POPULATION CONTROL
Eugenics: AIDS/Ebola & other
"man-made" diseases
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000361.htm
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Monday, 13 June 2011
Evangelicals Speak Out Against Measure Banning Circumcision
FIRST READ:
Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi should fight HIV using the bible and not conjectural science
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/archbishop-dr-luke-orombi-should-fight.html
Circumcision is the same as baptism :Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi urges Christians to embrace Male circumcision
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/circumcision-is-same-as-baptism.
PROCEED TO ARTICLE
Evangelicals Speak Out Against Measure Banning Circumcision
http://www.christianpost.com/news/circumcision-ban-proposal-draws-opposition-from-evangelicals-51081/
By Audrey Barrick | Christian Post Reporter
The Christian Post > U.S.|Sat, Jun. 11 2011 12:01 PM EDT
Evangelicals have come out in opposition to a proposed ban on circumcision in northern California.
The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 local churches, released a statement on Thursday expressing solidarity with Jewish and Muslim leaders in their stance against the ban.
“While evangelical denominations traditionally neither require nor forbid circumcision, we join Jews and Muslims in opposing this ban and standing together for religious freedom," said NAE President Leith Anderson.
"Jews, Muslims, and Christians all trace our spiritual heritage back to Abraham. Biblical circumcision begins with Abraham. No American government should restrict this historic tradition. Essential religious liberties are at stake."
Voters in San Francisco will have the chance to vote on a measure in November that, if approved, would outlaw circumcision of male children. There would be no religious exemption and a violation of the law would be punishable with fines up to $1,000 or one year in jail.
Behind the controversial ballot initiative is Lloyd Schofield, who collected more than 7,700 signatures to get the measure before voters this year.
"The base of our argument is you're spending incredible amounts of money doing painful and damaging surgery to an unwilling patient," Schofield, a partnered homosexual, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The frequency of circumcision in the United States is unknown, as hospitals are not legally required to report how many they perform. According to organizers behind a similar bill (Genital Mutilation Prohibition Act), the average U.S. circumcision rate fell from 56 percent in 2006 to 33 percent in 2009. The statistics are based on government surveys.
Circumcision is least practiced on the West Coast.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed in 2005 a policy statement that says the decision to perform a circumcision should be left to the parents to determine what is in the best interest of the child.
"In the case of circumcision, in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child's current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child," the AAP states.
"In the pluralistic society of the United States in which parents are afforded wide authority for determining what constitutes appropriate child-rearing and child welfare, it is legitimate for the parents to take into account cultural, religious, and ethnic traditions, in addition to medical factors, when making this choice."
The practice of circumcision is an important tradition in Jewish and Muslim communities. Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles commented on The Washington Post's On Faith forum that he finds the proposed ban "faintly ludicrous and very offensive."
"There is an undercurrent of contempt for religious belief in general that drives this measure," he stated, adding that he carries the covenant of Abraham in his flesh. "The authors think of themselves as liberal but they are actually coercive; they are believers in transcendence as well, but it is in the transcendence of their own judgment."
He disagreed with a select few imposing their beliefs on the rest of the public.
"We make scores of decisions for our children that are determinative of their lives: where to live, where to go to school, what to eat, what language to learn, what books and television shows to watch when young. Increasingly there is a cadre of people who believe they know better; that all children should be raised as they raise their own."
Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi should fight HIV using the bible and not conjectural science
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/archbishop-dr-luke-orombi-should-fight.html
Circumcision is the same as baptism :Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi urges Christians to embrace Male circumcision
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/circumcision-is-same-as-baptism.
PROCEED TO ARTICLE
Evangelicals Speak Out Against Measure Banning Circumcision
http://www.christianpost.com/news/circumcision-ban-proposal-draws-opposition-from-evangelicals-51081/
By Audrey Barrick | Christian Post Reporter
The Christian Post > U.S.|Sat, Jun. 11 2011 12:01 PM EDT
Evangelicals have come out in opposition to a proposed ban on circumcision in northern California.
The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 local churches, released a statement on Thursday expressing solidarity with Jewish and Muslim leaders in their stance against the ban.
“While evangelical denominations traditionally neither require nor forbid circumcision, we join Jews and Muslims in opposing this ban and standing together for religious freedom," said NAE President Leith Anderson.
"Jews, Muslims, and Christians all trace our spiritual heritage back to Abraham. Biblical circumcision begins with Abraham. No American government should restrict this historic tradition. Essential religious liberties are at stake."
Voters in San Francisco will have the chance to vote on a measure in November that, if approved, would outlaw circumcision of male children. There would be no religious exemption and a violation of the law would be punishable with fines up to $1,000 or one year in jail.
Behind the controversial ballot initiative is Lloyd Schofield, who collected more than 7,700 signatures to get the measure before voters this year.
"The base of our argument is you're spending incredible amounts of money doing painful and damaging surgery to an unwilling patient," Schofield, a partnered homosexual, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The frequency of circumcision in the United States is unknown, as hospitals are not legally required to report how many they perform. According to organizers behind a similar bill (Genital Mutilation Prohibition Act), the average U.S. circumcision rate fell from 56 percent in 2006 to 33 percent in 2009. The statistics are based on government surveys.
Circumcision is least practiced on the West Coast.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed in 2005 a policy statement that says the decision to perform a circumcision should be left to the parents to determine what is in the best interest of the child.
"In the case of circumcision, in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child's current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child," the AAP states.
"In the pluralistic society of the United States in which parents are afforded wide authority for determining what constitutes appropriate child-rearing and child welfare, it is legitimate for the parents to take into account cultural, religious, and ethnic traditions, in addition to medical factors, when making this choice."
The practice of circumcision is an important tradition in Jewish and Muslim communities. Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles commented on The Washington Post's On Faith forum that he finds the proposed ban "faintly ludicrous and very offensive."
"There is an undercurrent of contempt for religious belief in general that drives this measure," he stated, adding that he carries the covenant of Abraham in his flesh. "The authors think of themselves as liberal but they are actually coercive; they are believers in transcendence as well, but it is in the transcendence of their own judgment."
He disagreed with a select few imposing their beliefs on the rest of the public.
"We make scores of decisions for our children that are determinative of their lives: where to live, where to go to school, what to eat, what language to learn, what books and television shows to watch when young. Increasingly there is a cadre of people who believe they know better; that all children should be raised as they raise their own."
Hillary Clinton Warns Africa Of 'New Colonialism': Oh! Really
MUST WATCH:
Emerging Viruses: Aids & Ebola - Nature, Accident or Intentional?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-VhkR9FGvA
FIRST READ:
THE DRUG EPIDEMIC, VIRUSES, EBOLA, AND AIDS[IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000081.htm
CHRISTIANS IN AFRICA: AWAKE!
America and the American ChurchAre Not Your Friends
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000234.htm
The US was behind the Rwandan Genocide: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18540
THE THIRD WORLD AS A MODEL FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000156.htm
Testing biological weapons on Ugandan Guinea pigs: Deadly Ebola virus breaks out in Luweero(Uganda)
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/testing-biological-weapons-on-ugandan.html
LUWEERO EBOLA VICTIM FREQUENTED FOREST: OH! REALLY
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/luweero-ebola-victim-frequented-forest.html
PROCEED TO ARTICLE
Hillary Clinton Warns Africa Of 'New Colonialism'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/11/hillary-clinton-africa-new-colonialism_n_875318.html
LUSAKA, Zambia -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday warned Africa of a creeping "new colonialism" from foreign investors and governments interested only in extracting the continent's natural resources to enrich themselves and not the African people.
Clinton said that African leaders must ensure that foreign projects are sustainable and benefit all their citizens, not only elites. A day earlier, she cautioned that China's massive investments and business interests in Africa need to be closely watched so that the African people are not taken advantage of.
"It is easy, and we saw that during colonial times, it is easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave," Clinton said. "And when you leave, you don't leave much behind for the people who are there. We don't want to see a new colonialism in Africa."
Clinton said the United States didn't want foreign governments and investors to fail in Africa, but they should also give back to the local communities.
"We want them to do well, but also we want them to do good," she said.
"We don't want them to undermine good governance, we don't want them to basically deal with just the top elites, and frankly too often pay for their concessions or their opportunities to invest."
Clinton said that American development aid and infrastructure projects come with good governance conditions and that the Obama administration is interested in Africa and the African people. Their success, she said, is in the long-term interest of both the African people and the U.S.
She spoke in a pan-African television interview in the Zambian capital. Her interview followed the handover of a U.S. built pediatric hospital in Lusaka to the Zambian government.
Earlier, at the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Zambia Chamber of Commerce, Clinton laid out the U.S. strategy for helping Africa.
"We want a relationship of partnership not patronage, of sustainability, not quick fixes," she said. "We want to establish a strong foundation to attract new investment, open new businesses ... create more paychecks, and do so within the context of a positive ethic of corporate responsibility."
"We think it's essential that we have an idea going in that doing well is not in any way a contradiction of doing good," she said.
Clinton is the first secretary of state to visit Zambia since Henry Kissinger came in 1976 to lay out the Ford administration's policy for southern Africa as revolts against white minority rule in South Africa and what was then Rhodesia were intensifying.
Clinton, on the first leg of a three-nation tour of Africa, arrived in Zambia from the United Arab Emirates, where she attended an international conference on Libya. After Zambia, she heads to Tanzania and Ethiopia before returning to Washington next week.
Emerging Viruses: Aids & Ebola - Nature, Accident or Intentional?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-VhkR9FGvA
FIRST READ:
THE DRUG EPIDEMIC, VIRUSES, EBOLA, AND AIDS[IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000081.htm
CHRISTIANS IN AFRICA: AWAKE!
America and the American ChurchAre Not Your Friends
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000234.htm
The US was behind the Rwandan Genocide: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18540
THE THIRD WORLD AS A MODEL FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000156.htm
Testing biological weapons on Ugandan Guinea pigs: Deadly Ebola virus breaks out in Luweero(Uganda)
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/testing-biological-weapons-on-ugandan.html
LUWEERO EBOLA VICTIM FREQUENTED FOREST: OH! REALLY
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/luweero-ebola-victim-frequented-forest.html
PROCEED TO ARTICLE
Hillary Clinton Warns Africa Of 'New Colonialism'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/11/hillary-clinton-africa-new-colonialism_n_875318.html
LUSAKA, Zambia -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday warned Africa of a creeping "new colonialism" from foreign investors and governments interested only in extracting the continent's natural resources to enrich themselves and not the African people.
Clinton said that African leaders must ensure that foreign projects are sustainable and benefit all their citizens, not only elites. A day earlier, she cautioned that China's massive investments and business interests in Africa need to be closely watched so that the African people are not taken advantage of.
"It is easy, and we saw that during colonial times, it is easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave," Clinton said. "And when you leave, you don't leave much behind for the people who are there. We don't want to see a new colonialism in Africa."
Clinton said the United States didn't want foreign governments and investors to fail in Africa, but they should also give back to the local communities.
"We want them to do well, but also we want them to do good," she said.
"We don't want them to undermine good governance, we don't want them to basically deal with just the top elites, and frankly too often pay for their concessions or their opportunities to invest."
Clinton said that American development aid and infrastructure projects come with good governance conditions and that the Obama administration is interested in Africa and the African people. Their success, she said, is in the long-term interest of both the African people and the U.S.
She spoke in a pan-African television interview in the Zambian capital. Her interview followed the handover of a U.S. built pediatric hospital in Lusaka to the Zambian government.
Earlier, at the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Zambia Chamber of Commerce, Clinton laid out the U.S. strategy for helping Africa.
"We want a relationship of partnership not patronage, of sustainability, not quick fixes," she said. "We want to establish a strong foundation to attract new investment, open new businesses ... create more paychecks, and do so within the context of a positive ethic of corporate responsibility."
"We think it's essential that we have an idea going in that doing well is not in any way a contradiction of doing good," she said.
Clinton is the first secretary of state to visit Zambia since Henry Kissinger came in 1976 to lay out the Ford administration's policy for southern Africa as revolts against white minority rule in South Africa and what was then Rhodesia were intensifying.
Clinton, on the first leg of a three-nation tour of Africa, arrived in Zambia from the United Arab Emirates, where she attended an international conference on Libya. After Zambia, she heads to Tanzania and Ethiopia before returning to Washington next week.
Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi should fight HIV using the bible and not conjectural science
Ugandan scientists have recently concluded studies in which they have probabilistically ‘affirmed’ that Male circumcision can reduce the chances of catching HIV by 60% . Using this ‘intelligent guess’ based ‘science’, the government of Uganda is urging Ugandans to embrace this ‘gem in the trash’ .
