CHRISTIAN GROUPS ANSWERS ATHEISTS WITH OWN AD'S ON BRITISH BUSES

LONDON -- Three Christian groups in Britain are putting ads on city buses proclaiming that there is a God, a reaction to a high-profile atheist campaign here that has spread around the globe.
From the United States and Canada to Italy, Spain and Australia, nonbelievers have been placing anti-religious ads on buses -- usually seen promoting toothpaste, cellphones and other products -- and stirring up national debates about God.
Thousands of people in Britain recently raised $200,000 to place an ad on 800 London buses that reads: "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
Now, just as that campaign has ended, the Christian Party is putting up its response: "There definitely is a God." The Russian Orthodox Church's bus ad reads: "There is a God. BELIEVE. Don't worry and enjoy your life." And in the next few days, the Trinitarian Bible Society will be posting a line from Psalm 53:1: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
"Great idea!" said Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, a lobbying group. Expressing delight that the godless bus-borne messages are off the road, he said, "The forces of darkness are in retreat."
More than three of four people in the world consider themselves religious, and those who say they belong to no faith are in the distinct minority. But in many of the world's richer nations, particularly in Europe, an increasingly vocal nonreligious movement has gained ground.
Leaders of many humanist and other nonreligious groups say their numbers are growing in reaction to rising religious fanaticism and faith-inspired terrorism, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Perhaps because atheists had rarely advertised before, the ads on buses seen by millions sparked raging debates in many places.
"A lot of people are angry, a lot of people are happy" about the atheists' ads, said Katie Kish, vice president of the Freethought Association of Canada, which promotes secular views. She said her group, which is coordinating an atheist campaign in Canada, will later this month have buses in Toronto, Halifax and Calgary bearing the same message as the London ones: There is probably no God, so people should stop worrying and enjoy life.
In Italy, where the Catholic Church is strong, some proposed atheist bus ads have been rejected, but this one has just been approved to run this month in Genoa: "The good news is there are millions of atheists in Italy; the excellent news is they believe in freedom of expression."
In Britain, the Rev. George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party, said he was annoyed that buses running past his London office bore the atheists' creed. So his minor political party bought advertising assuring people of God's existence. Those ads also seek to raise money by encouraging people, for a $2 fee, to text "Amen."
David Long, a spokesman for the Trinitarian Bible Society, which publishes Bibles, said the atheist ads got "people talking about God." That "probably was not their intention," he said, "but we felt that it was amusing."
Fred Edwords, spokesman for the American Humanist Association, said that "nobody is going to be converted because of a sign on a bus." But he said the ads his group put on Washington buses in November and December -- "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake" -- let people who don't believe in God know they are not the only ones.
Edwords said a new bus campaign, due to start in New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras, will feature this ad: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone."
Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said the new religious ads proclaiming God are "really quite a compliment" and mean "our ads had an impact."

CHRISTIAN RIGHT CHALLENGES OBAMA'S JUSTICE PICKS ; PRAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE OBAMA'S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT POSITIONS

WASHINGTON — Christian conservatives are challenging President Barack Obama's picks for top Justice Department positions, charging that past clients like Playboy taint their resumes.
The criticism comes ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing Thursday for David Ogden, Obama's pick for deputy attorney general, the No. 2 position at the Justice Department.
Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, was confirmed by the Senate on Monday and started work the next day. As he waits for confirmation of his top aides, many on the religious right are questioning the nominee's backgrounds, saying they have promoted far left, pro-abortion, pro-gay policies.
"Ogden has been an activist in the support of a right to pornography, a right of abortion and the rights of homosexuals," said Patrick Trueman, a former Justice Department official during the first Bush presidency who is now in private practice.
"It isn't so much that he's represented pornographers or that he's been a porn attorney, but it's his world view, and his world view reflects President Obama's world view," said Trueman, echoing criticism from conservative activist groups like the American Family Association and Focus on the Family.
While a private attorney, Ogden argued on behalf of Playboy and librarians fighting congressionally mandated Internet filtering software. His clients also include corporate giants such as an oil company and the pharmaceutical industry.
The challenge to Obama's Justice picks come as conservative evangelicals seek to limit the power of the new Democratic administration and maintain their own within the Republican Party.
Some Republicans believe a tight embrace of social conservative values turns off independents and moderates, but many Christian right leaders resist compromise and contend that, if anything, the GOP has strayed too far from its principles.
Besides Ogden, conservatives also have taken aim at two other Justice picks — Indiana University professor Dawn Johnsen for her association with an abortion rights group, and Thomas Perrelli, who represented the husband of Terry Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a right-to-die case that energized evangelical groups across the country.
Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a past colleague of the three during the Clinton administration, said the conservatives' criticism of the trio is unusual and unwarranted.
"Usually, you may have a fight over who the attorney general is, but this is not par for the course, picking off next to the attorney general three of his top appointments," Greenberger said. "This is harassment and it is an attempt to reverse the election."
Accusations of political manipulation at the Justice Department are not new. Over the past two years, the Bush administration has been investigated and excoriated by Democrats for making firing and hiring decisions based on political considerations.
Tom Minnery, a vice president at Focus on the Family, charges that through the nominations, the new Democratic administration is not depoliticizing, but re-politicizing the Justice Department.
"They take our breath away the more we learn about these people," said Minnery. "This is left-wing politicization of the Justice Department. This is not a Justice Department that looks like America."

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.