Persecuted Christians fret as U.S. Iraq pullout nears

Killed by wearing a Cross in Egypt. Here in Australia is a fashion!

I would like to comment on some abuses done against christians around the world. In this post, I will be pointing out the killing of a Christian in Egypt. His crime, wearing a crucifix. This is the result of the "Arab Spring". There's a movement now in the Middle East that has been attacking Christians for their faith. Liberation from dictators turned out to be the worst thing that could ever happened to Christians in the Middle East.

This news item is very revealing as to what the West has been supporting:

In mid-October Egyptian media published news of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province.
The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the Christian student was murdered because he was wearing a crucifix."We wanted to believe the official version," said activist Mark Ebeid, "because the Coptic version was a catastrophe, as it would take persecution of Christians also to schools." He blamed the church in Mallawi for keeping quiet about the incident.
Today the parents of the 17-year-old Christian student Ayman Nabil Labib, broke their silence, confirming that their son was murdered on October 16, in "cold blood because he refused to take off his crucifix as ordered by his Muslim teacher." Nabil Labib, the father, said in a taped video interview with Copts United NGO, that his son had a cross tattooed on his wrist as per Coptic tradition, as well as another cross which he wore under his clothes.The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the Christian student was murdered because he was wearing a crucifix."We wanted to believe the official version," said activist Mark Ebeid, "because the Coptic version was a catastrophe, as it would take persecution of Christians also to schools." He blamed the church in Mallawi for keeping quiet about the incident.Today the parents of the 17-year-old Christian student Ayman Nabil Labib, broke their silence, confirming that their son was murdered on October 16, in "cold blood because he refused to take off his crucifix as ordered by his Muslim teacher." Nabil Labib, the father, said in a taped video interview with Copts United NGO, that his son had a cross tattooed on his wrist as per Coptic tradition, as well as another cross which he wore under his clothes.According to Ayman's father, eyewitnesses told him that his son was not beaten up in the school yard as per the official story, but in the classroom. "They beat my son so much in the classroom that he fled to the lavatory on the ground floor, but they followed him and continued their assault. When one of the supervisors took him to his room, Ayman was still breathing. The ambulance transported him from there dead, one hour later."

A teacher supported attack? Aren't teachers supposed to teach students to live in harmony? They wanted to cover up this incident as just a violent incident, but now we know better.

In the West, we are always told that schools are places of safety. Apparently in Egypt, if you are a Christian, this is not true.

What sort of ideology or religion drives a teacher to force a student to take off a crucifix, because he or she finds it offensive? And to top it all, invites other students to beat up the student to death for not following his or her directions?

If something like this would take place in a Western countries, Muslims countries would be up in arms, killing other Christians in their countries, and burning churches. An independent commentator wrote in an independent:

Prominent columnist Farida El-Shobashy wrote in independent newspaper Masry Youm "I was shaken to the bones when I read the news that a teacher forced a student to take off the crucifix he wore, and when the Christian student stood firm for his rights, the teacher quarreled with him, joined by some of the students; he was beastly assaulted until his last breath left him." She wondered if the situation was reversed and a Muslim was killed for not removing the Koran he wore, what would have been the reaction.

The reaction would have been what I just mentioned.

In my next article, we will see how Muslims come to Western countries, and demand that their rights be respected, but don't extend that courtesy to Christian foreigners in their land, and to their shame, not even to the Christian citizens that live in their country.

So the "Arab Spring", is becoming an "Arab Hell" for Christians. In my next entry, I will see this issue, now from an American point of view.

Luis A. Jovel 

What are we, Protestants, really celebrating today?

I don't want to sound like a historical revisionist, but Jim West has been writing very interesting pieces about when did the Protestant Reformation really started. Lutherans love to think that everything started with Martin Luther. It is well known that the usual phrase "Justification by faith is the article by which the Church stands or falls" is not from Luther, rather, from Johann Heinrich Alsted, dating from 1618. So, after some 400 hundred years, it would be a good thing to start giving praise where it is due.  Also, the Lutheran project did not go as well as it was intended, but it did quash other movement, as the Anabaptist movement, and condemned Zwingli for rejecting the Luther's understanding (misunderstanding more like it) of the Lord's Supper.