Last week, the Ntungamo resident district commissioner, Peter Rwakimari, called upon men to go for circumcision. It was reported that men turned up in big numbers in Ntungamo to get circumcised. The church has also now come up to support government in this ‘noble’ effort of curbing HIV using a science of conjectures.
On 11-06-2011, TV news telecasts were awash with Dr.Orombi ‘s amazing gospel urging male Christians to embrace circumcision at the celebration of Mackay’s day. According to Dr. Luke Orombi, circumcision of the flesh is equivalent to baptism and therefore those who love Christ should embrace it. I wonder whether Dr.Orombi has ever critically read Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
In stead of telling Christians to be born again and hence have circumcised hearts, Dr.Orombi is implicitly telling Christians that Christ ‘s standard is too hard to live by and therefore they rather opt for a carnal standard. No doubt, Dr. Orombi’s male circumcision crusade is a license to ‘Christians’ to indulge in sexual immorality. I humbly submit that the only viable solution to curbing HIV spread is through getting born again. We need to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savoir . We must circumcise our hearts( Roman 2:29) and not our flesh. This is the true Gospel that Dr. Luke Orombi ought to preach.
Kizito Michael George
Mbarara men embrace circumcision
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/758248
Wednesday, 22nd June, 2011
By Online Reporter
Over 700 males have been circumcised in the ongoing government's program of safe male circumcision in the western Mbarara district in just less than a month.
In Mbarara district, this project is being implemented by Mulago-Mbarara Teaching Hospitals' Joint AIDS Program (MJAP).
Government introduced safe male circumcision as one of its HIV prevention strategies.
Naome Atuhaire- the MJAP's regional administrator says they have received a good turn up and the exercise is continuing.
Ministry of Health's records indicate that up to 4.2 million adults and adolescents in Uganda need to be circumcised in the next five years to prevent new HIV infections by 2025.
Rush for male circumcision in rural areas
http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/-/688342/1188514/-/uv77u8/-/index.html
Posted Saturday, June 25 2011 at 00:00
Medical male circumcision is now widely seen as a key HIV prevention tool after scientific evidence showed it could reduce the risk of infection by up to 60 percent. Many countries including Uganda are embracing it and as a result, a mobile clinic is giving men in rural areas a chance to be cut at no cost, writes Saturday Monitor’s Evelyn Lirri.
Godfrey Aganza had never considered getting circumcised. The misconceptions that came with a circumcised non-Muslim man, including being considered a covert or the alleged future risk of impotence largely discouraged him from the cut. But that has changed now.
On June 7, this year, the 18-year-old senior three student of Kayunga Secondary School, joined the long queue of other men at a mobile circumcision clinic currently stationed at Bbaale Health Centre IV in Kayunga District, 74 kilometres northeast of Kampala.
Together with his peers, they arrived at the mobile clinic as early as 8am in the morning to halfheartedly give it a try.
It was only after the operation that Mr Aganza felt satisfied with the decision that he had made.
“I am happy I have done it now. It wasn’t painful and I feel okay,” he said moments after coming out of the “operating room”- a large, well equipped truck with the essential tools needed to carry out an operation.
“I have also been told of the health benefits of being circumcised and of course a circumcised man has a lower chance of contracting HIV/Aids,”he added.
Mr Anganza is not alone. I met Aaron Lubega, a 30-year-old police officer five days after he had been circumcised. When he first arrived at the mobile clinic, he did not know what to expect. Like all the other men who come to the mobile clinic, he was taken through a session of counseling so that he could fully understand the health benefits of circumcision.
Mr Lubega had heard about the free circumcision services from fellow residents in Kayunga town, many of who have already gone through the surgical procedure. “At the trading centre, the men talked about the mobile clinic and the benefits of being circumcised that’s why I came here to first hear from the health workers and then get circumcised myself,”he said.
Simple task
Mr Lubega, a single father of one, said the process was so simple and painless that shortly after being circumcised, he managed to ride a motorcycle on a 10km-long journey. In this remote region, residents have embraced circumcision almost 100 per cent.
The free medical male circumcision programme which has been rolled out in the districts of Kayunga and Mukono is being implemented by the Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP) in partnership with local governments. It’s funded through the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.
Mark Breda, a programme manager at MUWRP, said since the initiative was rolled out in February, close to 7,000 men have been circumcised in the various sub counties in Kayunga and Mukono districts
“We shall continue with the mobile clinic. The demand is nowhere close to being met,” said Mr Breda.
The target, he says, is to have to have up to 4.5 million men circumcised over the next five years across the various sites.
Mr Peter Masaba is the surgeon who has been carrying out the operation.He is also the deputy prevention coordinator at MUWRP. According to him, the demand for circumcision has been very high, with an average of 25 to 35 men circumcised every day. “The minimum age is usually 15 and we target those who are most at risk and sexually active,” Mr Masaba said.
He explains that the surgical procedure takes between 15 and 25 minutes to be carried out. He said circumcised men are also required to abstain from sex for at least 42 days to allow the wound to heal without developing infections. Those who have been circumcised are also usually asked to return to the clinic for review to ensure they are safe from any complications. But not every man who comes to the clinic gets circumcised. “Some people come with other medical conditions which makes it hard for us to operate them immediately. We usually identify such cases and set a different date for them to be circumcised,”said Mr Masaba.
On the other hand, despite the pre-circumcision counseling, not all men who come for the services fully understand why they should go through the procedure. Mr Masaba said their clients are taken through the basics of circumcision before testing their understanding.
Those who fail to answer simple questions are told to return home, read and understand the issue and then set another date for the operation. They are usually taken though the same process to make sure they understand fully why they should be circumcised. “But this is usually a small fraction of men. Most of them understand why they have come to be circumcised and are usually eager to have the cut,” Mr Masaba further noted.
The circumcision programme also provides free HIV counselling and testing and other services for sexually transmitted diseases. “This is where we are targeting men now because men rarely visit health facilitates. We give them information about STDs, family planning and other general health information,”said Mr Masaba.
So what is getting men rushing for circumcision? Health experts say rapid roll-out of medical circumcision is crucial to reducing the rate of spread of HIV/Aids in countries with generalised epidemics and low rates of medical circumcision.
The government officially started the free circumcision programme in September 2010 after promising results of randomised trials—in 2005 and 2007 — conducted in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa showed that medical male circumcision reduced the risk of contracting the HIV virus by up to 60 per cent.
This followed the launch of an HIV/Aids policy that officially added circumcision to the traditional ABC-abstinence, faithfulness and use of condom approach. The safe circumcision policy aims at providing circumcision to 40 per cent of Ugandan men aged 14-49 over a five year period. Currently only 25 per cent of Ugandan men between the ages of 15 and 55 years are circumcised, according to the demographic and health survey.
This initiative by MUWRP is one of the ways through which this target is being realised.
The survey shows that in eastern Uganda where culturally men under go circumcision, 54.7 per cent had gone through the procedure compared to less than 10 per cent in northern Uganda. Male circumcision, according to the survey was highest among Muslims at 97 per cent and lowest among Catholics at 10 per cent.
Health experts also say men who have been circumcised have a low risk of contracting urinary tract infections and penile cancer. But officials warn that such health benefits should not excite men into leading sexually reckless lives after circumcision, stressing that it only provides partial protection. “We always tell our clients about the need to continuously practice safe sex including the use of condoms,” said Mr Masaba.
Mr Aganza is mindful of this warning. “I am fully aware about this. Being circumcised doesn’t mean I’m going to be careless with my life. I will, follow what the health workers have told me,” he said.
Aganza also want to spread the circumcision message among his fellow students.
Pros and cons of circumcision
Immediate complications: Just like any other surgery, circumcision carries a risk of bleeding, infection, swelling or problems with anaesthesia. There is risk of cutting too much flesh on the penis or cutting the urethra, plus other surgical mishaps. However, the risk reduces with the experience of the surgeon and the facility used.
Long-term complications:
Issues can arise from the wound healing process and may include meatal stenosis whereby the opening of the urethra is narrowed; scar tissue could strangulate the glans penis causing urine retention, slowing of venous flow as well as painful erections.
Benefits
* HIV: Extensive research has shown medical benefits of male circumcision in protecting against HIV spread. Research done in Uganda supported other researches in the world and at present, WHO and UNAIDS recommend mass male circumcision that the ministry of Health is already implementing.
It has been shown to provide up to 60 per cent protection but should be combined with other methods for comprehensive protection.
* Cervical cancer: Circumcision has also been shown to reduce risk of cancer of the cervix in spouses of circumcised men. It’s believed that the smegma, a whitish discharge that forms under the foreskin, and the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) combine to cause this cancer.
* Penile cancer: Cancer of the penis rates are lower among circumcised men because of reduced HPV infection.
Hygiene and local infections: Infections of the glans penis as well as ease of hygiene are reduced after circumcision.
Other issues like failure to retract the foreskin especially in children become history.
* Sexual benefits: Reports show reduced sensitivity of glans penis after circumcision helps men hold their erection longer and in due course satisfy their women sexually. The hygiene also helps couples experiment with several sexual options.
Last week, the Ntungamo resident district commissioner, Peter Rwakimari, called upon men to go for circumcision. It was reported that men turned up in big numbers in Ntungamo to get circumcised. The church has also now come up to support government in this ‘noble’ effort of curbing HIV using a science of conjectures.
On 11-06-2011, TV news telecasts were awash with Dr.Orombi ‘s amazing gospel urging male Christians to embrace circumcision at the celebration of Mackay’s day. According to Dr. Luke Orombi, circumcision of the flesh is equivalent to baptism and therefore those who love Christ should embrace it. I wonder whether Dr.Orombi has ever critically read Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
In stead of telling Christians to be born again and hence have circumcised hearts, Dr.Orombi is implicitly telling Christians that Christ ‘s standard is too hard to live by and therefore they rather opt for a carnal standard. No doubt, Dr. Orombi’s male circumcision crusade is a license to ‘Christians’ to indulge in sexual immorality. I humbly submit that the only viable solution to curbing HIV spread is through getting born again. We need to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savoir . We must circumcise our hearts( Roman 2:29) and not our flesh. This is the true Gospel that Dr. Luke Orombi ought to preach.
Kizito Michael George
Mbarara men embrace circumcision
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/758248
Wednesday, 22nd June, 2011
By Online Reporter
Over 700 males have been circumcised in the ongoing government's program of safe male circumcision in the western Mbarara district in just less than a month.
In Mbarara district, this project is being implemented by Mulago-Mbarara Teaching Hospitals' Joint AIDS Program (MJAP).
Government introduced safe male circumcision as one of its HIV prevention strategies.
Naome Atuhaire- the MJAP's regional administrator says they have received a good turn up and the exercise is continuing.
Ministry of Health's records indicate that up to 4.2 million adults and adolescents in Uganda need to be circumcised in the next five years to prevent new HIV infections by 2025.
Rush for male circumcision in rural areas
http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/-/688342/1188514/-/uv77u8/-/index.html
Posted Saturday, June 25 2011 at 00:00
Medical male circumcision is now widely seen as a key HIV prevention tool after scientific evidence showed it could reduce the risk of infection by up to 60 percent. Many countries including Uganda are embracing it and as a result, a mobile clinic is giving men in rural areas a chance to be cut at no cost, writes Saturday Monitor’s Evelyn Lirri.
Godfrey Aganza had never considered getting circumcised. The misconceptions that came with a circumcised non-Muslim man, including being considered a covert or the alleged future risk of impotence largely discouraged him from the cut. But that has changed now.
On June 7, this year, the 18-year-old senior three student of Kayunga Secondary School, joined the long queue of other men at a mobile circumcision clinic currently stationed at Bbaale Health Centre IV in Kayunga District, 74 kilometres northeast of Kampala.
Together with his peers, they arrived at the mobile clinic as early as 8am in the morning to halfheartedly give it a try.
It was only after the operation that Mr Aganza felt satisfied with the decision that he had made.
“I am happy I have done it now. It wasn’t painful and I feel okay,” he said moments after coming out of the “operating room”- a large, well equipped truck with the essential tools needed to carry out an operation.
“I have also been told of the health benefits of being circumcised and of course a circumcised man has a lower chance of contracting HIV/Aids,”he added.
Mr Anganza is not alone. I met Aaron Lubega, a 30-year-old police officer five days after he had been circumcised. When he first arrived at the mobile clinic, he did not know what to expect. Like all the other men who come to the mobile clinic, he was taken through a session of counseling so that he could fully understand the health benefits of circumcision.
