DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ADMINISTRATOR ACCUSED OF EMBEZZLING $165,OOO

FORT WORTH - Dallas Theological Seminary claims someone took $165,000 and Channel 8 has learned the school is accusing a former administrator.
There's a complicated money trail to follow in all of this.
At the Tarrant county courthouse, a judge has now frozen money in the former administrator's bank accounts.
It was Rodney Bryant's job to protect Dallas Theological Seminary financially.
He served as the school's Chief Financial Officer for nearly a decade.
But this week, in court papers, the seminary asked a judge for help, claiming it was Bryant, the school needed protection from.
The accused embezzler's wife, Lisa Bryant, denies her husband was involved in any wrongdoing.
"My husband is innocent," she said.
Lisa Bryant is talking about allegations Dallas Theological Seminary is making against her husband, Rodney Bryant.
"Dallas Theological Seminary has found itself in the unpleasant position of needing to take appropriate legal action... to protect the seminary's interests and assets," said Mark Yarborough of the Dallas Theological Seminary.
A seminary spokesman could say little publicly but according to this lawsuit, filed by the seminary, Rodney Bryant signed off on $165,000 in payments to two companies in 2007 and 2008.
The paperwork, on the surface, was in order, complete with bills and letters engineering and legal services.
Once a seminary employee started checking, however, it became obvious the companies were not what they appeared to be. One, for instance, an environmental legal services firm, has an address that traced back to a UPS store.
The seminary is claiming they were just shell companies that were there for him to embezzle the money.
"My husband embezzled no money," said Lisa Bryant.
This week a judge signed orders freezing money in bank accounts in the name of both Rodney Bryant and the companies named in the lawsuit. Bryant's wife maintains her husband's innocence.
"I know him," she said.
Dallas Theological seminary terminated Bryant in October.
In court documents, the seminary says the decision was unrelated to the embezzlement claims.
A hearing in this case will be held in two weeks.