Well, this is how Jim started his posts about the date where the Reformation really started:

And yes, it's just Lutheran Reformation Day.  Luther was 2 years late as the initiator of Reformation- Zwingli having begun work in that direction in 1515.  So, congrats, Lutherans- just as was true at Barmen- while the Lutherans slept, the Reformed worked.

And the next one:

The Lutherans are celebrating what they call ‘Reformation Day’.  They like to delude themselves with the unfounded belief that were it not for Luther, there would have been no Reformation. 

Alas, poor things, they seem totally unaware that Reform had already commenced further south, in Switzerland, where Zwingli and his colleagues had been lurching towards true Reform since 1515. 

To be sure, Luther matters.  But he doesn’t matter as much as his followers would like the world to believe. ...... 

Luther didn’t teach Zwingli either the Gospel or the proper understanding of the Supper of the Lord.  Zwingli knew and taught both before anyone had ever heard of Luther. 

So, dear Lutherans, enjoy your awakening day.  It’s ok with the rest of us if you were a bit late to the party.

Very revealing, indeed.

When the Prom ceases to be what it used to be. Lesbians proclaimed Queen and King of the Homecoming

Once again, if you are gay, you get attention by merely being gay, thus making your sexually the most important thing about you. Now we find that there's a "couple" of girls who have been proclaimed king and queen of their school's homecoming.

Two California high school students became one of the first lesbian couples crowned homecoming king and queen in the nation this weekend.

Rebeca Arellano, a senior at Patrick Henry High School, was made theschool's first female homecoming king when her name was announced Friday at a pep rally.

"They were chanting my name and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had," said Arellano.

Just like I posted here some time ago about the Presbyterians, chanting because they had elected a gay minister, this young people have succumbed to the wrong way of seeing reality.

I really like what Jim West has to say about this turn of events:

I'm not applauding.  And it isn't because I 'hate' gays or am a homophobe.  It's because she isn't a male and she can't, therefore, be a 'king'.  Furthermore, why is she singled out as someone worthy of attention when there are, across the country, tens of thousands of young men and women who lead worthy-of-attention lives but are never recognized merely because they aren't living deviantly? 

Gays and Lesbian activists insist constantly that homosexuality is more than mere sex and yet any time the issue IS sex (sexuality)(gender) it's trotted out as a parade example of what gay can be. 

If this young lady were really an upstanding example of humankind, why is it necessary to mention her sexual orientation?  When 'straight' Homecoming Kings across the country are crowned I guarantee not one of them will be feted because of their heterosexuality.  You won't see a single report on the Huffington Post declaring 'Heterosexual male crowned homecoming king!' 

Why do gay activists make everything out of sexual orientation if it isn't the only aspect of their being that defines them? 

I hope Miss Arellano has a good life and that it turns out to be about more than just her sexual orientation.  Because at this juncture, that's all it's about. 

I totally agree with Jim about how being gay, supposedly makes a person unique this days. You never hear about heterosexual homecoming queens and kings making front page news, unless there's a scandal of sorts. This sort of thing, I have given a name, heterophobia, or the fear that is manifested in proclaiming or insinuating that being gay is better than being straight.

And in the following sentence from the original news post, I find reason to believe that this is happening:

Arellano said one of her teachers told her, "Today school is a bit better because of you girls."

What? So all the heterosexual children at school never made the school special? Giving a lesbian couple the honour of being homecoming queen and king makes a school better? How about when a heterosexual couple wins such a price, that makes the school then, average?

But these girls are savvy. Look at her response to other girls who don't agree with her being crown homecoming king:

"We have a lot of support, but there are also a lot of people who are angry about it," she said. "Anonymous Patrick Henry students are saying they're embarrassed and that it's wrong for a girl to take the spot of king. But there's no other way for us to run as a couple. It's not really fair for us not to have the right to run as a couple."