Mr Lubega had heard about the free circumcision services from fellow residents in Kayunga town, many of who have already gone through the surgical procedure. “At the trading centre, the men talked about the mobile clinic and the benefits of being circumcised that’s why I came here to first hear from the health workers and then get circumcised myself,”he said.
Simple task
Mr Lubega, a single father of one, said the process was so simple and painless that shortly after being circumcised, he managed to ride a motorcycle on a 10km-long journey. In this remote region, residents have embraced circumcision almost 100 per cent.
The free medical male circumcision programme which has been rolled out in the districts of Kayunga and Mukono is being implemented by the Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP) in partnership with local governments. It’s funded through the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.
Mark Breda, a programme manager at MUWRP, said since the initiative was rolled out in February, close to 7,000 men have been circumcised in the various sub counties in Kayunga and Mukono districts
“We shall continue with the mobile clinic. The demand is nowhere close to being met,” said Mr Breda.
The target, he says, is to have to have up to 4.5 million men circumcised over the next five years across the various sites.
Mr Peter Masaba is the surgeon who has been carrying out the operation.He is also the deputy prevention coordinator at MUWRP. According to him, the demand for circumcision has been very high, with an average of 25 to 35 men circumcised every day. “The minimum age is usually 15 and we target those who are most at risk and sexually active,” Mr Masaba said.
He explains that the surgical procedure takes between 15 and 25 minutes to be carried out. He said circumcised men are also required to abstain from sex for at least 42 days to allow the wound to heal without developing infections. Those who have been circumcised are also usually asked to return to the clinic for review to ensure they are safe from any complications. But not every man who comes to the clinic gets circumcised. “Some people come with other medical conditions which makes it hard for us to operate them immediately. We usually identify such cases and set a different date for them to be circumcised,”said Mr Masaba.
On the other hand, despite the pre-circumcision counseling, not all men who come for the services fully understand why they should go through the procedure. Mr Masaba said their clients are taken through the basics of circumcision before testing their understanding.
Those who fail to answer simple questions are told to return home, read and understand the issue and then set another date for the operation. They are usually taken though the same process to make sure they understand fully why they should be circumcised. “But this is usually a small fraction of men. Most of them understand why they have come to be circumcised and are usually eager to have the cut,” Mr Masaba further noted.
The circumcision programme also provides free HIV counselling and testing and other services for sexually transmitted diseases. “This is where we are targeting men now because men rarely visit health facilitates. We give them information about STDs, family planning and other general health information,”said Mr Masaba.
So what is getting men rushing for circumcision? Health experts say rapid roll-out of medical circumcision is crucial to reducing the rate of spread of HIV/Aids in countries with generalised epidemics and low rates of medical circumcision.
The government officially started the free circumcision programme in September 2010 after promising results of randomised trials—in 2005 and 2007 — conducted in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa showed that medical male circumcision reduced the risk of contracting the HIV virus by up to 60 per cent.
This followed the launch of an HIV/Aids policy that officially added circumcision to the traditional ABC-abstinence, faithfulness and use of condom approach. The safe circumcision policy aims at providing circumcision to 40 per cent of Ugandan men aged 14-49 over a five year period. Currently only 25 per cent of Ugandan men between the ages of 15 and 55 years are circumcised, according to the demographic and health survey.
This initiative by MUWRP is one of the ways through which this target is being realised.
The survey shows that in eastern Uganda where culturally men under go circumcision, 54.7 per cent had gone through the procedure compared to less than 10 per cent in northern Uganda. Male circumcision, according to the survey was highest among Muslims at 97 per cent and lowest among Catholics at 10 per cent.
Health experts also say men who have been circumcised have a low risk of contracting urinary tract infections and penile cancer. But officials warn that such health benefits should not excite men into leading sexually reckless lives after circumcision, stressing that it only provides partial protection. “We always tell our clients about the need to continuously practice safe sex including the use of condoms,” said Mr Masaba.
Mr Aganza is mindful of this warning. “I am fully aware about this. Being circumcised doesn’t mean I’m going to be careless with my life. I will, follow what the health workers have told me,” he said.
Aganza also want to spread the circumcision message among his fellow students.
Pros and cons of circumcision
Immediate complications: Just like any other surgery, circumcision carries a risk of bleeding, infection, swelling or problems with anaesthesia. There is risk of cutting too much flesh on the penis or cutting the urethra, plus other surgical mishaps. However, the risk reduces with the experience of the surgeon and the facility used.
Long-term complications:
Issues can arise from the wound healing process and may include meatal stenosis whereby the opening of the urethra is narrowed; scar tissue could strangulate the glans penis causing urine retention, slowing of venous flow as well as painful erections.
Benefits
* HIV: Extensive research has shown medical benefits of male circumcision in protecting against HIV spread. Research done in Uganda supported other researches in the world and at present, WHO and UNAIDS recommend mass male circumcision that the ministry of Health is already implementing.
It has been shown to provide up to 60 per cent protection but should be combined with other methods for comprehensive protection.
* Cervical cancer: Circumcision has also been shown to reduce risk of cancer of the cervix in spouses of circumcised men. It’s believed that the smegma, a whitish discharge that forms under the foreskin, and the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) combine to cause this cancer.
* Penile cancer: Cancer of the penis rates are lower among circumcised men because of reduced HPV infection.
Hygiene and local infections: Infections of the glans penis as well as ease of hygiene are reduced after circumcision.
Other issues like failure to retract the foreskin especially in children become history.
* Sexual benefits: Reports show reduced sensitivity of glans penis after circumcision helps men hold their erection longer and in due course satisfy their women sexually. The hygiene also helps couples experiment with several sexual options.
Circumcision is the same as baptism :Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi urges Christians to embrace Male circumcision
On 11-06-2011, UBC and NBS news telecasts among others were awash with Dr.Orombi ‘s amazing gospel urging male Christians to embrace circumcision at the celebration of Mackay’s day. According to Dr. Luke Orombi, Circumcision of the flesh is equivalent to Baptism and therefore those who love Christ should embrace it. Can you Imagine.??? There is a so called study that was carried OUT in Uganda recently on male circumcision and HIV spread. According to this study men who are circumcised have a 60% chance of not catching HIV aids. Using this junk science , government is luring Ugandan men to get circumcised. Even ecumenists like Dr.Luke Orombi have joined the crusade of government. This junk science is telling Ugandans to continue in sexual immorality as long they are circumcised.
The fact that a man of God can license ‘Christians’ to indulge in sexual immorality really baffles me. Dr. Orombi really believes that male circumcision can curb HIV/Aids. I thought that such ‘a man of God should know better’. In stead of telling Christians to be born again and hence have circumcised hearts, Dr.Orombi is implicitly telling them that Christ ‘s standard is too hard to live by. Such is the curse of religion and Ecumenism in Uganda.
I humbly submit that the only solution to curbing HIV spread is through getting born again. We need to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savoir . We must circumcise our hearts and not our flesh.
SEE RELATED STORIES
Ntungamo men embrace circumcision /span>
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/757172
Friday, 10th June, 2011
By Abdulkarim Ssengendo
THE Ntungamo resident district commissioner, Peter Rwakimari, has called upon men to go for circumcision.
He, however, warned them against thinking that circumcision removed all chances of contracting HIV.
“It is not 100% sure, so do not be reckless, thinking that you will not catch the disease,” Rwakimari said.
He advised that circumcision be done alongside other preventive methods like abstinence, being faithful to one partner or using condoms.
He advocated the revival of African cultural behaviour and taboos which encouraged chastity and faithfulness, while launching the STAR-SW (Strengthening TB and HIV/AIDS Response) project on Tuesday, at Kitwe health centre IV.
Dr. Kenya Mugisha, the Director General of health services, explained that a circumcised person has only a 60% chance of not catching the disease.
The Ntungamo district chairman, Denis Singahakye, urged women to convince their husband to embrace the programme. At the function, 118 men were circumcised and 400 registered for the procedure. Another 500 people were counselled and tested for HIV.
Cyril Kashaija, 37, a teacher at Kitwe Primary School, with one wife and five children, was circumcised on May 24.
He testified that circumcision has many advantages like better hygiene and that it also helps reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases once it is combined with other preventive methods.
“People were surprised when I walked out after the surgery with a smile on my face. They expected to see blood, but there wasn’t a single drop! I was feeling fine, I was laughing and talking. In fact, my experience was eye-opener for the guys who were anxious about it,” he said.
The five-year STAR-SW project funded by USAID and is being implemented by the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation, will cover 13 districts.
Orombi to lead Christians’ council
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/757340
Sunday, 12th June, 2011
THE Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi, has taken over the leadership of the Uganda Joint Christian Council.
The leadership of the council is rotational. The body brings together three member churches in the country. These are the Church of Uganda, the Roman Catholic Church and the Uganda Orthodox Church.
Orombi takes over from Orthodox leader Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga, who has been at the helm for nine years.
Orombi received the instruments of power which included the Bible, a flag and the constitution of the organisation from Lwanga at the Pope Paul Memorial Centre in Kampala on Sunday.
Orombi pledged to work with the secretariat to promote unity of the churches.
The handover was witnessed by over 300 delegates from the member churches across the country.
The delegates, who had been attending a two-day general assembly, passed a resolution urging church leaders to step up the fight against corruption.
Reading a statement from the meeting, Orombi said corruption is extremely detrimental to the development of the country.
The congregation advised church leaders to speak with one voice on issues concerning social injustice, welfare and development of Ugandans.
The group also urged the Government to respect human rights and the rule of law.
The Assembly called upon the Government to ensure service delivery and sustainable livelihood in Karamoja, which has lagged behind other regions in Uganda.
The delegates resolved to uplift the standard of families living in abject poverty and provide anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Swedish ambassador, Anders Johnson, told the religious leaders that it was the responsibility of all Ugandans to develop good tenets of democracy to foster the country towards economic development.
The fact that a man of God can license ‘Christians’ to indulge in sexual immorality really baffles me. Dr. Orombi really believes that male circumcision can curb HIV/Aids. I thought that such ‘a man of God should know better’. In stead of telling Christians to be born again and hence have circumcised hearts, Dr.Orombi is implicitly telling them that Christ ‘s standard is too hard to live by. Such is the curse of religion and Ecumenism in Uganda.
I humbly submit that the only solution to curbing HIV spread is through getting born again. We need to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savoir . We must circumcise our hearts and not our flesh.
SEE RELATED STORIES
Ntungamo men embrace circumcision /span>
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/757172
Friday, 10th June, 2011
By Abdulkarim Ssengendo
THE Ntungamo resident district commissioner, Peter Rwakimari, has called upon men to go for circumcision.
He, however, warned them against thinking that circumcision removed all chances of contracting HIV.
“It is not 100% sure, so do not be reckless, thinking that you will not catch the disease,” Rwakimari said.
He advised that circumcision be done alongside other preventive methods like abstinence, being faithful to one partner or using condoms.
He advocated the revival of African cultural behaviour and taboos which encouraged chastity and faithfulness, while launching the STAR-SW (Strengthening TB and HIV/AIDS Response) project on Tuesday, at Kitwe health centre IV.
Dr. Kenya Mugisha, the Director General of health services, explained that a circumcised person has only a 60% chance of not catching the disease.
The Ntungamo district chairman, Denis Singahakye, urged women to convince their husband to embrace the programme. At the function, 118 men were circumcised and 400 registered for the procedure. Another 500 people were counselled and tested for HIV.
Cyril Kashaija, 37, a teacher at Kitwe Primary School, with one wife and five children, was circumcised on May 24.
He testified that circumcision has many advantages like better hygiene and that it also helps reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases once it is combined with other preventive methods.
“People were surprised when I walked out after the surgery with a smile on my face. They expected to see blood, but there wasn’t a single drop! I was feeling fine, I was laughing and talking. In fact, my experience was eye-opener for the guys who were anxious about it,” he said.
The five-year STAR-SW project funded by USAID and is being implemented by the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation, will cover 13 districts.
Orombi to lead Christians’ council
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/757340
Sunday, 12th June, 2011
THE Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi, has taken over the leadership of the Uganda Joint Christian Council.
The leadership of the council is rotational. The body brings together three member churches in the country. These are the Church of Uganda, the Roman Catholic Church and the Uganda Orthodox Church.
Orombi takes over from Orthodox leader Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga, who has been at the helm for nine years.
Orombi received the instruments of power which included the Bible, a flag and the constitution of the organisation from Lwanga at the Pope Paul Memorial Centre in Kampala on Sunday.
Orombi pledged to work with the secretariat to promote unity of the churches.
The handover was witnessed by over 300 delegates from the member churches across the country.
The delegates, who had been attending a two-day general assembly, passed a resolution urging church leaders to step up the fight against corruption.