MILLARD FULLER CO- FOUNDER OF HABITAT FOR HUMANITY DIES

ATLANTA - Millard Fuller, the millionaire entrepreneur who gave it all away to help found the Christian house-building charity Habitat for Humanity, died Tuesday. He was 74.
Fuller died about 3 a.m. after being taken to a hospital emergency room, according to his wife, Linda. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Linda Fuller, in a telephone interview from the couple's home in Americus, said her husband was complaining of chest pains, headache and difficulty swallowing.
The couple was to have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August with a 100-house "blitz build" across the globe, she said.
"We'll probably go ahead with the 'blitz build.' Millard would not want people to mourn his death," she said. "He would be more interested in having people put on a tool belt and build a house for people in need."
One of Habitat's highest-profile volunteers, former President Jimmy Carter, called Fuller "one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known.
"He used his remarkable gifts as an entrepreneur for the benefit of millions of needy people around the world by providing them with decent housing," Carter said in a statement. "As the founder of Habitat for Humanity and later the Fuller Center, he was an inspiration to me, other members of our family and an untold number of volunteers who worked side-by-side under his leadership."
After running Habitat for Humanity with his wife for nearly three decades, Fuller lost control of the charity in a conflict with its board. When ousted in January 2005, he and his wife vowed to continue working on housing the poor and started The Fuller Center for Housing to raise money for Habitat affiliates.
The son of a widower farmer in the cotton-mill town of Lanett, Ala., Fuller earned his first profit at age 6, selling a pig. While studying law at the University of Alabama, he formed a direct-marketing company with Morris Dees — later founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center — focusing on selling cookbooks and candy to high school chapters of the Future Homemakers of America. That business would make them millionaires before they were 30.
When Fuller's capitalist drive threatened to kill his marriage, Fuller and his wife, who wed in college, decided to sell everything and devote themselves to the Christian values they grew up with.
"I gave away about $1 million," Fuller said in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press. "I wasn't a multimillionaire; I was a poor millionaire."
The couple's search for a mission led them to Koinonia, an interracial agricultural collective outside Americus in south Georgia. It was there with Koinonia founder Clarence Jordan that the Fullers developed the concept of building no-interest housing for the poor — an idea that eventually grew into Habitat for Humanity.
Founded in 1976, Habitat's first headquarters was a tiny gray frame house on Americus' Church Street, which doubled as Fuller's law office. For the first 14 years, Fuller's salary was just $15,000; his wife worked 10 years for free.
Habitat grew from those humble beginnings to a worldwide network that has built more than 300,000 houses, providing shelter to more than 1.5 million people. Preaching the "theology of the hammer," Fuller built an army of volunteers that included former U.S. presidents, other world leaders and Hollywood celebrities.
"The Bible says, 'The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,'" he told the AP in 2004. "That covers just about everything. God's money is just in the pockets of people, and we've got to extract it."
People receiving homes from the charity are required to work on their own houses, investing what the Fullers called "sweat equity" in their own futures.
Fuller's works won him numerous accolades, including a 1996 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. For nearly three decades, he was the public face of Habitat, traveling the world to hammer nails and press bricks from local clay alongside some of the Earth's poorest.
But a scandal that had smoldered for years flared anew in 2004 to sully Fuller's legacy.
Habitat's international board moved to oust Fuller from his position of chief executive officer after allegations surfaced that he had sexually harassed a female staff member in 2003. The move came despite the board's conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the charge.
However, the allegations of inappropriate behavior mirrored complaints in 1990 from female staffers and volunteers that led to Fuller's yearlong exile from the organization's headquarters.
Fuller acknowledged he had kissed and hugged the women who made the 1990 complaints, but argued they had misinterpreted his actions. But he categorically denied the later charge, telling the AP in 2004 that "there's not even the tiniest element of truth in it."
President Carter had to intervene in both of those instances to prevent the board from ousting Fuller.
In 2004, Fuller reached a compromise that allowed him to stay on in the largely ceremonial role of "founder and president." However, the Fullers backed out of an agreement not to discuss the situation publicly, and the board voted in January 2005 to oust Fuller and his wife.
Months later, the Fullers and their supporters formed The Fuller Center for Housing, a fundraising group for charitable home-building efforts. The new group was originally called Building Habitat, but that name was quickly dropped after Habitat for Humanity sued over Fuller's use of the word "Habitat," arguing it was a trademark infringement and could interfere with Habitat's business and fundraising.
Fuller attributed his ouster to disagreements with the board over whether to slow the charity's growth. He argued Habitat was becoming more bureaucracy than mission.
"If we lose the 'movement mentality' we will not go out of existence, but we will stagnate and become just 'another nonprofit' doing good work across the county and around the world," he wrote in a letter to the committee that searched for his successor as CEO.
Throughout the scandal, Fuller insisted that he did not want to do anything that would compromise Habitat's mission.
"I've always felt that this is God's work," he said. "And it's always been bigger than me, from day one."
Fuller is survived by his wife and four children. Funeral arrangements are pending.

SAUDI ARABIA ARRESTS A CHRISTIAN BLOGGER; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE......

January 30, 2009 Saudi Arabia -Authorities in Saudi Arabia have detained a 28-year-old blogger, Hamoud Bin Saleh, for publicly writing about his conversion from Islam to Christianity on his website.

He was arrested on January 13, 2008, and detained at the Eleisha political prison in Riyadh due to “his opinions and announcement at his blog that he converted from Islam to Christianity,” according to a report by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). In addition to harassing him by detaining him two other times for similar offenses, the Saudi officials have now blocked Bin Saleh’s blog, “Masihi Saudi,” at http://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/.

The report further noted that Bin Saleh’s previous release from prison in November of 2008 coincided with the Saudi-initiated interfaith dialogue held at the United Nations in New York, suggesting that his release came only because his arrest might have “tarnished its image” and “expose[d] the Saudi government’s false allegations.”

