Religious Leaders Unite To Fight Vilification Laws

By Andrew West

POWERFUL and morally conservative religious leaders and laymen, including Christians, Jews and Muslims, have united to form a lobby group to fight what they say is the growing threat to religious freedom in Australia.

The Ambrose Centre for Religious Liberty will be launched at NSW Parliament House tonight and formally brings together for the first time the leaders of several religious groups.

The centre’s chairman, the Sydney lawyer Rocco Mimmo, said the leaders were increasingly worried that religious vilification laws – such as the ones used in Victoria to prosecute a Pentacostal pastor for inflammatory comments about Islam – would be introduced nationally.

“All of us have concerns, for different reasons, that religious liberty is in danger,” Mr Mimmo told the Herald.

“Anti-vilification laws have a superficial appeal to people but, however inappropriate those comments made by the Victorian pastor, I doubt very much whether they actually incited people to violence.” (more…)

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Anti-Christian Britain

Chuch ColsonBy Chuck Colson

As you may know, in Islamic countries such as Afghanistan, converting from Islam to Christianity is a crime punishable by death. While they don’t go that far, certain Indian states and Nepal erect formidable hurdles for would-be converts to Christianity.
 
And then there’s the United Kingdom.

In 2007, a 16-year-old girl was placed into foster care after being assaulted by a family member. Her foster mother had taken care of 80 foster kids over 10 years. She rented a farmhouse and was, by all accounts, completely committed to the well-being of the children placed under her care.

She is also a practicing Anglican Christian. This hadn’t been a problem. No one had ever accused her of taking advantage of her relationship to the girls for proselytizing.

The same is true of the 16-year-old in question. Still, the girl became interested in Christianity on her own; said that she wanted to attend church; and expressed a desire to be baptized. For the girl, baptism was a “washing away of the horrible things she had been through and a symbol of a new start.” (more…)

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‘Hate Crimes’ Legislation Advancing Quickly

Repent America Urges Immediate Action from Christians

- PHILADELPHIA ELEVEN AFTER THEIR VINDICATION BY A PHILADELPHIA CRIMINAL COURT -PHILADELPHIA – Repent America is urging Christians nationwide to contact their congressmen and senators in effort to defeat the passage of “The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009” (H.R. 1913), which poses a serious threat to Biblical evangelism and active stances against the sin of homosexuality. After approval of the bill this past Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee, the measure is swiftly moving to a full vote in Congress, as well as consideration before the Senate this week. Unless Christians act, H.R. 1913 could be on President Obama’s desk within the next couple of weeks.

Co-written by openly homosexual congressman Barney Frank and co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act is faulty and untruthful from its very foundation, citing in its “findings” section that “members of such groups are forced to move across state lines to escape the incidence or risk of such violence” and that they are “prevented from purchasing goods and services, obtaining or sustaining employment or participating in other commercial activity.” (more…)

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Will Obama Abandon Israel?

By Star Parker – WorldNetDaily

Barack Obama’s obvious comfort level with leaders of unfree countries shouldn’t surprise anyone. He is not only our first black president. He is also our first president who doesn’t like the free country he was elected to lead and feels his job is to change it.

Obama’s cordial encounter with Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez and his bow of deference in London to the Saudi Arabian king are extensions of behavior we have always seen on the black left. Jesse Jackson openly embraced Chavez, as well as having maintained relations with the likes of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and Yasser Arafat.

This should be kept in mind as our president now makes his own effort to bring peace to the Middle East.

It should be clear to anyone conscious and watching that central to Obama’s Middle East strategy is to disabuse the long-held notion that there exists a “special relationship” between the United States and Israel. The sense of unique kinship between our country and the Jewish state has existed since Israel’s founding just 60 years ago. (more…)

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Sri Lanka: Satellite Images, Witnesses Show Shelling Continues

Source: National Christian Evangelical Alliance in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka: Satellite Images, Witnesses Show Shelling Continues

UN Security Council Fails to Act While Civilians Suffer

 (New York, May 12, 2009) – New satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts contradict Sri Lankan government claims that its armed forces are no longer using heavy weapons in the densely populated conflict area in northern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today. 

