| 1. Where is the United States in Prophecy? Feds launch dragnet to stop 'October surprise' attack
As Pakistani investigators hunt the terrorists behind the massive Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad, FBI agents in the U.S. have begun aggressively hunting for Americans who have recently returned from trips to Pakistan where they may have trained at al-Qaida camps, WND has learned. A coast-to-coast dragnet has been launched partly in response to leads developed in the arrest of one of al-Qaida's "fixers" in the U.S., say FBI officials. They report the bureau is in a race against time to identify Pakistan-trained sleeper cells and disrupt a possible pre-election "October surprise." For the first time since 9/11, counterterrorism field agents have been authorized to spy on young Muslim men and women – including American citizens – who have traveled to Pakistan without any specific evidence of wrongdoing. Controversial new investigative guidelines approved by the Justice Department allow agents to monitor suspects and conduct undercover interviews even before opening formal investigations. Officials say subsequent interrogations have revealed that possibly hundreds of American Muslims, many of them of Pakistani descent, have traveled to Pakistan in recent years to train at al-Qaida and Taliban madrassas and terror camps and have returned to the U.S. to carry out suicide attacks. ................ read more Report warns of dangers to US with rise of China
The United States needs new weapon systems, including missile defenses and other advanced military capabilities, to deter and counter China's steady buildup of nuclear and conventional arms, according to a draft internal report by a State Department advisory board. The report, by the Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), is the first to recommend such defenses against China, including technology in space. The draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, said Chinese strategy goes beyond building forces capable of retaking the island of Taiwan. China seeks to "break out" by projecting power beyond its region including sea lanes that carry energy resources for its modernization, the document said. The draft report said China's "major objective is to counter U.S. presence and U.S. military capabilities in East Asia through the acquisition of offensive capacities in critical functional areas that systematically exploit U.S. vulnerabilities." It said the buildup involves capabilities for "asymmetric warfare," such as space and computer weapons, that could help Chinese forces defeat a stronger U.S. military. Among the areas of U.S. strategic vulnerability identified in the report are gaps in U.S. missile defenses; dependence on space for communications; the U.S. inability to use force against China except through aircraft carrier groups; and "fragile electronics and the Internet." The report recommends that the United States acquire new offensive space and cyber warfare capabilities and missile defenses as well as "more robust sea- and space-based capabilities" to deter any crisis over Taiwan. China currently has about 20 missiles capable of reaching the United States but is projected to have more than 100 nuclear missiles, some likely with multiple warheads, by 2015, the report said................. read more Russia Preparing For Confrontation with US & Nato?
Russia announced an overhaul of its strategic nuclear forces and army yesterday, in the clearest sign yet that Moscow may be preparing for a possible full-scale military confrontation with the US and Nato. Speaking after Russia carried out its biggest military exercises since the cold war, Dmitry Medvedev, the president, said Russia would build a space defence system and a fleet of nuclear submarines by 2020. This summer's brief war with Georgia, which led to a further rift between Moscow and the west, showed the need for Russia to have a strong military in a state of "permanent readiness", Medvedev said. His defence initiative is the biggest in Russia for at least a decade. It comes amid bitter opposition from Moscow to Washington's plan to site a missile defence system in central Europe - a project the Kremlin says upsets Europe's strategic balance. The move is also a riposte to US-backed plans for Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato. Medvedev promised large-scale construction of warships, including nuclear submarines armed with cruise missiles, and also announced plans for a system of air and space defence. The president promised to improve living conditions for Russian soldiers, as well as better military education and training. He was speaking after watching an military exercise in the southern Urals. Yesterday one leading analyst said the exercise - which involved 40,000 troops, 7,300 pieces of heavy equipment and nuclear-capable missiles - was designed to simulate a war with the US............... read more Preparing for financial apocalypse, Americans Stock up
Some are hunkering down for the economic apocalypse. Others say they are merely stocking up on essentials for a worst-case scenario. In Marysville — and across the country — September's financial disasters have been driving Americans into survival supply stores for Meals Ready-to-Eat, and other emergency goods for long-term storage. "I've been selling ammo cans by the pallet," says Tom King, owner of Sutter Surplus Sales on D Street. Many of his customers, he says, "are gearing up to raise their own food and put up security fences. They're telling me to be ready." Precautionary measures are no longer the domain of survivalist regulars. At the Ready Store, an Online operation based in Salt Lake City, water filters are at a premium. So are MREs, a key food source for military personnel during training and combat deployments. "In the last two weeks," says Jonathan Dick, the company's sales and marketing manager, "we've sold 200 percent above normal levels in just about everything." "With natural disasters, you see increases in short-term survival sales," he says. "People are trying to get through the next three days." But since mid-September, people have been ordering a six-month or a year's supply of food, he says. Customers told him, "What if I lose my job and I lose my life savings and I don't have any money to buy food?" "It's not just extremist people," Dick says. "There's a lot of uncertainty out there right now."............. read more