Arellano posted a statement to those who opposed her on her Facebook wall that read: "For all the girls who think tradition should be continued, go back to the kitchen, stop having sex before you're married, get out of school and job system, don't have an opinion, don't own any property, give up the right to marry who you love, don't vote, and allow your husband to do whatever he pleases to you. Think about the meaning of tradition when you use it in your argument against us."

My answer to this diatribe would be, why do you yourselves adhere to a tradition, the proclamation of the homecoming queen and king, while you want to reject other sorts of tradition?

This is just another example of people wanting to make their own reality, at the expense of everybody else. You may have had made the headlines, but your worth as a contributor of mankind (yes, mankind), is still to be seen.

How the world got to 7 Billions and other interesting facts

The Christian Debate Over Halloween

October 30, 2011 3:12 AM
Jim Roope

For many American Christians, Halloween is innocent, harmless and fun, and they trick-or-treat, carve pumpkins and don costumes with gusto.

For others, though - especially for some conservative and fundamentalist Christians - Halloween is a celebration of evil and has no place in the life of a believer.

"We don't endorse that or we don't celebrate that," said Joe Hernandez, pastor of Worshipwalk Church in Los Angeles, which belongs to the conservative Pentecostal tradition. "People are celebrating the devil's holiday."

Halloween's roots are believed to date back 1,400 years, to the Irish-pagan New Year's celebration. The Celtic New Year began on November 1. People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts and evil spirits.

Some Christians, like Hernandez, believe Halloween's pagan roots can open the door to evil. That's why Worshipwalk is hosting a harvest festival in its church parking lot on Monday, with kids' games and face painting.

Hernandez calls it harvesting hearts for God.

Some conservative churches go a step further, attempting to co-opt the holiday with haunted houses - called "hell houses" - that are designed to give a glimpse of eternal damnation in hopes of strengthening faith.

"There's Satan's lies and there's Jesus' redemption and there's a message that will change your life," said Keenan Roberts, who says he is the inventor of the hell house, which people walk or call through, just as they would a haunted house.

"It's designed to reach the 'sight and sound' age," said Roberts. "The message is sacred but the method is not."

Hell houses can be graphic. In Roberts' hell house - which he markets through his Hell House Ministries - live actors depict scenes of abortion, rape, suicide and murder, though the journey through the house culminates in scenes of redemption through Jesus.

Pastor of the fundamentalist New Destiny church near Denver, Colorado, Roberts said that his ministry has received a lot of criticism for what critics say is "going too far."

But he said today's kids are so desensitized that he will do whatever it takes to get the message of salvation to take root.

Sermon James 1:1-18 Endurance through God's gift of wisdom

This Sunday Sermon

Does Joel Osteen Not Know, or Does He Not Care?

By now, it is clear that Joel Osteen’s carelessness is deliberate and calculated.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
By Albert Mohler.

Here we go again. Joel Osteen is in the news once again, this time for saying that Mormonism is just another form of Christianity. Osteen, pastor of “America’s largest church,” as the media repeat over and over, was speaking toThe Washington Times in an interview that covered a variety of issues. It was the quintessential Joel on display.

Speaking to the newspaper on Monday, Osteen said, “I see faith in America at an all-time high.” His comments came just as a major research project detailed a significant loss of vitality in America’s Christian congregations. That loss of vitality can be traced, among other things, to a loss of theological and biblical conviction. Joel, of course, is proof positive that you can build a crowd without building a church. He is not inclined to deal in much theological conviction.

In the interview, he distilled his message in these words: “Part of our core message is that seasons change, and when you believe, if you don’t get bitter, and you don’t get discouraged, you may not change overnight, but you can get peace.”