Reading a statement from the meeting, Orombi said corruption is extremely detrimental to the development of the country.
The congregation advised church leaders to speak with one voice on issues concerning social injustice, welfare and development of Ugandans.
The group also urged the Government to respect human rights and the rule of law.
The Assembly called upon the Government to ensure service delivery and sustainable livelihood in Karamoja, which has lagged behind other regions in Uganda.
The delegates resolved to uplift the standard of families living in abject poverty and provide anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Swedish ambassador, Anders Johnson, told the religious leaders that it was the responsibility of all Ugandans to develop good tenets of democracy to foster the country towards economic development.
Government Medical report exonerates Kayanja
Note: The story below is silent about the fact that this doctor was quizzed to tell court whether he would accurately tell if the boys had been sodomised a month back. The doctors said he could not tell.
Medical report exonerates Kayanja
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/219/757279
Sunday, 12th June, 2011
By Adante Okanya
A Police doctor has told court that an examination carried out on Pastor Robert Kayanja and the four alleged victims detected no signs that Kayanja was involved in sodomy.
Moses Byaruhanga, 37, was last Tuesday testifying at Buganda Road Court in the case, where six people are accused of conspiring to tarnish Kayanja’s reputation.
Trial is being presided over by Grade One Magistrate Patrick Wekesa.
“There was no evidence of fresh or recent homosexuality activity,” Byaruhanga said.
The accused are pastors Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Ministries, Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church, Michael Kyazze and Robert Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre.
Others accused are State House employee Dorothy Kyomuhendo and local musician David Mukalazi.
The court was attended by defence lawyers Paul Rutisya, Kato Sekabanja, Isaac Walukagga, and Edward Akankwasa.
Byaruhanga said Kayanja was examined on June 1, 2009 together with Ivan Akansiima and Samson Mukisa. Robson Matovu was examined on May 29, 2009.
Byaruhanga further said his examination detected “no abnormality on the alleged victims.”
Prosecution led by Stephen Asaba alleges that in 2008 at various places within Kampala, the accused “conspired to cause injury to the personality and reputation” of Kayanja, alleging that he was engaged in homosexuality.
Byaruhanga said the purported victims were also subjected to mental examination, which concluded that they were normal.
Medical report exonerates Kayanja
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/219/757279
Sunday, 12th June, 2011
By Adante Okanya
A Police doctor has told court that an examination carried out on Pastor Robert Kayanja and the four alleged victims detected no signs that Kayanja was involved in sodomy.
Moses Byaruhanga, 37, was last Tuesday testifying at Buganda Road Court in the case, where six people are accused of conspiring to tarnish Kayanja’s reputation.
Trial is being presided over by Grade One Magistrate Patrick Wekesa.
“There was no evidence of fresh or recent homosexuality activity,” Byaruhanga said.
The accused are pastors Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Ministries, Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church, Michael Kyazze and Robert Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre.
Others accused are State House employee Dorothy Kyomuhendo and local musician David Mukalazi.
The court was attended by defence lawyers Paul Rutisya, Kato Sekabanja, Isaac Walukagga, and Edward Akankwasa.
Byaruhanga said Kayanja was examined on June 1, 2009 together with Ivan Akansiima and Samson Mukisa. Robson Matovu was examined on May 29, 2009.
Byaruhanga further said his examination detected “no abnormality on the alleged victims.”
Prosecution led by Stephen Asaba alleges that in 2008 at various places within Kampala, the accused “conspired to cause injury to the personality and reputation” of Kayanja, alleging that he was engaged in homosexuality.
Byaruhanga said the purported victims were also subjected to mental examination, which concluded that they were normal.
Friday, 10 June 2011
Here comes the Anti-Christ : Palestinian state is an urgent need : Pope
FIRST READ :
VATICAN REPUDIATES JESUS CHRIST AS SAVIOR OF ALL MANKIND, SAYS JEWS ARE THEOLOGICALLY CORRECT IN AWAITING THEIR MESSIAH!
http://www.cuttingedge.org/News/n1683.cfm
Vatican Says Jews' Wait for Messiah Is Validated by the Old Testament
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/18/world/vatican-says-jews-wait-for-messiah-is-validated-by-the-old-testament.html
POPE JOHN PAUL II EMBRACES EVOLUTION!!
http://www.cuttingedge.org/n1034.html
Pope: Palestinian state is an urgent need
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jun-04/Pope-Palestinian-state-is-an-urgent-need.ashx#ixzz1Ownr12I7
June 04, 2011 02:01 AM Agence France Press
“Particular stress was laid on the urgent need to find a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the Vatican said in a statement after the talks.
Any resolution to the conflict will have to respect the rights of all parties including through “the attainment of the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for an independent state,” the statement added.
“It was thus reiterated that soon the State of Israel and the Palestinian State must live in security, at peace with their neighbors and within internationally recognized borders,” it continued.
Also Friday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe concluded his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by claiming that the proposed Middle East peace conference in Paris next month had “a chance” of taking place.
Juppe met with Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Tzipi Livni before leaving Friday.
“I have read in the press that the Israeli government is studying our proposal, so there is no barrier,” he said after meeting Livni.
After meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah Thursday, Juppe called the current stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians “untenable.”
Fayyad welcomed the idea of a peace conference but Israel has yet to make a formal response.
Juppe is to head to the United States next week to promote France’s plan, which has so far drawn a non-committal response from Washington.
Earlier Friday in Jerusalem Juppe met the parents of a Palestinian with French nationality who has been in an Israeli jail for six years over a plot to kill a right-wing Israeli rabbi.
Salah Hamuri, 26, was arrested in March 2005 on charges of conspiring with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
The rare gesture by France’s top diplomat came the day after he met the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured by Palestinian militants in June 2006.
“He assured me that in all his meetings with the Israelis, he had requested clemency for Salah but in every time they said no,” said his mother Denise Hamuri.
“He said he wanted to give us the same attention [as the Shalit family] and that he wanted to meet both families,” she added.
Hamuri was convicted in April 2008 by an Israeli military court on charges of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to seven years behind bars.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on June 04, 2011, on page 8.
Jews Affirmed in their wait for Messiah –
Vatican Affirms Torah as Scripture !
Debating the Messiah
by
Eric J. Greenberg
Courtesy of The Jewish Week http://www.thejewishweek.com
http://www.bereanpublishers.com/Cults/The%20Roman%20Catholic%20Church/Debating%20the%20Messiah.htm
The Wait Is Over: Jews' Messiah Now Kosher, Vatican affirms Jewish position; scholars scramble to decipher new doctrine.
In 1967, during the early thaw of Catholic-Jewish relations, Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg addressed a Catholic audience about the conflicting Messiah beliefs. The Orthodox rabbi noted that one difference between Jews and Catholic is whether the Messiah is coming for the first or second time. Christians believe the Messiah - a Jew from Nazareth called Jesus - came 2,000 years ago, and after dying and being resurrected, will someday return to redeem the world. Jews say the Messiah has yet to arrive - a belief that led to centuries of Christian anti-Semitism and killings of Jews who refused to accept the Christian view.
Rabbi Greenberg suggested the dispute be tabled until the Messiah arrives. When the Messiah comes, Jews and Christians "can ask him if this is his first coming or his second," finally putting the issue to rest.
But this week, the Messiah debate suddenly took center stage in Jewish-Catholic relations, in an appropriately bizarre and mysterious manner. It follows the revelation last week that the Vatican's top biblical scholars recently issued a report that for the first time in nearly 2,000 years apparently validates as legitimate the Jewish wait for the Messiah.
A 210-page document titled "The Jewish People and the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible," by the Pontifical Biblical Commission and authorized by the Vatican's top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, reportedly states that "the Jewish messianic wait is not in vain." It reportedly says Jews and Christians share their wait for the Messiah, although Jews are waiting for the first coming and Christians for the second. The new document also reportedly contains an apology to the Jewish people for anti-Semitic passages contained in the New Testament, and also stresses the continuing importance of the Torah for Christians. (AMAZING !?!)
How that declaration squares with the new "Messiah document" was a source of much speculation this week. But Fisher contended it's a major positive development. "If you put off the moment that Jews will come to recognize Jesus as the Messiah until the end of time, then we don't need to work or pray for the conversion of Jews to Christianity," he said. "God already has the salvation of Jews figured out, and they accepted it on Sinai, so they are OK."
"Jews are already with the Father," he continued. "We do not have a mission to the Jews, but only a mission with the Jews to the world. The Catholic Church will never again sanction an organization devoted to the conversion of the Jews. That is over, on doctrinal, biblical and pastoral grounds. Finito."
Signer, also a Reform rabbi said, "What's really new is the validation of the Jewish position as truth, that the Jewish waiting for the Messiah is a correct theological viewpoint. If the document says what we think, it is another very important theological step in the respect for Judaism as a living tradition."
"It's a very important, critical statement," said Rabbi Jack Bemporad, head of the Center for Interreligious Understanding. "Up until now they were saying Jews are completely and absolutely wrong and we are waiting in vain and blind to the truth."
Others were more cautious, noting continued significant differences in Messiah beliefs - particularly that Christians believe that their Messiah is Jesus who is also God, while for Jews the Messiah is not a divine being and cannot be Jesus because he died before bringing the redemption.
Rabbi James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser to the American Jewish Committee, raised several concerns. "Does the new book instruct Catholics to fully accept the fact there is not only theological space in God's universe for Jews/Judaism, but they must also affirm that the identity of long awaited Messiah, so ardently prayed for by Jews for centuries, is unknown and will remain unknown until the Messiah appears?" he asked. "That is a clear affirmation of Judaism with no theological strings attached, no Jesus waiting for Jews at the end of the theological day. If this is the book's message, then it is an important step forward on the part of the Catholic Church."
Father Pawlikowski stressed that the new document also appears to affirm the importance of the "Jewish Bible," a new term for the Vatican that he said would be highly significant if it replaces the traditional "Old Testament," which has a negative implication as being replaced by the "New Testament." "The document seems to say that Christians should never deprecate or see the Jewish Bible as inferior, which coming from major Vatican biblical scholars could have profound implications for Catholic religious and educational material," Father Pawlikowski said.
Vatican Says Jews' Wait for Messiah Is Validated by the Old Testament
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/18/world/vatican-says-jews-wait-for-messiah-is-validated-by-the-old-testament.html
By MELINDA HENNEBERGER
Published: January 18, 2002
The Vatican has issued what some Jewish scholars are calling an important document that explicitly says, ''The Jewish wait for the Messiah is not in vain.''
The scholarly work, effectively a rejection of and apology for the way some Christians have viewed the Old Testament, was signed by the pope's theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The document says Jews and Christians in fact share the wait for the Messiah, though Jews are waiting for the first coming, and Christians for the second.
''The difference consists in the fact that for us, he who will come will have the same traits of that Jesus who has already come,'' wrote Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
At least one Jewish scholar said the new document is a marked departure from ''Dominus Iesus,'' a study of the redemptive role of Jesus that was released last year in Cardinal Ratzinger's name and that fanned disputes between Catholic and Jewish scholars.
The new document also says Catholics must regard the Old Testament as ''retaining all of its value, not just as literature, but its moral value,'' said JoaquÃn Navarro-Valls, the pope's spokesman. ''You cannot say, 'Now that Jesus has come, it becomes a second-rate document.' ''
''The expectancy of the Messiah was in the Old Testament,'' he went on, ''and if the Old Testament keeps its value, then it keeps that as a value, too. It says you cannot just say all the Jews are wrong and we are right.''
Asked whether that could be taken to mean that the Messiah may or may not have come, Dr. Navarro-Valls said no. ''It means it would be wrong for a Catholic to wait for the Messiah, but not for a Jew,'' he said.
The document, the result of years of work by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, goes on to apologize for the fact that certain New Testament passages that criticize the Pharisees, for example, had been used to justify anti-Semitism.
Everything in the report is now considered part of official church doctrine, Dr. Navarro-Valls said.
The Rev. Albert Vanhoye, a Jesuit scholar who worked on the commission, said the project sees Scripture as a link between Christians and Jews, and the New Testament as a continuation of the Old, though divergent in obvious ways.
A number of Jewish scholars and leaders said they were pleased but stunned and would have to take some time to digest fully the complicated, 210-page study, published in French and Italian.