2. Israel - God's Timepiece Does Livni Share Olmert's Plan To Give Away Golan, Most of Eastern Jerusalem?
Israel must give away the Golan Heights and most of eastern Jerusalem, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview with the Hebrew daily newspaper Yediot Acharonot on Friday. In the weekend interview the lame duck prime minister maintained, "One more hill, another 100 meters – this is not what is going to change the security of Israel." Olmert said that Damascus would be forced to end its ties with Iran in exchange for peace and Israel's relinquishing the Golan Heights. Olmert vowed exactly two years ago this week, "As long as I am prime minister, we shall not give up the Golan for all eternity!" His current statements, coming at the tail end of his reign while Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni tries to form a new government, now present the new Kadima party chairwoman with a policy she may have no choice but to accept. If she does not, she risks a breakdown in the peace negotiations while running the danger of losing a coalition. However, a majority of Knesset Members already have stated they oppose any withdrawal from the Golan Heights.................. read more Hamas Awaiting Fatah's Collapse
The Hamas chapter in Hevron (Hebron) - a city largely under the control of the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority - says that the Fatah government must "not be talked with, but rather gotten rid of." In a declaration issued by the terrorist organization branch office in Hevron, Hamas states that the collapse of the Fatah regime in Judea and Samaria is "just a matter of time." So reports the Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq al-Aussat. About 100 people were killed in June 2007 when Hamas took over control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah. Hamas has set the destruction of Israel as its goal, and has carried out some of the worst terrorist slaughters against Israel over the past 15 years. The Hamas charter states, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it... There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."In the Palestinian Authority elections in January 2006, Hamas won a majority of the PA legislature, including every single seat from the city of Hevron... ............... read more Egypt to host 'Annapolis 2' peace summit in November
An international summit is to be held in Egypt in November, with representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the members of the Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. According to a senior official in Jerusalem, the Israeli and PA participants will brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks. The gathering is said to be the result of a compromise between the U.S., Israel and the Palestinians. In recent months U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been urging both sides to draft a document detailing the points of agreement in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. She suggested they compile an "inventory" detailing progress on each of the core issues, such as Jerusalem, borders, refugees' right of return, security, settlements and water rights. Israel opposed Rice's suggestion and argued that it would set the talks back. "It would make each side harden its stance to appear as though it has made no concessions," the Israeli source said. "Finally, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni managed to persuade her Palestinian counterpart, the head of the PA negotiating team, Ahmed Qureia, to reject the inventory idea." Instead, the parties agreed on to give a detailed briefing to the Quartet. The Israeli and PA negotiators believe that would be less binding and would allow issues to be presented more freely. Meanwhile, the Israeli source said the November summit will probably take place in Sharm el-Sheikh on the anniversary of last year's Annapolis summit. Quartet representatives, including its Middle East envoy, former British prime minister Tony Blair, will participate as well as officials from Jordan and Egypt.................. read more
4. The Gog/Magog War Russian nuclear stealth bomber was able to fly within 90 seconds of the British coast without being picked up by radar
A Russian nuclear stealth bomber was able to fly within 90 seconds of the British coast without being picked up by radar, it was revealed today. The supersonic ‘Blackjack’ jet flew completely undetected to within just 20 miles from Hull in one of the worst breaches of British security since the end of the Cold War. RAF radar eventually picked up the plane, but the only two pairs of fighter jets used for air alerts were on other duties. The embarrassing breach late last year has called into question Britain's defence capabilities after four jet squadrons were cut from the RAF’s budget four years ago. One senior RAF pilot told The Sun: ‘The Russians made us look helpless. It was a disaster - it basically gave the Russians the green light to fly wherever they want.’. ................. read more Russia to deploy new nuclear missile
Russia hopes to deploy a new nuclear missile next year designed to penetrate anti-missile defenses and will build eight submarines to carry it, defense officials said this week. The latest statements underline Moscow's determination to upgrade its nuclear strike forces on land, sea and air. They are regarded by Russian commanders as the cornerstone of the country's defenses. President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have both pledged to extend Russia's recent military build-up with extra funds to buy new, high-tech arms. On Wednesday, Putin announced an extra $3.1 billion of spending next year, partly to replace equipment lost in the Georgia war. The deputy commander in chief of the Russian navy, Admiral Alexander Tatarinov, said on Thursday that by 2015 Moscow would build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to carry a new, nuclear-capable strategic missile. One of these is the Bulava, a submarine-launched long-range nuclear missile which Putin says will be capable of penetrating any missile defenses -- a reference to Washington's plans for a new global system to shoot down hostile rockets.. ................. read more Russian nuclear missile cruiser to dock at Syrian port on Yom Kippur eve