That message includes some truth, of course — but it doesn’t even come close to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hell will be filled with people who bloomed where they were planted.He also told the newspaper: “People need to be reminded that every day is a gift from God, and bloom where you’re planted and be happy where you are, and to make that choice to get up every day and be grateful.”

On Mormonism, Joel said:

“I believe that [Mormons] are Christians . . . . I don’t know if it’s the purest form of Christianity, like I grew up with. But you know what, I know Mormons. I hear Mitt Romney — and I’ve never met him — but I hear him say, ‘I believe Jesus is the son of God,’ ‘I believe he’s my savior,’ and that’s one of the core issues.”

“I’m sure there are other issues that we don’t agree on. But you know, I can say that the Baptists and the Methodists and the Catholics don’t all agree on everything. So that would be my take on it.”

Osteen just stated his belief that Mormons are Christians. He then expressed the thought that Mormonism “might not be the purest form of Christianity, like I grew up with,” but he affirmed Mormon statements that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is Savior.

Evaluating Osteen’s boyhood understanding of Christianity would be a project unto itself, given the shifting theology of his preacher father, the late John Osteen.

The main point of concern in Joel’s latest comment is the lack of any biblical standard of judgment and the total abdication of theological responsibility. He relegates doctrinal disagreements between Christians and Mormons to the status of theological debates between Protestant denominations and then includes Roman Catholicism. There are plenty of issues there, and the issues are not the same when comparing Baptists to Methodists, on the one hand, and Protestants and Roman Catholics, on the other. Comparing any form of Trinitarian orthodoxy with Mormonism is another class of question altogether.

Joel reminded the paper’s staff that he has never attended seminary. This is true, of course, but there are thousands of preachers who never had the opportunity to attend seminary who have a sufficient grasp of and commitment to biblical truth that would prevent such carelessness.

By now, it is clear that Joel Osteen’s carelessness is deliberate and calculated. This is not the first time that he has encountered the question of Mormonism. Back in 2007, he told Chris Wallace of FOX News that Mormons are indeed Christians:

“Well, in my mind they are. Mitt Romney has said that he believes in Christ as his savior, and that’s what I believe, so, you know, I’m not the one to judge the little details of it. So I believe they are.”

The little details of it? Mormonism does not differ from historic biblical Christianity in only the “little details,” and a faithful Mormon would be the first to point this out. Mormonism begins with a plurality of gods, not with the monotheism of the Bible. Jesus Christ is an exalted man — not the incarnate Word. The list of categorical doctrinal differences continues throughout the entire belief system.

The very essence of Mormonism is the claim that historic Christianity is fundamentally in error, and that true Christianity did not exist on earth from the time of the Apostles until Joseph Smith. Mormonism can hardly be charged with hiding their movement’s teachings — the Book of Mormon and the other fundamental texts of the Latter Day Saints are published in plain sight.

In a remarkable exchange with Chris Wallace, Osteen muddied the waters further:

WALLACE: So, for instance, when people start talking about Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, and the golden tablets in upstate New York, and God assumes the shape of a man, do you not get hung up in those theological issues?

OSTEEN: I probably don’t get hung up in them because I haven’t really studied them or thought about them. And you know, I just try to let God be the judge of that. I mean, I don’t know.

Here we face a fundamental dilemma. When Joel Osteen hears a summary of Mormon belief that mentions God assuming “the shape of a man,” does he lack the theological discernment to hear how that differs from biblical Christianity, or does it not concern him? In other words, does Joel not know, or does Joel not care?

In the end, we have to conclude that he does not care enough to know, and that is the greater tragedy for a Christian minister. He doesn’t “get hung up” on doctrinal issues, nor has he “really studied them or thought about them.” His own words indict him.

Evangelical Christians are going to face many questions in this season, and the question of Mormonism is now front and center. It will call upon all of us to do what Joel Osteen proudly has not done — to study and think about these issues. In this political moment, we will have to think carefully and act judiciously without confusing the theological questions. We will need the full wealth of Christian conviction.

