OBAMA TO NAME FAITH COUNCIL PANEL ; PRAY FOR THE COUNCIL AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

President Obama on Thursday will roll out the names of a long-anticipated "faith advisory council" of more than two dozen religious leaders who will advise him on policy issues.
The group, which will be announced at the National Prayer Breakfast, is geared to give ministers more input into policy decisions than previous administrations have allowed them to do.
"We'd like to see the faith community as a resource on policy issues," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and part of the new group. The new president wants a "robust partnership" with religious people, he added, and the council will be a mainstay of that arrangement.
"This would not just be on religious liberty but on issues that impact us directly," he added. "Who knows the streets and neighborhoods in our poorest cities than the faith community?"
The official announcement that Joshua DuBois will be Mr. Obama's new director for the White House faith-based office, renamed the Council for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is also expected Thursday. He also will oversee the council.
Washington was buzzing Wednesday with the names of possible members, many of whom are heads of groups that worked with the presidential transition team. They included Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism whose office refused to comment on the record about the prospect.
An Orthodox rabbi who heads up a similar agency in the District also told The Washington Times he was on the list but did not want his name mentioned.
A list amassed by the Associated Press includes the Rev. Joel Hunter, a Longwood, Fla., pastor who is friends with the president; African Methodist Episcopal Bishop Vashti McKenzie; the Rev. Frank Page, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; and Judith Vredenburgh, president and chief executive officer of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America.
Mr. Hunter confirmed he and Mr. Page are on the list.
"I think we will meet as a group two to four times a year," he said. "Between that time, we will be a sounding board to the president and assist Joshua and encourage him in the exercise of his office. It's a pretty broad array of religious leaders."
During a July 2 speech in Zanesville, Ohio, Mr. Obama said a faith-based office would be the "moral center" of his administration.
Former President George W. Bush had a similar theological Kitchen Cabinet.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State put out a statement Wednesday, saying the faith-based office needs to be reformed, not expanded to include a ministers council

PRAY FOR NORTH KOREA THE LARGEST PERSECUTOR OF CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD

Today I have the country of North Korea on my mind.
The oppressive, isolated country of North Korea headed by dictator Kim Jong Il retains its grip as the worst persecutor of Christians in the world.
According to Open Doors' 2008 World Watch List released today, North Korea is ranked No. 1 for the seventh year in a row. Christians are persecuted constantly under the communist government, which denies human rights to its citizens.
Many of you probably already know that North Korea is one of the greatest offenders of human rights in the world today. Many rank this country as the number one persecutor of Christians.
Christians in this country must meet in secret, must pray in secret, and must worship in secret because if the government finds out that they love Jesus, they will be sent to a "re-education" center and "taught" that their faith is "false".
These fellow brothers and sisters risk everything because they personally know the One who has given everything for them.
So take a moment and lift before the throne of God the plight of these Christians and this country.
The Wahhabi kingdom of Saudi Arabia is No. 2 and Iran No. 3. Both countries are ruled by Shariah law.

Afghanistan, Somalia and the Maldives take the fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively. Afghanistan moved up three spots on the list this year as a result of increased pressure from the Taliban movement during 2008. Yemen is No. 7, Laos No. 8, Eritrea No. 9 and Uzbekistan No. 10.