Russian Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo has disclosed that a four-ship squadron led by the Peter the Great nuclear missile cruiser will call in at the Libyan port of Tripoli and “other Middle East ports” before heading out to the Caribbean for joint maneuvers with Venezuela. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that one of those ports is Tartus, Syria, where preparations are afoot to receive the visiting Russian flotilla. Peter the Great , one of the most advanced naval vessels afloat, may in fact anchor at the new facility the Russians are building at Syria’s second major port, Latakia, for its first visit to Syria; the rest of the squadron, the Admiral Chabanenko submarine, a reconnaissance vessel and a fourth ship, will dock at Tartus. Peter the Great is designed to sink large surface vessels such as aircraft carriers. The ship’s Granit (Nato designated SS-N-19 Shipwreck) anti-ship cruise missiles (20 missile launchers) can destroy vessels up to 500 km distant in ripple-fire mode. Coinciding with the 35th anniversary of the Egyptian-Syrian Yom Kippur attack on Israel, the Russian warships’ arrival in Syria has serious connotations. ................. read more Russia using food exports to expand influence
The largest wheat harvest in 15 years is expected to yield 51 million tons, of which a record-breaking 15 million are earmarked for export. Only the US and Canada are expected to export more. The boom comes as the Kremlin’s influence in the Middle East grows, with trade volumes at record levels and increasing collaboration in the energy sector. Russia’s grain trade may prove as controversial as its involvement in energy markets, because it was announced in July that the industry, now mainly in the hands of private traders, would soon be amalgamated into one trading company under Kremlin control. Iraq has bought 200,000 tons of Russian hard milling wheat at $300 a ton. It is the second large sale of Russian wheat since July. “In the last few years there has been an increase in Russian wheat exports not just in absolute terms, but also in terms of global market share,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, a grain analyst at the Food and Agriculture Organisation at the United Nations. “This year Russia will export perhaps twice as much wheat as Argentina, one of the top five traditional wheat exporters.” Now thanks to rising world food prices and a new law allowing foreigners to own land, Russia is once again exporting. With the proximity of Black Sea ports to wheat-deficient Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Russian wheat has a competitive edge. “Russia is replacing the EU as a supplier in North Africa and also in parts of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa,” said Mr Abbassian. “This was not expected in such a short space of time.” ................. read more
5. Apostate Christianity Televangelist's ex-husband seeks new wife on Web
The ex-husband of national televangelist Juanita Bynum, who divorced after a parking lot fight between the two landed him in jail, plans to take his search for a new wife to the Internet with videos featuring dating tips and what he's looking for in a mate. Thomas W. Weeks III, a minister who runs an Atlanta-area church and is known to his followers as Bishop Weeks, said the 10-episode series will be available starting Tuesday on his Web site. Excerpts available Friday included Weeks, 41, discussing with aides what he should look for in his third wife. The group concludes the woman should be at least 25 years old but "with special exemptions for 21 and up if they are classy," Weeks said. She also must want to have children with him. "This woman has to be very discerning, and very intimate, and very social and very sensual," Weeks says, laughing. "And on the ministry side she has to be very diverse. She can't be ugly." Bynum, 49, filed for divorce after the couple had an August, 2007, fight in an Atlanta hotel parking lot that landed Weeks in jail on charges that he pushed, choked and beat Bynum. He pleaded guilty to assaulting her, is serving three years' probation and has completed court ordered community service and anger management counseling. In a video on the Web site of his Duluth-based church, Global Destiny International Ministries, Weeks said thousands of people have been writing him to ask about his plans as a newly single man. He said he wants to give people a Christian perspective on dating. If Weeks does find love, his attorney Randy Kessler told The Associated Press Friday, "I'd probably do the prenup for free." ............... read more Presbyterian Church fails to enforce Church discipline, displaying "one of the most absurd decisions ever rendered by an ecclesiastical court"