Newly Leaked Cable: Pope ‘quietly supportive’ of GMOs
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/pope-supports-gmos/
By Rady Ananda
Just released yesterday, a November 19, 2009 leaked cable indicates Pope Benedict XVI supports genetically modified foods, though he will not publicly admit it. A June 2009 cable from the US Vatican Embassy confirmed the Pontiff’s refusal to take a stance on GM foods, which was verified in December 2010 by a Vatican spokesperson. However, this latest cable tells quite a different story:
“Linking development with use of agricultural technologies (i.e., biotechnologies), Benedict stressed good governance and further infrastructure development as essential to increasing food security over the long-term. (Note: Benedict’s mention of agricultural technologies is a small but significant step towards more vocal Vatican support of biotechnologies. End Note)”
The analyst further concludes:
“While the Vatican’s message on caring for the environment is loud and clear, its message on biotechnologies is still low-profile (ref. b). Quietly supportive, the Church considers the choice of whether to embrace GMOs as a technical decision for farmers and governments.”
Providing much more analysis than the June 2009 cable, the November 2009 cable indicates strong support within the Vatican scientific community, which apparently remains unaware of the biotech industry’s penchant for suppressing science:
“The Vatican’s own scientific academy has stated that there is no evidence GMOs are harmful, and that they could indeed be part of addressing global food security. However, when individual Church leaders, for ideological reasons or ignorance, speak out against GMOs, the Vatican does not — at least not yet — feel that it is its duty to challenge them.”
Vatican proponents of GM foods may have missed several scientific reports [1] that highlight problems with GMOs. As previously reported, several times:
* GM foods have been linked to organ damage and sterility in mammals, while others correlate rising diabetes and obesity rates with GMO introduction. There’s also the question of allergic reaction to GM foods, proof of which is hidden by lack of labeling.
* GM crops (and GM forests) are genetically modified to produce or tolerate pesticides. Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, has been linked to birth defects, cancer and miscarriages in humans. Pesticides are suspected in causing or contributing to mass bee, bat and butterfly die-off, as well as a pandemic amphibian decline. Their use is also linked to 11 million acres of superweeds in the U.S.
* Further, GM crops cannot be contained. They’ve spread in nations all over the world, even becoming established in the wild.
Given such strong evidence of environmental harm, the Pope’s strong advocacy of the environment would logically include opposition to GM crops. In fact, we find the opposite.
This latest cable further confirms that globally promoting genetically modified foods is a high priority for the US State Department. As discussed in a prior piece, numerous leaked cables reveal a strong focus by embassy officials on cataloging how nations perceive GMOs, boosting GM acceptance in Africa, and even going so far as to discuss spiking food prices to spur GM acceptance in Europe. The latest cable is no different:
“Post will continue to lobby the Vatican to speak up in favor of GMOs, in the hope that a louder voice in Rome will encourage individual Church leaders elsewhere to reconsider their critical views. End Comment.”
Strong opposition within the church cites the monopoly control over food held by multinational corporations:
“The Vatican cannot force all bishops to endorse biotechnology, he said, particularly if their opposition has to do with concerns over protecting profits oflarge corporations who hold the patents for the crops, versus feeding the hungry. In the Philippines, he noted, bishops strongly protested GMOs in the past. (Note: South African Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier’s November 16 comments to a news agency that ‘Africans do not need GMOs, but water’ is another example of specific Church leaders skeptical about the potential benefits of new biotechnologies. End note.).”
Corporate control of the food supply is only one problem with biotech foods, albeit a major one. After fourteen years of commercial experience, the U.S. is fast becoming the poster child for why nations, and the Church, should reject such technology.
NOTES:
[1] See, e.g.:
GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? Summary of scientific evidence on genetically modified soy and the effects of the herbicide glyphosate, Sept. 2010
Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First Thirteen Years, The Organic Center, November 2009
Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops, Union of Concerned Scientists, April 2009
50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods by Nathan Batalion, 2000, rev. 2009
VATICAN REPUDIATES JESUS CHRIST AS SAVIOR OF ALL MANKIND, SAYS JEWS ARE THEOLOGICALLY CORRECT IN AWAITING THEIR MESSIAH!
http://www.cuttingedge.org/News/n1683.cfm
Vatican Says Jews' Wait for Messiah Is Validated by the Old Testament
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/18/world/vatican-says-jews-wait-for-messiah-is-validated-by-the-old-testament.html
POPE JOHN PAUL II EMBRACES EVOLUTION!!
http://www.cuttingedge.org/n1034.html
Pope: Palestinian state is an urgent need
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jun-04/Pope-Palestinian-state-is-an-urgent-need.ashx#ixzz1Ownr12I7
June 04, 2011 02:01 AM Agence France Press
“Particular stress was laid on the urgent need to find a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the Vatican said in a statement after the talks.
Any resolution to the conflict will have to respect the rights of all parties including through “the attainment of the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for an independent state,” the statement added.
“It was thus reiterated that soon the State of Israel and the Palestinian State must live in security, at peace with their neighbors and within internationally recognized borders,” it continued.
Also Friday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe concluded his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by claiming that the proposed Middle East peace conference in Paris next month had “a chance” of taking place.
Juppe met with Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Tzipi Livni before leaving Friday.
“I have read in the press that the Israeli government is studying our proposal, so there is no barrier,” he said after meeting Livni.
After meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah Thursday, Juppe called the current stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians “untenable.”
Fayyad welcomed the idea of a peace conference but Israel has yet to make a formal response.
Juppe is to head to the United States next week to promote France’s plan, which has so far drawn a non-committal response from Washington.
Earlier Friday in Jerusalem Juppe met the parents of a Palestinian with French nationality who has been in an Israeli jail for six years over a plot to kill a right-wing Israeli rabbi.
Salah Hamuri, 26, was arrested in March 2005 on charges of conspiring with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
The rare gesture by France’s top diplomat came the day after he met the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured by Palestinian militants in June 2006.
“He assured me that in all his meetings with the Israelis, he had requested clemency for Salah but in every time they said no,” said his mother Denise Hamuri.
“He said he wanted to give us the same attention [as the Shalit family] and that he wanted to meet both families,” she added.
Hamuri was convicted in April 2008 by an Israeli military court on charges of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to seven years behind bars.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on June 04, 2011, on page 8.
Jews Affirmed in their wait for Messiah –
Vatican Affirms Torah as Scripture !
Debating the Messiah
by
Eric J. Greenberg
Courtesy of The Jewish Week http://www.thejewishweek.com
http://www.bereanpublishers.com/Cults/The%20Roman%20Catholic%20Church/Debating%20the%20Messiah.htm
The Wait Is Over: Jews' Messiah Now Kosher, Vatican affirms Jewish position; scholars scramble to decipher new doctrine.
In 1967, during the early thaw of Catholic-Jewish relations, Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg addressed a Catholic audience about the conflicting Messiah beliefs. The Orthodox rabbi noted that one difference between Jews and Catholic is whether the Messiah is coming for the first or second time. Christians believe the Messiah - a Jew from Nazareth called Jesus - came 2,000 years ago, and after dying and being resurrected, will someday return to redeem the world. Jews say the Messiah has yet to arrive - a belief that led to centuries of Christian anti-Semitism and killings of Jews who refused to accept the Christian view.
Rabbi Greenberg suggested the dispute be tabled until the Messiah arrives. When the Messiah comes, Jews and Christians "can ask him if this is his first coming or his second," finally putting the issue to rest.
But this week, the Messiah debate suddenly took center stage in Jewish-Catholic relations, in an appropriately bizarre and mysterious manner. It follows the revelation last week that the Vatican's top biblical scholars recently issued a report that for the first time in nearly 2,000 years apparently validates as legitimate the Jewish wait for the Messiah.
A 210-page document titled "The Jewish People and the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible," by the Pontifical Biblical Commission and authorized by the Vatican's top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, reportedly states that "the Jewish messianic wait is not in vain." It reportedly says Jews and Christians share their wait for the Messiah, although Jews are waiting for the first coming and Christians for the second. The new document also reportedly contains an apology to the Jewish people for anti-Semitic passages contained in the New Testament, and also stresses the continuing importance of the Torah for Christians. (AMAZING !?!)
How that declaration squares with the new "Messiah document" was a source of much speculation this week. But Fisher contended it's a major positive development. "If you put off the moment that Jews will come to recognize Jesus as the Messiah until the end of time, then we don't need to work or pray for the conversion of Jews to Christianity," he said. "God already has the salvation of Jews figured out, and they accepted it on Sinai, so they are OK."
"Jews are already with the Father," he continued. "We do not have a mission to the Jews, but only a mission with the Jews to the world. The Catholic Church will never again sanction an organization devoted to the conversion of the Jews. That is over, on doctrinal, biblical and pastoral grounds. Finito."
Signer, also a Reform rabbi said, "What's really new is the validation of the Jewish position as truth, that the Jewish waiting for the Messiah is a correct theological viewpoint. If the document says what we think, it is another very important theological step in the respect for Judaism as a living tradition."
"It's a very important, critical statement," said Rabbi Jack Bemporad, head of the Center for Interreligious Understanding. "Up until now they were saying Jews are completely and absolutely wrong and we are waiting in vain and blind to the truth."
Others were more cautious, noting continued significant differences in Messiah beliefs - particularly that Christians believe that their Messiah is Jesus who is also God, while for Jews the Messiah is not a divine being and cannot be Jesus because he died before bringing the redemption.
Rabbi James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser to the American Jewish Committee, raised several concerns. "Does the new book instruct Catholics to fully accept the fact there is not only theological space in God's universe for Jews/Judaism, but they must also affirm that the identity of long awaited Messiah, so ardently prayed for by Jews for centuries, is unknown and will remain unknown until the Messiah appears?" he asked. "That is a clear affirmation of Judaism with no theological strings attached, no Jesus waiting for Jews at the end of the theological day. If this is the book's message, then it is an important step forward on the part of the Catholic Church."
Father Pawlikowski stressed that the new document also appears to affirm the importance of the "Jewish Bible," a new term for the Vatican that he said would be highly significant if it replaces the traditional "Old Testament," which has a negative implication as being replaced by the "New Testament." "The document seems to say that Christians should never deprecate or see the Jewish Bible as inferior, which coming from major Vatican biblical scholars could have profound implications for Catholic religious and educational material," Father Pawlikowski said.
Vatican Says Jews' Wait for Messiah Is Validated by the Old Testament
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/18/world/vatican-says-jews-wait-for-messiah-is-validated-by-the-old-testament.html
By MELINDA HENNEBERGER
Published: January 18, 2002
The Vatican has issued what some Jewish scholars are calling an important document that explicitly says, ''The Jewish wait for the Messiah is not in vain.''
The scholarly work, effectively a rejection of and apology for the way some Christians have viewed the Old Testament, was signed by the pope's theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The document says Jews and Christians in fact share the wait for the Messiah, though Jews are waiting for the first coming, and Christians for the second.
''The difference consists in the fact that for us, he who will come will have the same traits of that Jesus who has already come,'' wrote Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
At least one Jewish scholar said the new document is a marked departure from ''Dominus Iesus,'' a study of the redemptive role of Jesus that was released last year in Cardinal Ratzinger's name and that fanned disputes between Catholic and Jewish scholars.
The new document also says Catholics must regard the Old Testament as ''retaining all of its value, not just as literature, but its moral value,'' said JoaquÃn Navarro-Valls, the pope's spokesman. ''You cannot say, 'Now that Jesus has come, it becomes a second-rate document.' ''
''The expectancy of the Messiah was in the Old Testament,'' he went on, ''and if the Old Testament keeps its value, then it keeps that as a value, too. It says you cannot just say all the Jews are wrong and we are right.''
Asked whether that could be taken to mean that the Messiah may or may not have come, Dr. Navarro-Valls said no. ''It means it would be wrong for a Catholic to wait for the Messiah, but not for a Jew,'' he said.
The document, the result of years of work by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, goes on to apologize for the fact that certain New Testament passages that criticize the Pharisees, for example, had been used to justify anti-Semitism.
Everything in the report is now considered part of official church doctrine, Dr. Navarro-Valls said.
The Rev. Albert Vanhoye, a Jesuit scholar who worked on the commission, said the project sees Scripture as a link between Christians and Jews, and the New Testament as a continuation of the Old, though divergent in obvious ways.
A number of Jewish scholars and leaders said they were pleased but stunned and would have to take some time to digest fully the complicated, 210-page study, published in French and Italian.
Newly Leaked Cable: Pope ‘quietly supportive’ of GMOs
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/pope-supports-gmos/
By Rady Ananda
Just released yesterday, a November 19, 2009 leaked cable indicates Pope Benedict XVI supports genetically modified foods, though he will not publicly admit it. A June 2009 cable from the US Vatican Embassy confirmed the Pontiff’s refusal to take a stance on GM foods, which was verified in December 2010 by a Vatican spokesperson. However, this latest cable tells quite a different story:
“Linking development with use of agricultural technologies (i.e., biotechnologies), Benedict stressed good governance and further infrastructure development as essential to increasing food security over the long-term. (Note: Benedict’s mention of agricultural technologies is a small but significant step towards more vocal Vatican support of biotechnologies. End Note)”
The analyst further concludes:
“While the Vatican’s message on caring for the environment is loud and clear, its message on biotechnologies is still low-profile (ref. b). Quietly supportive, the Church considers the choice of whether to embrace GMOs as a technical decision for farmers and governments.”