 Local sources have reported that more than 400 civilians have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded since May 9, 2009, as a result of artillery attacks on the thin coastal strip where fighting continues between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). (more…)

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The Problem With (Some) Christians: It’s About Integrity

By Greg Laurie

Greg LaurieA pastor who boarded a bus one Monday morning paid his fare and took his seat before he realized the bus driver had given him a lot of extra change. At the next stop, the pastor went up to the bus driver and said, “Excuse me, sir, but you gave me too much change. I wanted to give it back to you.”

“I didn’t make a mistake, pastor,” the bus driver told him. “I was at your church last night and heard you preach on honesty. I just wanted to see if you would live it.”

We seldom realize that people are watching us. They are paying attention to what we do. They may not tell you they are watching you, but they want to see if you are the real deal, if you are a man or woman of integrity.

If you knew that no one would ever use your computer and look at the websites you visit, would you visit websites you are not visiting now? If you knew that no one would ever know about the movie you were going to, would you go to a different movie than you normally would? (more…)

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Taliban Executes 2 Christians

Pakistani FlagBelievers were protesting demand they accept Islam
 
Taliban Islamic radicals have attacked a community of Christians, executing two of them following a rally that protested Muslim graffiti in their neighborhood that ordered them to accept Islam or die, according to an international Christian organization.

The attack in Pakistan follows only by days an expansion of the territory occupied by the Islamic Taliban members.

The report from International Christian Concern said it happened in Taseer Town in Karachi.

The organization, which reaches out to persecuted Christians around the world, said it was told by Asif Stephen, a Christian politician, that the Christians protesting the Islamic slogans say: “We were protesting peacefully and all of sudden, a few militants carrying the latest weapons rushed in. Some of the attackers entered homes and pillaged money and jewelry and abused the women and burned their properties. The elderly were injured and one child fell to the ground and died in my friend’s arms.” (more…)

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Pastor Danny Prays For & Challenges Students At A Christian School

Dear Family & Friends in Christ,

 Lighthouse Christian College in Keysborough, Victoria, Australia recently held its ‘Year 11 Blessing Night!’ This Secondary College is one of the best Christian schools in Australia with more than 500 students and an excellent team of Christian teachers, who are totally dedicated to rising up a godly generation of future leaders to impact every sphere of society.

 Lighthouse Christian College is a 100% Christian school which makes every effort to properly educate and to instill godly values among the students. The school comes under the direct covering of the Lighthouse Christian Community Church, with Senior Pastor Richard Warner. (more…)

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Muslims And Christians In Kenya Argue Over Barack Obama’s Grandmother

By Nick Meo

Muslims have accused Christians of trying to convert Sarah Obama to Christianity.

Mrs Obama, a figure of substance in her homeland since her grandson was elected US President, was reported locally to have been stopped from going to a Seventh Day Adventist Church by Muslims because they thought the church would try to convert her.

However, members of the church said that she was not to be converted and was merely invited to attend an event.

“We had invited her to grace our meeting in Kisumu which was to mark the end of a three-week convention, but although she had prepared, she did not attend,” Lewis Ondiek, a senior church figure, told Ecumenical News International. (more…)

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Sri Lanka: Protect Civilians In ‘Final’ Attack

Sri Lankan FlagDear Friends and Family in Christ around the World,

We would greatly appreciate your ongoing prayer and diplomatic action regarding a catastrophic crisis in Sri Lanka!

Rising Up Australia and the Nations as His Kingdom Comes,
Jason Golden

According to the independent media reports in the last two days, over 1480 people were killed, mostly women and children, and 2200 or more were injured. Medical facilities are not available within the so called safe zone in Mullaithivu. Some of the internet media carried videos and photographs of the humanitarian catastrophe. 

Please find the Human Rights Watch latest release just before the Killings in Mullathivu.