Three years after conducting a wedding ceremony for a lesbian couple, the Rev. Janet Edwards was acquitted on charges of violating Scripture and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s constitution. The Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of the Pittsburgh Presbytery ruled unanimously 9-0 to clear the minister on the grounds that she could not have performed the ceremony since the church and state define marriage as between a man and a woman. "It can't be an offense to the constitution to attempt to do the impossible," stated the decision, read by the Rev. Stewart Pollock, chairman of the regional church court, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon, associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and who has been critical of the PC(USA)'s liberal direction, said the decision represents "one of the most absurd decisions ever rendered by an ecclesiastical court." "This decision is the equivalent of saying that it can’t be an offense to the PC(USA) Constitution, or to Scripture, to attempt to marry a man to a woman other than his current wife, or to his mother, or to a prepubescent child, or even to a horse, because the Church does not recognize as a valid marriage cases of bigamy, polygamy, adultery, incest, pedophilia, or bestiality," Gagnon stated. Rev. James C. Yearsley, who was among several Presbyterian ministers that filed a second complaint against Edwards after the first was dismissed in November 2006 on a technicality, said he wasn't surprised by the court decision. "This is the direction of our denomination, and it is accelerating. But it's the wrong decision for the wrong reasons. It's a further attempt to accommodate culture at the expense of scriptural authority and belief," ............... read more
6. The Rise of Islam U.K. Court Recognizes Threat to Christian Converts From Islam
A U.K. immigration court of appeals has for the first time recognized the life threatening circumstances of Muslim converts to Christianity by granting asylum to a Syrian evangelical Christian couple. In an unprecedented victory, the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) helped a young couple (whose identity is being withheld for security reasons) gain refugee status in the United Kingdom. The court recognized that the couple would face real physical threats, including death, if they return to Syria, the country of origin of the husband. The appeal was granted on both asylum and human rights grounds. “This is a significant and groundbreaking decision that clearly puts the focus on the fact that many converts to Christianity from Islam face real danger including the ultimate penalty of death,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of both the ECLJ and its U.S.-based affiliate the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), in a statement. He added, “This important decision will not go unnoticed in the international arena and we’re delighted that it provides protection for Christian converts who are at great risk because of their faith and their desire to share it.” The couple had converted to evangelical Christianity a few years ago and openly witness their Christian faith to Muslims via internet chat rooms. After their conversion, which is considered apostasy under Sharia law and punishable by death, the couple began receiving death threats, including a video of a beheading. Also, the husband’s family told him if he refused to return to Islam then they would “wash their shame,” or put him to death. “This is truly a landmark day in the United Kingdom as a nation awakens to the ever-growing threat of radical Islam and the plight of Christians in the Middle East,” said Roger Kiska, Legal Counsel of the ECLJ ................ read more EU Pressures Iran to Drop Apostasy Bill
A Christian human rights group applauded the European Union for issuing a declaration to Iran that urged the repressive state to drop its draft apostasy bill and to release Christian converts from detention. “We warmly welcome this strong reaction from the EU to Iran’s proposed apostasy bill,” said Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s advocacy director, Tina Lambert, in a statement Tuesday. “If the legislation is passed by the Iranian parliament there will be dire consequences for thousands of Christians living in Iran.” In September, Iran’s parliament had overwhelmingly approved a bill, named the Islamic Penal Code, which would punish apostasy with the death penalty. The bill proposed adding apostasy to a list of crimes that would result in execution. The European Union, in response, released a declaration last Friday that challenged the Iranian parliament to rethink passing the bill into law. Iran is ranked third in Open Doors’ World Watch List for countries with the worst persecution of Christians. .................. read more
7. Increase in Knowledge/New Technologies Americans Clueless About Plans to Create New Life Forms
If you've never heard of the exciting field of synthetic biology, you're not alone, but you might want to get wise to the field's controversial promise to create life from scratch. About two-thirds of U.S. residents are clueless as well, having never heard of the synthetic biology. Only 2 percent in a new telephone survey of 1,003 adults said they have heard a lot about the work, which crosses biology with technology and promises to create forms of life that Nature never thought of. Synthetic biologists engineer and build or redesign living organisms, such as bacteria, to carry out specific functions. The field is a scientific playground for the genetic code, where previously nonexistent DNA is formulated in test tubes. By taking genetic engineering to the extreme, synthetic biologists aim to make life in the lab. The promise is that the novel organisms will fight disease, create alternative fuels or build living computers. Already, researchers have transplanted genetic material from one microbe species into the cellular body of another, described last year as the living "equivalent to converting a Macintosh computer to a PC by inserting a new piece of software." "We face daunting problems of climate change, energy, health, and water resources," a group of 17 leading scientists in the field stated last year. "Synthetic biology offers solutions to these issues: microorganisms that convert plant matter to fuels or that synthesize new drugs or target and destroy rogue cells in the body." Now you know. But why should you care? For one, the field "is potentially controversial because it raises issues of ownership, misuse, unintended consequences and accidental release," according to a report earlier this year commissioned by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in England. In a nutshell, some fear microscopic lab freaks might escape and wreak havoc......................... read more GPS 'spoofing' could threaten national security