Providing much more analysis than the June 2009 cable, the November 2009 cable indicates strong support within the Vatican scientific community, which apparently remains unaware of the biotech industry’s penchant for suppressing science:
“The Vatican’s own scientific academy has stated that there is no evidence GMOs are harmful, and that they could indeed be part of addressing global food security. However, when individual Church leaders, for ideological reasons or ignorance, speak out against GMOs, the Vatican does not — at least not yet — feel that it is its duty to challenge them.”
Vatican proponents of GM foods may have missed several scientific reports [1] that highlight problems with GMOs. As previously reported, several times:
* GM foods have been linked to organ damage and sterility in mammals, while others correlate rising diabetes and obesity rates with GMO introduction. There’s also the question of allergic reaction to GM foods, proof of which is hidden by lack of labeling.
* GM crops (and GM forests) are genetically modified to produce or tolerate pesticides. Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, has been linked to birth defects, cancer and miscarriages in humans. Pesticides are suspected in causing or contributing to mass bee, bat and butterfly die-off, as well as a pandemic amphibian decline. Their use is also linked to 11 million acres of superweeds in the U.S.
* Further, GM crops cannot be contained. They’ve spread in nations all over the world, even becoming established in the wild.
Given such strong evidence of environmental harm, the Pope’s strong advocacy of the environment would logically include opposition to GM crops. In fact, we find the opposite.
This latest cable further confirms that globally promoting genetically modified foods is a high priority for the US State Department. As discussed in a prior piece, numerous leaked cables reveal a strong focus by embassy officials on cataloging how nations perceive GMOs, boosting GM acceptance in Africa, and even going so far as to discuss spiking food prices to spur GM acceptance in Europe. The latest cable is no different:
“Post will continue to lobby the Vatican to speak up in favor of GMOs, in the hope that a louder voice in Rome will encourage individual Church leaders elsewhere to reconsider their critical views. End Comment.”
Strong opposition within the church cites the monopoly control over food held by multinational corporations:
“The Vatican cannot force all bishops to endorse biotechnology, he said, particularly if their opposition has to do with concerns over protecting profits oflarge corporations who hold the patents for the crops, versus feeding the hungry. In the Philippines, he noted, bishops strongly protested GMOs in the past. (Note: South African Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier’s November 16 comments to a news agency that ‘Africans do not need GMOs, but water’ is another example of specific Church leaders skeptical about the potential benefits of new biotechnologies. End note.).”
Corporate control of the food supply is only one problem with biotech foods, albeit a major one. After fourteen years of commercial experience, the U.S. is fast becoming the poster child for why nations, and the Church, should reject such technology.
NOTES:
[1] See, e.g.:
GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? Summary of scientific evidence on genetically modified soy and the effects of the herbicide glyphosate, Sept. 2010
Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First Thirteen Years, The Organic Center, November 2009
Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops, Union of Concerned Scientists, April 2009
50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods by Nathan Batalion, 2000, rev. 2009
Creflo Dollar Defends Eddie Long; Rebukes Unforgiving Followers
Creflo Dollar Defends Eddie Long; Rebukes Unforgiving Followers
http://www.christianpost.com/news/creflo-dollar-defends-eddie-long-rebukes-unforgiving-followers-51024/
By Audrey Barrick | Christian Post Reporter
Creflo Dollar recently came out in support of his fellow preacher friend Eddie Long and rebuked those who left Long's church, calling them hypocrites.
"I don't know what is with the church. When you have a wreck, you expect for God to forgive you and everybody else," Dollar said as he addressed his 30,000-strong congregation last weekend.
"Don't let the preacher have a wreck now. Then you become self-righteous and you become judgmental and you're going to leave the preacher for his wreck when you [are the one who had] more wrecks."
Dollar leads World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga., located less than an hour's drive away from Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia.
Both churches are among the largest in the country and draw mainly African-American attendees. Both preachers also subscribe to the controversial prosperity gospel, or the teaching that God wants to bless His followers to be rich both spiritually and materially.
Long just came out of a settlement with four young men who had accused the well-known preacher of abusing his spiritual authority by lavishing them with gifts and coercing them into sexual acts during overnight trips. The men, who were teens at the time the alleged acts took place, filed lawsuits last year. A settlement was reached out of court in May.
The New Birth pastor, who is married and has four children, has denied the allegations that he seduced the men and said there was no sexual contact. He did, however, admit that he gave the young men gifts, helped them financially and took them on trips.
He also defended himself before his congregation last year, saying he was not the man that the four accusers were portraying him as.
Though Long has been widely supported by his congregation through the ordeal, several recent reports indicate that many have left the megachurch.
But for those who were looking to settle at the nearby World Changers Church, Dollar had some harsh words for them: "I don't want you here."
"If you ... from that church that you know I'm talking about, you trying to join here, I don't want you to join here. You need to go and join where you supposed to be," Dollar said Sunday.
"Look at how you handled it. That's the hypocrisy of the whole thing; like you was flawless."
Though he didn't name names during his lengthy sermon, it was apparent Dollar was speaking about Long and New Birth.
"That preacher's still anointed to do what he was called to. He just had a wreck," Dollar stated. "The blood (of Jesus Christ) will take care of his issue just like it will take care of yours. And I just can't believe that people would leave their preacher because he had a wreck, instead of praying for him!"
"That pastor, he's loved them and he's taken care of them, given to them ... OK, so he had a wreck. You have some wrecks. I'm thinking 'man, the mercy of God showed on you but you couldn't show it to the preacher?'"
Earlier in his sermon, he spoke of believers who sin and a lot of times, it being like a car accident – or unplanned.
God's people are called to live holy lives and God's will is not for Christians to fall into sin, he stressed. Yet Christians are still in the flesh, live in a world that is hostile to the Gospel, and face daily temptations from the devil, Dollar said.
But he stressed to the congregation that if they get into a wreck, they have insurance – the blood of Jesus. He clarified at the same time that the insurance is to cover accidents and not lifestyles.
Addressing Long's case, without naming names, Dollar defended his "friend" and "brother in the Lord," saying "he's still going to go to heaven; he's cleansed; he's alright."
He also suggested that these kinds of "wrecks" will go away with time.
But one former attendee of New Birth doesn't believe Long should be let off or forgiven that easily.
Roland Martin, a CNN political contributor who attended the megachurch for three months in 2000, said Long carries a greater responsibility as a preacher.
"[W]hen you are a pastor who has preached against gay marriage and homosexuality, who has openly talked about the covenant between a husband and wife, who has talked about the importance of men leading their families as strong men of faith, there is an expectation on you that is greater than the average man," said Martin earlier this month.
Disagreeing with Long's decision to settle the matter privately, Martin commented, "He is someone who thousands follow, and they should hear the truth, and nothing but the truth, from Long."
"I know all about forgiveness. It is one of the tenants of being a Christian. But I am not to forgive foolishly. If Long wants forgiveness, he needs to be open in discussing what really happened – or didn't happen.
"[T]here is no way I can sit here and talk about the righteousness of ministers of the gospel (my wife is an ordained minister) and make excuses for Long or any other pastor in a similar situation."
http://www.christianpost.com/news/creflo-dollar-defends-eddie-long-rebukes-unforgiving-followers-51024/
By Audrey Barrick | Christian Post Reporter
Creflo Dollar recently came out in support of his fellow preacher friend Eddie Long and rebuked those who left Long's church, calling them hypocrites.
"I don't know what is with the church. When you have a wreck, you expect for God to forgive you and everybody else," Dollar said as he addressed his 30,000-strong congregation last weekend.
"Don't let the preacher have a wreck now. Then you become self-righteous and you become judgmental and you're going to leave the preacher for his wreck when you [are the one who had] more wrecks."
Dollar leads World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga., located less than an hour's drive away from Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia.
Both churches are among the largest in the country and draw mainly African-American attendees. Both preachers also subscribe to the controversial prosperity gospel, or the teaching that God wants to bless His followers to be rich both spiritually and materially.
Long just came out of a settlement with four young men who had accused the well-known preacher of abusing his spiritual authority by lavishing them with gifts and coercing them into sexual acts during overnight trips. The men, who were teens at the time the alleged acts took place, filed lawsuits last year. A settlement was reached out of court in May.
The New Birth pastor, who is married and has four children, has denied the allegations that he seduced the men and said there was no sexual contact. He did, however, admit that he gave the young men gifts, helped them financially and took them on trips.
He also defended himself before his congregation last year, saying he was not the man that the four accusers were portraying him as.
Though Long has been widely supported by his congregation through the ordeal, several recent reports indicate that many have left the megachurch.
But for those who were looking to settle at the nearby World Changers Church, Dollar had some harsh words for them: "I don't want you here."
"If you ... from that church that you know I'm talking about, you trying to join here, I don't want you to join here. You need to go and join where you supposed to be," Dollar said Sunday.
"Look at how you handled it. That's the hypocrisy of the whole thing; like you was flawless."
Though he didn't name names during his lengthy sermon, it was apparent Dollar was speaking about Long and New Birth.
"That preacher's still anointed to do what he was called to. He just had a wreck," Dollar stated. "The blood (of Jesus Christ) will take care of his issue just like it will take care of yours. And I just can't believe that people would leave their preacher because he had a wreck, instead of praying for him!"
"That pastor, he's loved them and he's taken care of them, given to them ... OK, so he had a wreck. You have some wrecks. I'm thinking 'man, the mercy of God showed on you but you couldn't show it to the preacher?'"
Earlier in his sermon, he spoke of believers who sin and a lot of times, it being like a car accident – or unplanned.
God's people are called to live holy lives and God's will is not for Christians to fall into sin, he stressed. Yet Christians are still in the flesh, live in a world that is hostile to the Gospel, and face daily temptations from the devil, Dollar said.
But he stressed to the congregation that if they get into a wreck, they have insurance – the blood of Jesus. He clarified at the same time that the insurance is to cover accidents and not lifestyles.
Addressing Long's case, without naming names, Dollar defended his "friend" and "brother in the Lord," saying "he's still going to go to heaven; he's cleansed; he's alright."
He also suggested that these kinds of "wrecks" will go away with time.
But one former attendee of New Birth doesn't believe Long should be let off or forgiven that easily.
Roland Martin, a CNN political contributor who attended the megachurch for three months in 2000, said Long carries a greater responsibility as a preacher.
"[W]hen you are a pastor who has preached against gay marriage and homosexuality, who has openly talked about the covenant between a husband and wife, who has talked about the importance of men leading their families as strong men of faith, there is an expectation on you that is greater than the average man," said Martin earlier this month.
Disagreeing with Long's decision to settle the matter privately, Martin commented, "He is someone who thousands follow, and they should hear the truth, and nothing but the truth, from Long."
"I know all about forgiveness. It is one of the tenants of being a Christian. But I am not to forgive foolishly. If Long wants forgiveness, he needs to be open in discussing what really happened – or didn't happen.
"[T]here is no way I can sit here and talk about the righteousness of ministers of the gospel (my wife is an ordained minister) and make excuses for Long or any other pastor in a similar situation."
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
You can’t reconcile Ayn Rand and Jesus
You can’t reconcile Ayn Rand and Jesus
http://tucsoncitizen.com/usa-today-news/2011/06/05/column-you-cant-reconcile-ayn-rand-and-jesus/
By Stephen Prothero on Jun. 05, 2011, under USA Today News
The new darling of the Republican Party is pro-choice and anti-religion. She once wrote that, since “an embryo has no rights,” abortion “should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved.” And when asked by Playboy magazine whether religion “ever offered anything of constructive value to human life” she answered “no,” adding that “faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life.”
Her name is Ayn Rand, and though she died in 1982 this novelist, philosopher and anti-communist crusader is the hot new thing in the GOP. The American public may have met the April opening Atlas Shrugged, a film based on her novel of the same name, with a collective shrug, but Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh tout her books, and her genius. And the opening line of “Atlas Shrugged” (“Who is John Galt?”) pops up regularly on handmade signs at Tea Party rallies.