Sri Lanka: Protect Civilians in ‘Final’ Attack

UN Security Council Should Initiate Commission of Inquiry

(New York, April 20, 2009) – An expected major attack following the Sri Lankan government’s “final warning” to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam underscores the need for heightened measures to minimize civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said today. The continuing laws of war violations by both the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE indicate the need for a United Nations commission of inquiry to investigate war crimes by both sides, Human Rights Watch said. (more…)

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Most U.S. Christians Don’t Believe Satan, Holy Spirit Exist

US FlagBy Jennifer Riley – Christian Post Reporter

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. (more…)

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Christian Terrorists

By Bill Muehlenberg

If the above title sounds oxymoronic, well, it is. But according to the secular left US government, such a beast actually exists. A leaked government report of the Obama administration warns that the nation must watch out for new, dangerous, “rightwing extremists,” which include pro-lifers, and others with various conservative concerns, such as limited government.

Millions of Christians are greatly concerned about the sanctity of human life, the rise of Big Brother government, and so on. So it seems that they are part of this new threat to domestic security. Of course various radical secularist groups like the ACLU have been making this case for decades now. In their view, the most dangerous group of Americans around are Bible-believing Christians who take their faith seriously, and who will not bow down to the totalist state.

The early church was equally seen as a threat to the Roman Empire, because it refused to bow down to any other Lord than Jesus Christ. It rejected the Emperor cult, and was persecuted accordingly. The same is happening today throughout the West, and Obama’s America is a main case in point. (more…)

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Is There Honor In Honor Killings?

Dallas M. Roark, Ph.D.

There is a lot of emphasis on honor in Muslim cultures. We read about so-called “honor killings.” The reasoning behind honor killings is that it “cleanses” the honor of the person or family whose honor has been wounded. Killing the suspected offender is supposed to restore the integrity of the family name. Actually, one alleged bad sin is followed by the worst sin of murder. The old saying is true: two wrongs don’t make a right. Murder is murder.

Let’s raise some questions about this whole concept. Where does my honor come from? Does it come from my family? Does my family bestow honor on me? Let us suppose that my father is a crook and I am not. Does that make me a crook? Not at all. Am I to be shamed because of him? Suppose that I am a crook and my father is not, does that make my father a crook? Not at all. Is he to be shamed because of me?

It has been observed that Muslim cultures are familial, clanish, and tribal, not individualistic. This concept seems to be behind “honor killings.” They believe that if you take away the corporate aspect of the culture, control over morality will be lost. What can be said about this idea? How can morality be protected by immoral acts? How can morality come from immoral acts? (more…)

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Exchanging Vows As Couples Shun Religion In Favour Of Civil Ceremonies

By Sharon Labi – The Sunday Telegraph
 
COUPLES are shunning religious wedding ceremonies in record numbers and going down the civil path to marriage to gain control and avoid pre-marital counselling.

Religious weddings outnumbered civil ceremonies until 2001 when they reached a 50-50 split.

The number of civil marriages has steadily risen to hit a high last year, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

New NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages figures show celebrants performed 60.6 per cent of ceremonies in 2008, compared to 39.4 per cent for religious weddings.

Social researchers say the trend is driven by second and subsequent marriages, older brides and grooms, along with the decline of religious observance in Australia and couples’ desire for greater freedom in designing their ceremony. (more…)

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Miss California Says Her Beliefs “Cost Me My Crown”; No Regrets Though

By Teresa Neumann – The Christian Post

Carrie Prejean“I was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything…By having to answer that question in front of a national audience, God was testing my character and faith. I’m glad I stayed true to myself.” Keep the faith, Carrie, and you’ll have a crown in Heaven.

(California)—The Christian Post reports that Miss California, Carrie Prejean, who was named first runner up in the Miss USA Pageant on Sunday, says she believes her answer on same-sex marriage (she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman) cost her the title but admits that she has no regrets.

“It did cost me my crown,” Carrie told Billy Bush on his radio talk show recently. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that’s all I can do…I was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything.” (more…)

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