Computers have been hacked for decades. But now, scientists at Cornell University and Virginia Tech are now warning about the dangers of "spoofing," or hacking into the Global Positioning System (GPS) that controls everything from car navigation to national power grids. "The average person doesn't realize how much infrastructure is based on GPS and how vulnerable it is," said Brent Ledvina of Virginia Tech, who helped build a spoofer to show weaknesses in the system. "But the truth is that a lot can be done about these vulnerabilities." A GPS receiver detects signals from about 30 orbiting satellites. Based on the time it takes for the signal to reach the receiver and the direction it came from, the receiver can triangulate an exact time and place, down to hundreds of nanoseconds, according to Ledvina. The easiest way to mess with a GPS device is simply to jam it, or create a false GPS signal that overpowers the real GPS signal. In this case, the victim would know about the sabotage right away; often the GPS receiver simply doesn't work. The second, more sinister, method is called spoofing. In spoofing, the intended target doesn't know that the signal received from a GPS unit is wrong: A spoofer creates a false GPS signal that passes as a real GPS signal, and an incorrect time or location appears on the intended receiver. "It looks exactly like a real GPS signal," said Ledvina. "Everything looks completely normal, but the spoofer is controlling your position in time and space." Being a couple microseconds off of the real time might not sound like a big deal to the average consumer with a GPS car navigation system, but GPS has spread far beyond what its creators envisioned in the 1970s. Being even 10 microseconds off could cause power generators, some of which use GPS signals to sync electrical grids to power stations, to explode, said Ledvina. Air traffic controllers use GPS to help avoid plane collisions. Banks time-stamp financial transactions using GPS. Police attach GPS receivers to criminals to monitor their activities. At its worst, successfully spoofing a GPS receiver could mean plane crashes and exploding generators. A more likely scenario, said Paul Kintner of Cornell University, is less disastrous but still illicit -- people could falsify their geographic or chronological position to avoid house arrest or authorities, for instance......................... read more
8. Christian Worldview/Issues Evangelicals see moral decline in Wall St. woes
Conservative U.S. Christians say the culture has gone to hell and it has taken the economy and Wall Street down with it. It is a view which outsiders may find puzzling but has wide resonance in the U.S. heartland: the notion that moral decay and a lost sense of responsibility has brought on the worst banking and credit crisis since the Great Depression. Mounting consumer and household debt as housing prices fall is one of the main reasons behind the current crisis -- a crisis that religious conservatives say has moral roots. The narrative goes roughly like this: the "collapse" of the traditional family, widespread divorce and a "permissive" culture have led to a disregard for personal responsibility. A culture focused on instant gratification -- through the overuse of credit cards to buy consumer goods, for example -- has also lost other "traditional values" such as thrift and hard work. "You can't have a strong, vibrant society when you don't have strong, vibrant families. It's a crisis of commitment, it's a crisis of responsibility," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties. "If you don't live up to your responsibility you are going to see that in the broader culture. You see this on Wall Street," he told Reuters. It is a view that has been echoed by other conservative commentators, on Christian radio stations and on popular "Talk Radio" programs. "To spend more than you've got is not the way we brought up our kids ... You have a whole credit industry that grew up around people wanting what their parents had without working 20 years to get it," said Gary Ledbetter, spokesman for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention..... ............. read more Russia: 64% of Pregnancies End in Abortion, thousands left infertile from abortion complications
Alarmingly high abortion rates in Russia are leaving an increasing number of women infertile, said Marina Tarasova, deputy head of the St. Petersburg Research Institute For Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at an international conference on Monday. The St. Petersburg Times reported that with 64 percent of Russian women procuring abortions, 200,000 to 250,000 women each year are stripped of their biological ability to procreate because of permanent effects from the procedure. "Over the past five years, female infertility in Russia has increased by 14 percent, and over 1.5 million Russians need advanced medical technology to become pregnant and maintain a healthy pregnancy," Tarasova said. She also mentioned that by the end of last year, there were 5.5 million infertile couples in the country. In the teenage population, one in four women have a gynecological ailment or reproductive disorder. Furthermore, over the last five years, there has been a 30 percent increase in the number of women aged 15-17 who have experienced these health problems. The Russian government is attempting to promote family values within the country, naming 2008, "The Year of the Family." Abortions, however, are still offered free of charge at all state clinics. ............. read more Why Sunday Remains The Most Segregated Day Of The Week
