Something to remember

A good way to teach about Martin Luther

This one is for you, my Lutheran friends, specially you, yes you Simon.

Almost eaten by a whale!

Gay Couples in Britain Can Marry in the Church

There's a push in my denomination that we should accept gay marriage. What happens in Britain, may happen in Australia.

So reports the Daily Telegraph-
Homosexual couples will be able to take part in civil partnerships in church and other places of worship from next month, it will be announced.
And
Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, will say that the ban on the ceremonies in religious surroundings will be lifted on Dec 5. The move has been championed by David Cameron but is likely to be opposed by some church groups.
Small wonder.
The scheme will be “voluntary” with no church compelled to offer same-sex services. However, it is likely that some campaigners will seek to push the matter further if churches refuse to open their doors to gay couples.
Exactly right. Once the ‘ceremony’ is legitimized, those in Britain who refuse will be demonized and forced to comply.
It is estimated that about 1,500 civil partnerships a year would take place in religious settings once the ban is lifted. There are currently about 5,500 civil partnerships taking place every year.
Personally I would prefer jail to compromise of theological principle.
UPDATE:  The Church of England won’t be allowing it.  It’s not often I can say this- but- good for them!
The Church of England has warned its clergy not to register same-sex relationships, following government confirmation that places of worship can host civil partnership ceremonies from next month. … But the Church of England has warned that its clergy should not provide services of blessing for same-sex couples. …”The House of Bishops’ statement of July 2005 made it clear that the Church of England should not provide services of blessing for those who register civil partnerships and that remains the position. The Church of England has no intention of allowing civil partnerships to be registered in its churches.”

I would like to see Australian churches take a biblical stand, and also warn the clergy to uphold biblical truth, and refrain from promoting or supporting gay marriage.

Via Zwinlius Redivivus.

Australia, once again number 2 in the list of best countries. Let's try harder and be number 1.

I remember some time ago, The Economist also had a ranking, in which Australia came second in their ranking. This time, as when The Economist published their ranking, the difference between Australia and Norway is minuscule, while with the US, is very wide.

Well, I offer you the link so you can read it for your self. My country of birth, El Salvador, is 105. So happy to be in number 2!

In Algeria, you can't worship as a Christian in your own home unless it is registered

As we can in the last two posts that I have made, the situation for Christians is very grim in the Middle East and North Africa. Algeria is a very hard place to practice your faith. Christians are place in jailed for not worshipping in "registered" places of worship.

ALGIERS, ALGERIA (BosNewsLife)-- Five Algerian Christians remained jailed in north-eastern Algeria Tuesday, November 1, after they were reportedly detained this weekend for "worshiping in an unregistered location."
Another Christian, a minor, was released and placed on probation following Saturday's raid in a village near the town of Bougous in north-eastern El Tarf province bordering Tunisia, news reports said.

Christians are not even allowed to worship in the privacy of their own homes:
The arrests were made under legislation introduced in 2006 to regulate the worship of non-Muslims by requiring churches to obtain government permission to hold services, Christians said.

It also states that Christians must worship in recognized buildings, not houses or apartments.

We are called to obey the law as Christians, but this law is just an intrusion of people's privacy.

Even though the government gives the "freedom" for Christians to register their buildings, this legal right is not taken seriously:

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, noted that “While progress was made earlier this year when the Algerian government permitted the EPA to apply for registration" provincial authorities "are undermining that decision by detaining Christians on baseless charges and denying congregations their...right to worship freely."

Just like in Egypt, Christians have nominal "freedom", but at the end of the day, those freedoms don't count when they want to practice their Christianity.

And we are talking about normal people, not Taliban or Al Qaeda radicals. This is what a normal, average, muslim citizen does.

We better take a second look at what's really happening in these, newly "liberated" countries.

Apparently, it's not only the MIddle East that Muslims want to bring their Spring to.

Time and time again, we see how Muslims want to bully us in the West to conform to their ideology. Given, I also acknowledge that the West for a long time, has been trying to impose democracy and capitalism in their lands by force or plain subversion, but these people don't seem to have a problem by being so confrontational against Westerners, and Christians.

If you don't believe me, Newt Gingrich has responded to the lawsuit brought against the Catholic University of America by some muslims studying there. And the reason for the lawsuit? Because they don't feel comfortable studying with so many crosses around.