We will also need deep doctrinal discernment mixed with urgent spiritual concern. The Latter Day Saints include some of the most wonderful and kind people we will ever meet. They put a great emphasis on character and on the moral values of our common concern. They talk freely and passionately about their own beliefs, including their beliefs concerning Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they put action behind their commitments, sending their young people on mission and fueling a worldwide movement that remains one of the fastest-growing on the planet.

But their beliefs concerning Jesus Christ are not those of historic Christianity, and their understanding of salvation differs radically from the message of the New Testament. It is the responsibility of every Christian — and most certainly every Christian minister — to know this.

Joel Osteen told The Washington Times that he is constantly “looking for new ways to influence the culture.” Our culture admires those with low theological commitment and high emphasis on attitude. In Joel Osteen’s case, it is the secular culture that has influenced the minister, and not the minister that is influencing the culture.

Answering to Bart Ehrman accusations and lunacies

Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan, Says State Department

Thank you very much, War on Terror.

By Edwin Mora

October 10, 2011

(CNSNews.com) -- There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department's latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”

“There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church's claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March [2010],” reads the State Department report on religious freedom. “[Private] chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases, PRTs [Provincial Reconstruction Teams], and at the Italian embassy. Some citizens who converted to Christianity as refugees have returned.”

In recent times, freedom of religion has declined in Afghanistan, according to the State Department.

“The government’s level of respect for religious freedom in law and in practice declined during the reporting period, particularly for Christian groups and individuals,” reads the State Department report.

“Negative societal opinions and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Muslim converts to Christianity," said the report. "The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom.”

Most Christians in the country refuse to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship,” said the State Department.

More than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in the decade-old Afghanistan war, according to CNSNews.com’s database of all U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. A September audit released jointly by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and the State Department’s Office of Inspector General, found that the U.S. government will spend at least $1.7 billion to support the civilian effort from 2009-2011.

According to that report, the $1.7 billion excludes additional security costs, which the report says the State Department priced at about $491 million.

A March 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service showed that overall the United States has spent more than $440 billion in the Afghanistan war. Christian aid from the international community has also gone to aid the Afghan government.

Nevertheless, according to the State Department, the lack of non-Muslim religious centers in Afghanistan can be blamed in part on a “strapped government budget,” which is primarily fueled by the U.S. aid.

“There were no explicit restrictions for religious minority groups to establish places of worship and training of clergy to serve their communities,” says the report, “however, very few public places of worship exist for minorities due to a strapped government budget.”

The report acknowledged that Afghanistan’s post-Taliban constitution, which was ratified with the help of U.S. mediation in 2004, can be contradictory when it comes to the free exercise of religion.

While the new constitution states that Islam is the “religion of the state” and that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” it also proclaims that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law.”

However, “the right to change one’s religion was not respected either in law or in practice,” according to the State Department.

“Muslims who converted away from Islam risked losing their marriages, rejection from their families and villages, and loss of jobs,” according to the report. “Legal aid for imprisoned converts away from Islam remains difficult due to the personal objection of Afghan lawyers to defend apostates.”

The report does note that “in recent years neither the national nor local authorities have imposed criminal penalties on coverts from Islam.” The report says that “conversion from Islam is considered apostasy and is punishable by death under some interpretations of Islamic rule in the country.”

Also, in recent years, the death punishment for blasphemy “has not been carried out,” according to the State Department.

According to the State Department report, the United States continues to promote religious freedom in Afghanistan--even though the country no longer has even one Christian church.

“The U.S. government regularly discusses religious freedom with government officials as part of its overall policy to promote human rights,” according to the report.

According to the State Department report, more than 99 percent of the population, estimated between 24 and 33 million people, is either Sunni (80 percent) or Shia (19 percent) Muslim. Non-Muslim religious groups, including the estimated 500 to 8,000 strong Christian community in the country, make up less than 1 percent of the population. Other non-Muslim groups in the country are Sikhs, Bahais, and Hindus.