The Rev. Paul Earl Sheppard had recently become the senior pastor of a suburban church in California when a group of parishioners came to him with a disturbing personal question. They were worried because the racial makeup of their small church was changing. They warned Sheppard that the church's newest members would try to seize control because members of their race were inherently aggressive. What was he was going to do if more of "them" tried to join their church? "One man asked me if I was prepared for a hostile takeover," says Sheppard, pastor of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California. The nervous parishioners were African-American, and the church's newcomers were white. Sheppard says the experience demonstrated why racially integrated churches are difficult to create and even harder to sustain. Some blacks as well as whites prefer segregated Sundays, religious scholars and members of interracial churches say. Americans may be poised to elect a black man for president, but it's segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of "United by Faith," a book that examines interracial churches in the United States. DeYoung's numbers are backed by other scholars who've done similar research. They say integrated churches are rare because attending one is like tiptoeing through a racial minefield. Just like in society, racial tensions in the church can erupt over everything from sharing power to interracial dating. But interracial church advocates say the church was never meant to be segregated. They point to the New Testament description of the first Christian church as an ethnic stew -- it deliberately broke social divisions by uniting groups that were traditionally hostile to one another, they say. DeYoung, the "United by Faith" co-author, says the first-century Christian church grew so rapidly precisely because it was so inclusive. He says the church inspired wonder because its leaders were able to form a community that cut across the rigid class and ethnic divisions that characterized the ancient Roman world. "People said that if Jews, Greeks, Africans, slaves, men and women - the huge divides of that time period -- could come together successfully, there must be something to this religion," DeYoung says.............. read more The Trouble with School Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion
A new study reveals that if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to criticize the nation of Israel before the United Nations, he could use American public school textbooks to do so. "It is shocking to find the kind of misinformation we discovered in American textbooks and supplemental materials being used by schools in every state in the country," said Dr. Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and a co-author of the study. "Elected officials at every level should investigate how these offensive passages are creeping into our textbooks. Presenting false information in the classroom undermines the very foundation of the American educational system," he said. Tobin teamed with insititute research associate Dennis Ybarra for the study, titled, "The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion." The five-year effort, which looked at 28 prominent history, geography and social studies textbooks, reveals American public school students are being loaded up with indoctrination about Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Middle East, to the cost of Christianity and Judaism and the benefit of Islam. "The textbooks tend to be critical of Jews and Israel, disrespectful about Christianity, and rather than represent Islam in an objective way, tend to glorify it," said co-author Ybarra. "To teach children, for instance, that Jesus was a Palestinian and de-emphasize his Jewishness does a disservice to Christians and Jews as well as anyone who cares about historical accuracy."............... read more
9. Other World Events To Watch Foreign economists urge creation of new global financial system after US failures
Leaders and economists from Western Europe to East Asia are urging the United States to go beyond the domestic bailout and start working on a new global financial system. "The Americans don't have a choice — they must absolutely have a global plan," Christian Noyer, head of the French central bank, said in Paris. David Smick, a global strategist and author of "The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers of the Global Economy," said the next U.S. president should immediately call for a second "Bretton Woods" conference to devise a new doctrine of international finance. The tiny New Hampshire town hosted a conference shortly after World War II that established rules for economic interchange among the world's industrial powers and created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. "I am convinced that the sickness runs deep and that we need to rethink the entire financial and monetary system, as we did in Bretton Woods ... to create the tools for worldwide regulation made necessary by the globalization of trade," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in the French city of Toulon on Monday. He said that officials from France, Britain, Germany and Italy will meet next week in Paris with the Continent's top financial officials to prepare for a proposed global summit on the economic crisis. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will participate. The 27-nation European Union said that the crisis "has become a global problem" and Washington has a "special responsibility" to resolve it.............. read more |
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