed.
Flood said no one saw what vehicle the fake guard used.
The nondenominational Berean Church has more than 7,000 members and 20 pastors.