Among Rand’s adoring acolytes on Capitol Hill is Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who at a Library of Congress symposium held in 2005 on the centenary of the Rand’s birth called her “the reason I got involved in public service.” Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who announced his third presidential run last recently, has invoked Rand in the House on matters as disparate as NASA and the post office. His son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, used her novel Anthem in Senate hearings in April to argue against government regulations to phase out the incandescent light bulb.
When asked to name his favorite political philosopher, George W. Bush named Jesus Christ. But Ayn Rand is the GOP’s new savior, and no one seems to be taking notice of just how opposed their two philosophies are.
Individualism vs. collectivism
In Rand’s Manichaean world, it is not God vs. Satan, but individualism vs. collectivism. While Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor,” she sings Hosannas to the rich. The heroes of Atlas Shrugged (which, alas, is only slightly shorter than the Bible) are captains of industry such as John Galt. The villains are the “looters” and “moochers” — people who by hook (guilt) or by crook (government coercion) steal from the hard-won earnings of others.
Turning the tables on traditional Christian morality, Rand argues that altruism is immoral and selfishness is good. Moreover, there isn’t a problem in the world that laissez-faire capitalism can’t solve if left alone to perform its miracles.
I first read Atlas Shrugged and her other popular novel, The Fountainhead, while festival-hopping in Spain after graduating from college, so I can attest to the appeal of this philosophy to late adolescents of a certain gender. As an adult, however, Rand’s work reads to me like a vulgar rationalization for greed lying on top of a perverse myth of the right relationship between individual and community. So when Ryan says that, “Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism,” I have to question his use of the word “explaining.” “Duping” seems like the more appropriate verb.
As someone who has written extensively on the religious illiteracy of the American public, I am not surprised that few Republicans today seem to understand that marrying Ayn Rand to Jesus Christ is like trying to interest Lady Gaga in Donny Osmond. But there is nothing Christian about Rand’s Objectivism. In fact, it is farther from Christianity than the Marxism that Rand so abhorred. Despite the attempt of the advertising executive Bruce Barton to turn Jesus into a CEO in his novel The Man Nobody Knows (1925), Jesus was a first-class, grade-A “moocher.”
I am somewhat surprised, however, at how few GOP thinkers seem to see how hostile her philosophy is to conservatism itself. Real conservatism is first and foremost about conserving a society’s traditions, including its religious and political traditions. But Rand’s Objectivism rejects in the name of reason appeals to either revelation or tradition. The individual is her hero, and God and the dead be damned.
Real conservatism is also about sacrifice, as is authentic Christianity. President Kennedy was liberal in many ways, but, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” was classic conservatism. Rand, however, will brook no such sacrifice. Serve yourself, she tells us, and save yourself as well. There is no higher good than individual self-satisfaction.
One of the reasons we are in our current economic quagmire is that none of our leaders is willing to ask us to sacrifice. Democrats call for more spending and more taxes; Republicans call for lower taxes and less spending, and what we get is the most fiscally ruinous half of each: lower taxes and more spending.
A budget of too little Jesus
Over the last few weeks, various Christian groups have criticized Republican leaders for proposing a 2012 budget that in their view is both un-Christian and anti-life. First, dozens of professors, priests and nuns at various Catholic universities criticized House Speaker John Boehner for a legislative record on the poor that was, in their estimation, “among the worst in Congress.” “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” they wrote. “From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor.”
Then a consortium of evangelical and Catholic groups aired an ad scolding Ryan, who spearheaded that GOP budget, for his own “anti-life” stands. In this ad, Father Thomas Kelley, a self-described “pro-life” priest from Elkhorn, Wis., insisted that “God calls us to protect life at all stages,” not just in the womb.
In short, these Christians are telling the GOP that there is too much Rand in their budget, and too little Jesus.
I don’t see either Atlas Shrugged or the Bible as holy writ. I think the Bible is more wise, better written and, ironically, less likely to come across as holier than thou, but I have not come either to bury Ayn Rand or to lament her recent resurrection. My aim is to force a choice.
If you are going to propose a Robin Hood budget, you have to decide whether you are robbing from the poor to give to the rich, or robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Because you cannot do both. You cannot worship both the God of Jesus and the mammon of Rand.
I don’t agree very often with the Watergate criminal and evangelical leader Chuck Colson, but he has it right when he refers to Rand’s “idolatry of self and selfishness” as “the antithesis of Christianity”
Rand’s trinity is “I me mine.” Christianity’s is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So take your pick. Or say no to both. It’s a free country. Just don’t tell me you are both a card-carrying Objectivist and a Bible-believing Christian. Even Rand knew that just wasn’t possible.
Stephen Prothero is a religion professor at Boston University and the author of the book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World — and Why Their Differences Matter.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/usa-today-news/2011/06/05/column-you-cant-reconcile-ayn-rand-and-jesus/
By Stephen Prothero on Jun. 05, 2011, under USA Today News
The new darling of the Republican Party is pro-choice and anti-religion. She once wrote that, since “an embryo has no rights,” abortion “should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved.” And when asked by Playboy magazine whether religion “ever offered anything of constructive value to human life” she answered “no,” adding that “faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life.”
Her name is Ayn Rand, and though she died in 1982 this novelist, philosopher and anti-communist crusader is the hot new thing in the GOP. The American public may have met the April opening Atlas Shrugged, a film based on her novel of the same name, with a collective shrug, but Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh tout her books, and her genius. And the opening line of “Atlas Shrugged” (“Who is John Galt?”) pops up regularly on handmade signs at Tea Party rallies.
Among Rand’s adoring acolytes on Capitol Hill is Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who at a Library of Congress symposium held in 2005 on the centenary of the Rand’s birth called her “the reason I got involved in public service.” Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who announced his third presidential run last recently, has invoked Rand in the House on matters as disparate as NASA and the post office. His son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, used her novel Anthem in Senate hearings in April to argue against government regulations to phase out the incandescent light bulb.
When asked to name his favorite political philosopher, George W. Bush named Jesus Christ. But Ayn Rand is the GOP’s new savior, and no one seems to be taking notice of just how opposed their two philosophies are.
Individualism vs. collectivism
In Rand’s Manichaean world, it is not God vs. Satan, but individualism vs. collectivism. While Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor,” she sings Hosannas to the rich. The heroes of Atlas Shrugged (which, alas, is only slightly shorter than the Bible) are captains of industry such as John Galt. The villains are the “looters” and “moochers” — people who by hook (guilt) or by crook (government coercion) steal from the hard-won earnings of others.
Turning the tables on traditional Christian morality, Rand argues that altruism is immoral and selfishness is good. Moreover, there isn’t a problem in the world that laissez-faire capitalism can’t solve if left alone to perform its miracles.
I first read Atlas Shrugged and her other popular novel, The Fountainhead, while festival-hopping in Spain after graduating from college, so I can attest to the appeal of this philosophy to late adolescents of a certain gender. As an adult, however, Rand’s work reads to me like a vulgar rationalization for greed lying on top of a perverse myth of the right relationship between individual and community. So when Ryan says that, “Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism,” I have to question his use of the word “explaining.” “Duping” seems like the more appropriate verb.
As someone who has written extensively on the religious illiteracy of the American public, I am not surprised that few Republicans today seem to understand that marrying Ayn Rand to Jesus Christ is like trying to interest Lady Gaga in Donny Osmond. But there is nothing Christian about Rand’s Objectivism. In fact, it is farther from Christianity than the Marxism that Rand so abhorred. Despite the attempt of the advertising executive Bruce Barton to turn Jesus into a CEO in his novel The Man Nobody Knows (1925), Jesus was a first-class, grade-A “moocher.”
I am somewhat surprised, however, at how few GOP thinkers seem to see how hostile her philosophy is to conservatism itself. Real conservatism is first and foremost about conserving a society’s traditions, including its religious and political traditions. But Rand’s Objectivism rejects in the name of reason appeals to either revelation or tradition. The individual is her hero, and God and the dead be damned.
Real conservatism is also about sacrifice, as is authentic Christianity. President Kennedy was liberal in many ways, but, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” was classic conservatism. Rand, however, will brook no such sacrifice. Serve yourself, she tells us, and save yourself as well. There is no higher good than individual self-satisfaction.
One of the reasons we are in our current economic quagmire is that none of our leaders is willing to ask us to sacrifice. Democrats call for more spending and more taxes; Republicans call for lower taxes and less spending, and what we get is the most fiscally ruinous half of each: lower taxes and more spending.
A budget of too little Jesus
Over the last few weeks, various Christian groups have criticized Republican leaders for proposing a 2012 budget that in their view is both un-Christian and anti-life. First, dozens of professors, priests and nuns at various Catholic universities criticized House Speaker John Boehner for a legislative record on the poor that was, in their estimation, “among the worst in Congress.” “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” they wrote. “From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor.”
Then a consortium of evangelical and Catholic groups aired an ad scolding Ryan, who spearheaded that GOP budget, for his own “anti-life” stands. In this ad, Father Thomas Kelley, a self-described “pro-life” priest from Elkhorn, Wis., insisted that “God calls us to protect life at all stages,” not just in the womb.
In short, these Christians are telling the GOP that there is too much Rand in their budget, and too little Jesus.
I don’t see either Atlas Shrugged or the Bible as holy writ. I think the Bible is more wise, better written and, ironically, less likely to come across as holier than thou, but I have not come either to bury Ayn Rand or to lament her recent resurrection. My aim is to force a choice.
If you are going to propose a Robin Hood budget, you have to decide whether you are robbing from the poor to give to the rich, or robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Because you cannot do both. You cannot worship both the God of Jesus and the mammon of Rand.
I don’t agree very often with the Watergate criminal and evangelical leader Chuck Colson, but he has it right when he refers to Rand’s “idolatry of self and selfishness” as “the antithesis of Christianity”
Rand’s trinity is “I me mine.” Christianity’s is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So take your pick. Or say no to both. It’s a free country. Just don’t tell me you are both a card-carrying Objectivist and a Bible-believing Christian. Even Rand knew that just wasn’t possible.
Stephen Prothero is a religion professor at Boston University and the author of the book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World — and Why Their Differences Matter.
You Call your self a Christian but can you do this? Mother forgives son’s killer who now lives next door
Love thy neighbor: Son's killer moves next door
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/07/eveningnews/main20069849.shtml
By Steve Hartman
Mother forgives the man who killed her only son, "Yes, he murdered my son - but the forgiveness is for me"
(CBS News)
MINNEAPOLIS - In Minnesota, a young man was murdered and his killer was sent to prison. Then, as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports, the story took a surprising turn.
In a small apartment building in North Minneapolis - a 59-year-old teacher's aid sings praise to God for no seemingly apparent reason. Indeed, if anyone was to have issues with the Lord, it would be Mary Johnson.
In February 1993, Mary's son, Laramiun Byrd, was shot to death during an argument at a party. He was 20, and Mary's only child.
"My son was gone," she says.
The killer was a 16-year-old kid named Oshea Israel.
Mary wanted justice. "He was an animal. He deserved to be caged."
And he was. Tried as an adult and sentenced to 25 and a half years -- Oshea served 17 before being recently released. He now lives back in the old neighborhood - next door to Mary.
How a convicted murder ended-up living a door jamb away from his victim's mother is a story, not of horrible misfortune, as you might expect - but of remarkable mercy.
A few years ago Mary asked if she could meet Oshea at Minnesota's Stillwater state prison. As a devout Christian, she felt compelled to see if there was some way, if somehow, she could forgive her son's killer.
"I believe the first thing she said to me was, 'Look, you don't know me. I don't know you. Let's just start with right now,'" Oshea says. "And I was befuddled myself."
Oshea says they met regularly after that. When he got out, she introduced him to her landlord - who with Mary's blessing, invited Oshea to move into the building. Today they don't just live close - they are close.
Mary was able to forgive. She credits God, of course - but also concedes a more selfish motive.
"Unforgiveness is like cancer," Mary says. "It will eat you from the inside out. It's not about that other person, me forgiving him does not diminish what he's done. Yes, he murdered my son - but the forgiveness is for me. It's for me."
For Oshea, it hasn't been that easy. "I haven't totally forgiven myself yet, I'm learning to forgive myself. And I'm still growing toward trying to forgive myself."
To that end, Oshea is now busy proving himself to himself. He works at a recycling plant by day and goes to college by night. He says he's determined to payback Mary's clemency by contributing to society. In fact, he's already working on it - singing the praises of God and forgiveness at prisons, churches - to large audiences everywhere.
"A conversation can take you a long way," Oshea says to one group.
Which explains why Mary is able to sing her praise of thanks -- to her audience of one.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/07/eveningnews/main20069849.shtml
By Steve Hartman
Mother forgives the man who killed her only son, "Yes, he murdered my son - but the forgiveness is for me"
(CBS News)
MINNEAPOLIS - In Minnesota, a young man was murdered and his killer was sent to prison. Then, as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports, the story took a surprising turn.