AMERICAN PASTOR HONOURED FOR BRINGING 300,000 TOURISTS IN ISRAEL

JAMES RIDGWAY, founder of Educational Opportunities, has brought tourists to Israel for 35 years
The January 28 event at the Olive Tree Hotel in Jerusalem was attended by about 120 people.
Ridgway first visited Israel in 1959 as an Interfaith Fellow at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. His visit made such an impact on his life that he felt called upon to bring other people here, he said.
In 1961, Ridgway brought in his first group of tourists from his church. In 1974 Ridgway founded Educational Opportunities, a nonprofit organization, to bring people to Israel from various Christian denominations.
"I interested other ministries and pastors in bringing their groups," Ridgway said, noting that there is a spirituality that can only be experienced by being in the Holy Land.
In particular, Ridgway wanted people serving as ministers to have a chance to see the land they read and preach about, he said.
"It is my passion and my desire to make sure that every young clergy person, when they're still young, [has the opportunity] to come here and experience Israel," he added.
Educational Opportunities handles the financial administration of the trip, such as hotel bookings, so religious leaders can focus more on the spiritual details, he said.
Pilgrims also tour with Educational Opportunities, which has brought over 300,000 tourists here since its founding.
Last week about 400 to 500 tourists visited Israel through Educational Opportunities, a fraction of the 15,000 people coming here through the group in the first quarter of the year alone.
The peak year for Educational Opportunities was 1998 with 20,000 to 25,000 tourists, Ridgway said.
Educational Opportunities continued to bring tourists during the intifada and the Second Lebanon War, Ridgway said, though the numbers did dip during 2003 and 2004.
Generally, Americans believed that the area was dangerous because of the political situation, Ridgway said. Sometimes relatives of pilgrims coming to Israel did not want their loved ones to make the trip, fearing for their safety.
Educational Opportunities, while taking proper security precautions, always urged pilgrims to make the trip and states on its Web site that they are safer in Israel than the US.
"I'm safer here than I am in my home town," he said.
Ridgway did not anticipate tourists coming through his organization would be less inclined to visit Israel now, despite the instability in the South.
His clients, he said, are motivated to come for a religious experience, to visit the holy sites, and do not want to put it off.
"It's one thing to read about something. But to touch something, to smell it, to involve all the senses creates a new interest in the Bible," Ridgway said. The sites become "a living word, no longer just paper."
Ridgway hopes that in the future Educational Opportunities will reach out to the entire Christian community in the United States, so that every church can have this experience.
The tours feature both Jewish and Arab guides. Ibrahim Matar directs the contemporary studies program for Educational Opportunities, a program in which pilgrims learn about both the Palestinian perspective and the Israeli perspective of the conflict. Matar arranges for all of the pilgrims to visit a Jewish settlement and a Palestinian refugee camp.
Matar said the tours "build a bridge for peace."
Rula Shubeita, a tour guide for 12 years, said it is a priority for the pilgrims to pray and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
"They relate to these holy sites. All of their lives they studied about Jesus, Jerusalem, Nazareth. It's a great experience for them. It's once in a lifetime," Shubeita said.
Ridgway said he believes Arabs and Jews will live in peace one day.
"I hope I will live to see that day," he said.

OBAMA'S ' STIMULUS BILL ' A WAR ON PRAYER ; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Democrats in Congress have declared war on prayer, say conservative groups who object to a provision in the stimulus bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week.