Immediately following the conference, the report indicated that Saudi officials chose to re-arrest Bin Saleh “because the entire world is busy following up on the aggression on Gaza, and the Saudi authorities may seize the chance to make an example with nobody watching.”

Bin Saleh’s case is especially urgent in that we know that this is not the first time that Saudi converts from Islam to Christianity have suffered terrible mistreatment. In August of 2008, ICC reported on the case of a female convert from Islam to Christianity who was burned to death by her father. Her father was a member of the mutaween (Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice), an arm of the government that enforces religious purity and is the government’s face of persecution to Christians in Saudi Arabia. She had also disclosed her faith on a website. (For the full text on the case of the martyred woman, see: http://www.persecution.org/suffering/pressdetail.php?presscode=236)

Despite their intolerant policies and practices, the Saudi Arabian officials leave no stone unturned to portray themselves as champions of tolerance to non-Muslims. In 2008, they organized major international conferences on interfaith dialogue. Their practice, however, shows that such conferences are mere public relations gimmicks.

Jeff King, ICC’s President, said, “The international community must hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its failure to live up to the basic rights of freedom of religion and press. Particularly the countries and organizations that are engaged in interfaith dialogue with Saudi Arabia must intervene in this case and win freedom for Bin Saleh.”

Please pray for Bin Saleh so that he will continue to persevere in his faith in Jesus Christ in the midst of the ordeal he is facing. Also please pray for his release from prison and protection after he is released.
Please call the Saudi Arabian embassy in your country and ask the officials at the embassies to release him from prison.

IRAQI CHRISTIANS CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MOSUL VOTE; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

MOSUL, Iraq — Iraqi Christians still reeling from a string of murders last fall find themselves caught in the middle of a power struggle between Kurds and Sunni Arabs that was fueled by this weekend's elections.
The minority community has faced years of violence and intimidation from al-Qaida in Iraq and other Islamic extremists. In the northern city of Mosul and surrounding areas, many also fear the Kurds want incorporate parts of the area into their semiautonomous region in northern Iraq.
The issue came to the fore in Saturday's vote for members of ruling councils in most of Iraq's 18 provinces. Results are not expected for days or even weeks.
But when the votes are finally counted, Kurds are expected to lose the dominance they have enjoyed here in Ninevah province since Sunni Arabs boycotted the last provincial election in 2005.
Christians will get at least one out of 37 council seats in the province, thanks to a minority quota. But many Christians are divided about whether to back the Kurds or the Sunni Arabs in their struggle for domination in Ninevah and its capital city of Mosul.
The U.S. military believes continued Kurdish-Arab tension in the north poses one of the strongest challenges to ensuring long-lasting peace in Iraq now that Shiite-Sunni violence has ebbed.
Fewer than 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people are Christians, many concentrated in Ninevah province.
Raad Shaya, a 30-year-old Christian teacher who lives in the outlying town of Batnaya, said Christians face intimidation from both sides.
Islamic extremists recently threatened him and several Christian colleagues by placing a warning inside the minibus they used to commute to work.
"The Kurds are controlling the Christians right now," he said, lowering his voice after casting his ballot on Saturday. "There's also the threat from outside Islamic political parties."
"We're not targeted because we're Christian but because we're a minority in the middle of everything," he added.
Fears spiked in the fall with a string of murders of Christians in Mosul, driving thousands of Christian families to leave their homes for the safety of Christian villages around the city. Most have drifted back but are still afraid.
"It's better at this point but we paid a high price for it," said Bassem Bello, the Christian mayor of Tel Kaif, a mixed Sunni Arab-Christian town near Mosul. "We're working very hard to make sure it doesn't happen again."
He declined to say who was behind the attacks, which claimed up to 16 lives by some counts. But he said the outgoing provincial council had failed to protect its people.
"Whenever something like this happens we lose families. They go abroad. This is the agenda. They want the original people of this country to leave," he said. "They have certain aspirations to take over what the Christians have in their areas. Also there are extremist Islamic groups."
The Kurds already have moved to stake their claim on the nearby hilly area known as the Ninevah Plains by establishing checkpoints manned by well-trained Kurdish security forces known as peshmerga.
The sunshine flag of the semiautonomous Kurdish region to the north also flies on the top of several buildings in the villages and towns that comprise the areas, including some of the schools that were used as polling stations on Saturday.
A U.S. official said Christians need the peshmerga for protection but most have stayed on the fence because they're afraid of choosing the losing side. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Although the Kurds are expected to lose seats, they are hoping for a strong showing as a measure of support for their claims to disputed areas of Ninevah.
The Kurds also are seeking to incorporate the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in another province into their semiautonomous area, but the vote for a council there was delayed until later this year.
Christians have frequently been targeted since turmoil swept the country after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, although the attacks have ebbed with a sharp drop in overall violence.
Churches, priests and businesses of the generally prosperous, well-educated community have been attacked by militants who denounce Christians as pro-American "crusaders." The body of Paulos Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, also was found in March following his abduction by gunmen after a Mass.
Suvara Shamsun Haroun, a 25-year-old Christian woman who voted Saturday in Tel Kaif, pointed out that insurgents target all Iraqis "but sometimes they try to drive a wedge between the Arabs and the Christians."
Her mother Wirgania Shamwell expressed hope the Christian candidate chosen would help improve the situation.
"Hopefully the elections will bring security and a better future for Iraq and that's all we can hope for," she said. "Security is the main thing."