This is what Gingrich said in a speech in South Carolina:

"We now have a lawsuit apparently by some Muslim students at Catholic University who are offended being at a Catholic university. Now my first answer to them is 'Fine, don't go to a Catholic university.'"
His comments drew applause. Gingrich was referring to allegations that Catholic University of America is illegally discriminating against Muslim students by "denying them access to benefits that other student groups enjoy," and, in particular, not providing space for daily prayers so that they have to pray in classrooms or campus chapels where they are surrounded by Catholic symbols. The charges are currently being reviewed by the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights.

Couldn't they get a grip? If they don't want to see crosses, well, they should not go to the Catholic University of America. It's like going to the USA, yet, being offended by seeing the American flag all over the place.

He continues:

Gingrich challenged the "people who filed the lawsuit," asking rhetorically, "Are you prepared to sponsor a Christian missionary in Mecca? Because if you're not prepared to sponsor religious liberty in Saudi Arabia, don't come and nag us with some hypocritical baloney. So I think we need to be prepared to stand firm for genuine religious liberty, not for something that's anti-Christian."

Yes, I never thought I would agree with Gingrich in one thing, but I do on this. While American, British and Australian lives are being lost in Afghanistan for their "freedom" to practice Islam not the Taliban 's way, they don't show us the same courtesy. If not, look at this past post of mine.

The news item finishes with Gingrich's words:

"People say, well isn't this great, we're having an Arab Spring. Well I don't know, I think we may in fact be having an anti-Christian spring. I think people should actually be taking this pretty soberly."

There's still more news of this nature, how the Muslims, in their new found freedom, have tried to abolish Christianity, and Christians from their lands.

Gingrich words are sober, and also refer to a previous entry I have made on this blog:

 "What I would do is I would actively try to defend religious liberty across the planet, including in Egypt, in Iraq. Look, the number of Christians left in Iraq dropped from a million 200 thousand to five hundred thousand after we liberated the country."

May the West open its eyes, and see that if they support other people's freedoms, it may end up costing our own, since those people don't share our sense of justice, or our sense of freedom for all, not just for muslims.

Luis Alberto Jovel

QANTAS not the safest airline anymore. If you are traveling, you better read this!!

Just in case if you are wondering what QANTAS stands for, well, it is for Queensland And Northern Territory Air Services, aka, QANTAS.

Having said that, I always thought that my national airline was the safest, but it appears that that illusion is no longer viable. According to Slate, it is number 13 (for those who believe in unlucky numbers, this worsens the whole issue, doesn't it?).

So was QANTAS ever the safest airline?

No, and it was never true. Qantas airplanes have crashed multiple times, with the most recent fatal accident occurring in 1951. Still, it's never had a crash since the commercial adoption of the jet engine, and a recent report by the Switzerland-based Air Transport Rating Agency named Qantas the 13^th safest airline. The 10 safest airlines in 2011 were Air France-KLM, American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways. (The list is in alphabetical order, because the organization did not sort the top 10 by safety.) While several of those airlines have had fatal accidents more recently than Qantas, crashes were only one of 15 factors used in the rankings. The group also considered pilot-training facilities, maintenance capacity, age of fleet, number of employees, and financial health, among others. Nervous flyers have plenty of options today if they want to fly on an airline that has never crashed. Domestically, Jet Blue would be the best-known choice. (Southwest also qualifies, sort of. In a 2007 incident, one of their planes killed someone on the ground, though no passengers died. )

This shows that by trying to cost cost, QANTAS has also lost their safety standard, by shifting their airplane service over to Malaysia, and not keeping it here in Australia, where the safety standards are clearly higher.

Well, at least, we are still one of the most safest airlines in the world. If you are flying in third world country airlines, I really pray that you survive:

This isn’t to say that all airlines are equally safe. There are several airlines that the FAA has refused to certify, and the EU bans airlines (PDF) that don’t meet its safety standards from flying over Europe. All of the blacklisted carriers are from the developing world, and the EU has the stats to justify that decision. According to a 2010 study by Barnett, airlines in the developing world suffer fatalities at more than 17 times the rate of first-world carriers.

Hope you wil take the proper airline choices next time you travel.

Luis A. Jovel

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