The provision bans money designated for school renovation from being spent on facilities that allow "religious worship." It has ignited a fury among critics who say it violates the First Amendment and is an attempt to prevent religious practice in schools.
According to the bill, which the Democratic-controlled House passed despite unanimous Republican opposition, funds are prohibited from being used for the "modernization, renovation, or repair" of facilities that allow "sectarian instruction, religious worship or a school or department of divinity."
Critics say that could include public schools that permit religious groups to meet on campus. The House provided $20 billion for the infrastructure improvements, of which $6 billion would go to higher education facilities where the limitations would be applied.
"What the government is doing is discriminating against religious viewpoints," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that works to advance religious freedom.
"President Obama's version of faith-based initiatives is to remove the faith from initiative," said Staver, who believes Obama has "a completely different view on faith" from what he said during his presidential campaign.
"He is not the infallible messiah that some thought he would be," Staver said.
Civil liberty groups like the Americans United for Separation of Church and State vehemently defend the stimulus bill's provision, arguing that it in no way violates the Constitution.
"This provision upholds constitutional standards established by the U.S. Supreme Court and in no way affects student groups that meet on public school campuses," said the Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The American Civil Liberties Union also defends the constitutionality of the restriction, which they say has been the law since 1972.
"It's almost a restatement of what the Constitution requires so there's nothing novel in what the House did in its restriction," said Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel to the ACLU. "For 37 years, the law of the land is that the government can't pay for buildings that are used for religious purposes."
Not so, says the Traditional Values Coalition, which issued a statement Wednesday charging that Obama is using his stimulus plan to restrict the exercise of religion in public facilities -- a provision it says violates the right to free speech.
"The economic crisis is being used as a pretext to curb religious liberty at institutions of higher learning," said Executive Director Andrea Lafferty.
"We are not asking that federal funding be used to construct a church, but if a campus ministry wants to hold a Bible study or Mass in the student activity building, we should be encouraging that -- not punishing a college for permitting it," she said.
According to some constitutional law experts, any complaint filed against the provision will gain little ground in court.
"Certainly the provision is treating the act of religious organizations differently from the activities of the school itself," Harvard University constitutional law professor Mark Tushnet told FOXNews.com.
"It's not frivolous to say there's a constitutional problem with excluding religious facilities from these grants, but I think the way of the law is in the other direction," he said.
Tushnet cited a 2004 Supreme Court case in which a Washington student lost a college scholarship awarded by the state after it was revealed that he planned to pursue a degree in pastoral ministries. Though the student argued that rescinding the money discriminated on the basis of religion, the court ruled in the state's favor -- declaring that the taxpayer-funded scholarship's restriction is constitutional.
The White House said Wednesday that it plans to keep in place the basic structure of the faith-based initiative office established by former President George W. Bush.
Administration officials said the office is a substantial programming and policy arm of the federal government, which allows federal agencies to connect with local neighborhood and faith-based groups to deliver social services.

EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS SENT TO PRISON AFTER BRUTAL POLICE RAID ; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE .

ISTANBUL – Following a brutal raid on six Christian brothers and their café because they had opened for business during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, a judge on Jan. 22 sentenced them to three years in prison with hard labor for resisting arrest and assaulting authorities.
Last September, 13 police officers raided the café in Port Sa’id, a city in Egypt’s Nile delta, overturning tables, breaking chairs and smashing glasses and hookah pipes, according to the Coptic Christians’ lawyer. They beat the brothers with sticks, leaving two with broken arms and a third needing 11 stitches for a head wound.
“The police attacked these people and assaulted them unjustifiably,” said Ramses el-Nagar, the Christians’ lawyer. “Police did not want to see people eating during Ramadan. This is unfair, because whatever people’s beliefs are, the law is something else and they should not be mixed.”
There is no law in Egypt under which the brothers could be prosecuted for opening their café during Ramadan. When they tried to defend their café, the brothers, all in their 30s, were arrested on Sept. 8 and charged with resisting arrest and assaulting authorities. They were held for 30 days before being released on bail, set at 12,000 Egyptian pounds (US$2,173).
At the trial last week, defense counsel showed a video of the incident shot by an onlooker as evidence of police brutality. The footage did not sway Judge Mohammed Hassan El-Mahmody, prompting some Coptic activists to claim religious zeal and prejudice as the true motives behind the convictions.
“The police very often pressure the Copts to accept unfair situations,” said El-Nagar. “Unfortunately, with the power of the police and Egypt being a police state, we don’t have the inclination to take the police to court.”
The names of the imprisoned Christian brothers are Ashraf Morris Ghatas; Magdy Morris Ghatas; Osama Morris Ghatas; Nabil Morris Ghatas; Walid Morris Ghatas; and Hany Morris Ghatas.
Ibrahim Habib, chairman of advocacy group United Copts of Great Britain, told Compass that Egypt needs to take certain steps for progress toward justice.
“What we would like to see is the government implementing the law, showing fairness, maintaining total separation between the state and religion, and removing the second article from the Egyptian constitution,” which makes Islamic law the source of statutory law, he said. “We would like to see Egypt free and treating all citizens equally.”
El-Nagar has 30 days to appeal the decision before the Court of Cassation, a high appeals tribunal. He said he plans to do so.