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH , THE WORLD'S LARGEST ORTHODOX CHURCH ENTHRONES A NEW LEADER

MOSCOW -- A new patriarch took charge of the Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday, formally becoming the first leader of the world's largest Orthodox church to take office after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Patriarch Kirill, 62, has been a cautious advocate of change and a prominent figure in trying to reconcile with the Roman Catholic Church.
He became the 16th person to bear the title in a solemn ceremony at Christ the Savior Cathedral. The original 19th-century church was dynamited under Stalin but rebuilt after the Soviet collapse. The ceremony was broadcast live on national television and attended by President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and scores of other officials from Russia and ex-Soviet states.
Patriarch Alexy II died in early December after almost two decades at the helm of the church when millions of Russians returned to their historic faith. But polls show that only about 5 percent of Russians are observant believers, and only 30 percent of the population believe they should follow the moral teachings of the church.
Kirill, long Alexy's deputy, has been critical of tolerance of homosexuality, abortion, multiparty democracy, and the division of secular and religious authority.
He adheres to nationalist ideas about Russia's role in the world and supports the idea that Russian civilization is fundamentally different from and opposed to Western concepts. An unusually public and outspoken religious figure in a church known for its traditionalism, he long has pushed for introduction of Orthodox religious classes in schools. He appears on television shows and frequently voices his opinion on secular matters, including Russia's current economic crisis.
On the day after his election, Kirill pledged to refrain from initiating "top-down reforms that hurt people," but cautiously promised changes, the Interfax news agency reported. He is expected by some to seek a more muscular role for the church, which has served the state for much of its 1,000-year history.
Church and state are officially separate under the post-Soviet constitution, but ties have tightened again since Mr. Putin came to power in 2000.
Among the changes Kirill is likely to initiate is wider use of the Russian language in services instead of the archaic Church Slavonic and permission for women to wear trousers inside churches. He will face opposition from a strong conservative movement within the church that sees him as too modern.
After his election, church leaders ruled out a meeting between pope and patriarch -- the unrealized dream of the late Pope John Paul II. The Russian church accuses the Vatican of trying to convert Russians to the Catholic faith. There have also been disputes over property and influence in Ukraine, where both churches have large flocks.