In a small apartment building in North Minneapolis - a 59-year-old teacher's aid sings praise to God for no seemingly apparent reason. Indeed, if anyone was to have issues with the Lord, it would be Mary Johnson.
In February 1993, Mary's son, Laramiun Byrd, was shot to death during an argument at a party. He was 20, and Mary's only child.
"My son was gone," she says.
The killer was a 16-year-old kid named Oshea Israel.
Mary wanted justice. "He was an animal. He deserved to be caged."
And he was. Tried as an adult and sentenced to 25 and a half years -- Oshea served 17 before being recently released. He now lives back in the old neighborhood - next door to Mary.
How a convicted murder ended-up living a door jamb away from his victim's mother is a story, not of horrible misfortune, as you might expect - but of remarkable mercy.
A few years ago Mary asked if she could meet Oshea at Minnesota's Stillwater state prison. As a devout Christian, she felt compelled to see if there was some way, if somehow, she could forgive her son's killer.
"I believe the first thing she said to me was, 'Look, you don't know me. I don't know you. Let's just start with right now,'" Oshea says. "And I was befuddled myself."
Oshea says they met regularly after that. When he got out, she introduced him to her landlord - who with Mary's blessing, invited Oshea to move into the building. Today they don't just live close - they are close.
Mary was able to forgive. She credits God, of course - but also concedes a more selfish motive.
"Unforgiveness is like cancer," Mary says. "It will eat you from the inside out. It's not about that other person, me forgiving him does not diminish what he's done. Yes, he murdered my son - but the forgiveness is for me. It's for me."
For Oshea, it hasn't been that easy. "I haven't totally forgiven myself yet, I'm learning to forgive myself. And I'm still growing toward trying to forgive myself."
To that end, Oshea is now busy proving himself to himself. He works at a recycling plant by day and goes to college by night. He says he's determined to payback Mary's clemency by contributing to society. In fact, he's already working on it - singing the praises of God and forgiveness at prisons, churches - to large audiences everywhere.
"A conversation can take you a long way," Oshea says to one group.
Which explains why Mary is able to sing her praise of thanks -- to her audience of one.
'The Church Today Needs an Apologetic Culture'
'The Church Today Needs an Apologetic Culture'
http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-church-today-needs-an-apologetic-culture-50922/
By Anugrah Kumar | Christian Post Contributor
Pastors should develop an apologetic culture in their churches as the need for Christians to defend their faith has increased significantly, Canadian author and apologist Stephen J. Bedard said.
In an interview featured on the Apologetics 315 website Monday, the author of Unmasking a Pagan Christ: An Evangelical Response to the Cosmic Christ Idea, talked about issues ranging from the need for articulation of the Gospel to the Jehovah’s Witness booklet and the evidence of Jesus’ existence.
Asked what his advice to pastors was, Bedard said they should make their congregations aware that there are answers available; “it’s not a blind faith.” “We don’t have to prove that Christianity is absolutely true, but we have to demonstrate that it is something rational,” said Bedard, pastor of Woodford Baptist Church and First Baptist Church in Meaford in Ontario.
Bedard, who got interested in apologetics after reading Christian authors and thinkers C.S. Lewis and Norman L. Geisler, said churches also needed to articulate what the Gospel is. Only when they know what the real thing is will they be able to respond to the counterfeit, he said.
Talking about Hope’s Reason: A Journal of Apologetics he edits, Bedard said the need for apologetics had “increased significantly.” People today are exposed to all kinds of doctrines, from Gnostic gospels to theories like “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” thanks to the media, he explained.
Gnostic gospels are based on texts that are not part of the standard biblical canon. “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” is a documentary made by a Canadian filmmaker on the Talpiot Tomb near the Old City in East Jerusalem and it seeks to misinterpret the events regarding Jesus as recorded in the New Testament, Christians believe.
Those who want to get involved in apologetics – the discipline of defending a Christian position by the systematic use of reason – must spend time with atheists, non-Christians, and those who are skeptical of the Christian faith, Bedard advised. “Just listen to what they believe” and do not hesitate to acknowledge the good points they raise, but also go to the Scriptures to see where the Bible says they are wrong.
A father of five, Bedard said he learned a lot from his children. “They ask everything and do not take anything for granted. They challenge me all the time,” he said, adding that children and others should always be encouraged to ask questions.
Bedard also announced that his upcoming book, a response to the Jehovah’s Witness booklet “What Does the Bible Really Teach,” was expected to hit the market “in the next couple of months.” He said he was impressed with the honesty of Jehovah’s Witnesses about what they believe. “We can also learn from the way they equip their people.”
Mainstream Christians accuse the Jehovah’s Witness denomination of doctrinal inconsistencies and biblical mistranslations.
Titled Jehovah’s Witness and What the Bible Really Teaches, to be published by Clements Publishing, the book is “a guide to having productive conversations with Jehovah’s Witness.”
Talking about his first book Unmasking a Pagan Christ, Bedard said it was to counter a theory by a Canadian author claiming Jesus never existed.
He said people ask if there is evidence of Jesus outside of the Bible and why there is little Jewish and Roman evidence, but “when I took a look at the actual evidence, I found that we actually have quite a bit, in fact, more than we’d expect.”
Those who ask for Jewish evidence totally ignore the fact that the Jewish society at the time was quite illiterate, he said. “So it was really unlikely that most of the people who heard Jesus preach would actually be writing it down. Even if it did get written down, it was unlikely that it would survive to this day.”
About Roman writings, he said there was little record of what was going on in the first century in terms of trials in the provinces such as Judea. So records of Jesus cannot be expected either, he reasoned.
But there is evidence in the writings of the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, he said. “It’s pretty firm evidence that Jesus existed. Outside of that we have the Bible and we have Paul.''
Josephus wrote of a Jewish sect led by James the Just, identifying him as the brother of Jesus. His writings also included sections on John the Baptist, the High Priest Annas, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus called the Messiah.
If critics were to use the same standards they use to verify writings on Jesus on other historical figures, “we would have to burn our history books,” Bedard said.
However, apologists must remember that 1 Peter 3:15 asks us to respond in gentleness and respect, he said, and cautioned that the purpose of apologetics is not to win argument, but to win people to Christ.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-church-today-needs-an-apologetic-culture-50922/
By Anugrah Kumar | Christian Post Contributor
Pastors should develop an apologetic culture in their churches as the need for Christians to defend their faith has increased significantly, Canadian author and apologist Stephen J. Bedard said.
In an interview featured on the Apologetics 315 website Monday, the author of Unmasking a Pagan Christ: An Evangelical Response to the Cosmic Christ Idea, talked about issues ranging from the need for articulation of the Gospel to the Jehovah’s Witness booklet and the evidence of Jesus’ existence.
Asked what his advice to pastors was, Bedard said they should make their congregations aware that there are answers available; “it’s not a blind faith.” “We don’t have to prove that Christianity is absolutely true, but we have to demonstrate that it is something rational,” said Bedard, pastor of Woodford Baptist Church and First Baptist Church in Meaford in Ontario.
Bedard, who got interested in apologetics after reading Christian authors and thinkers C.S. Lewis and Norman L. Geisler, said churches also needed to articulate what the Gospel is. Only when they know what the real thing is will they be able to respond to the counterfeit, he said.
Talking about Hope’s Reason: A Journal of Apologetics he edits, Bedard said the need for apologetics had “increased significantly.” People today are exposed to all kinds of doctrines, from Gnostic gospels to theories like “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” thanks to the media, he explained.
Gnostic gospels are based on texts that are not part of the standard biblical canon. “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” is a documentary made by a Canadian filmmaker on the Talpiot Tomb near the Old City in East Jerusalem and it seeks to misinterpret the events regarding Jesus as recorded in the New Testament, Christians believe.
Those who want to get involved in apologetics – the discipline of defending a Christian position by the systematic use of reason – must spend time with atheists, non-Christians, and those who are skeptical of the Christian faith, Bedard advised. “Just listen to what they believe” and do not hesitate to acknowledge the good points they raise, but also go to the Scriptures to see where the Bible says they are wrong.
A father of five, Bedard said he learned a lot from his children. “They ask everything and do not take anything for granted. They challenge me all the time,” he said, adding that children and others should always be encouraged to ask questions.
Bedard also announced that his upcoming book, a response to the Jehovah’s Witness booklet “What Does the Bible Really Teach,” was expected to hit the market “in the next couple of months.” He said he was impressed with the honesty of Jehovah’s Witnesses about what they believe. “We can also learn from the way they equip their people.”
Mainstream Christians accuse the Jehovah’s Witness denomination of doctrinal inconsistencies and biblical mistranslations.
Titled Jehovah’s Witness and What the Bible Really Teaches, to be published by Clements Publishing, the book is “a guide to having productive conversations with Jehovah’s Witness.”
Talking about his first book Unmasking a Pagan Christ, Bedard said it was to counter a theory by a Canadian author claiming Jesus never existed.
He said people ask if there is evidence of Jesus outside of the Bible and why there is little Jewish and Roman evidence, but “when I took a look at the actual evidence, I found that we actually have quite a bit, in fact, more than we’d expect.”
Those who ask for Jewish evidence totally ignore the fact that the Jewish society at the time was quite illiterate, he said. “So it was really unlikely that most of the people who heard Jesus preach would actually be writing it down. Even if it did get written down, it was unlikely that it would survive to this day.”
About Roman writings, he said there was little record of what was going on in the first century in terms of trials in the provinces such as Judea. So records of Jesus cannot be expected either, he reasoned.
But there is evidence in the writings of the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, he said. “It’s pretty firm evidence that Jesus existed. Outside of that we have the Bible and we have Paul.''
Josephus wrote of a Jewish sect led by James the Just, identifying him as the brother of Jesus. His writings also included sections on John the Baptist, the High Priest Annas, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus called the Messiah.
If critics were to use the same standards they use to verify writings on Jesus on other historical figures, “we would have to burn our history books,” Bedard said.
However, apologists must remember that 1 Peter 3:15 asks us to respond in gentleness and respect, he said, and cautioned that the purpose of apologetics is not to win argument, but to win people to Christ.
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Harold Camping, Christian Sycophancy, and The Antidote of a Sound Mind
FIRST READ:
Un like the Unrepentant False Prophet Harold Camping, Ugandan doomsday pastor apologizes to Christians
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/kasese-harrold-camping-doomsday-pastor.html
The world is ending on October, 21st, 2011 and Judgment day is on May, 21st 2011: Do not believe this Utter Nonsense and Stupidity
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/03/world-is-ending-on-october-21st-2011.html
World doesn't end: California prophet had no Plan B
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/world-doesnt-end-california-prophet-had.html
Harold Camping, Christian Sycophancy, and The Antidote of a Sound Mind
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/discernment/459-harold-camping-christian-sycophancy-and-the-antidote-of-a-sound-mind.html
Kato Mivule | June 1st, 2010
May 21st came and passed by with no Rapture Event taking place as was publicized by Harold Camping. Christians and Christianity again became a mockery and a joke on late night comedy. Furthermore, Bible Prophecy was reduced to ridicule and derision.
However, is the world to blame for the mockery and ridicule that many Christians had to go through, especially Evangelicals of the 'Left Behind' persuasion? One Pastor claimed the following Sunday that this mass media mockery of Christians concerning the Harold Camping predictions was what the bible had predicted would happen; that in the last days people would make mockery about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Could we as Christians respond with such rebuttals? Are we simply justifying what Harold Camping did by 'using' scripture quoted out of context as cover?
The issue here is that this type of mockery came about not because of the conspiracy working of the world and mass media but because of our own errors as Christians in both how we responded to this situation and how we respond to Christian leaders in the pulpit today. Some Christians hoped for a rapture out of sincerity and were just duped at that but with clear intentions that some sold their homes hoping to escape the pains of this earth on May 21st 2011.
But again it shows how far we have became as Christians, especially in the Evangelical settings. We have cast off any reason, intellect, critical thinking, and basically become sycophants who follow Christian leaders without any questions asked while disregarding the whole counsel of God's Word and throwing away the whole scriptural context. We choose to follow leaders who promise some sort of escape from the reality of pain and suffering. The quest to escape pain and suffering has left us with no reason and intellect to discern basic falsehood. Such leaders have become superstars in Christendom and Christians find their delight in offering such leaders their financial support. One would think that we Christians have lost our minds, and believe me, some preachers like such a status quo and don't entertain the idea of Christians being in their right minds; stamping out rationality is used as a means of mind control by such false preachers.
We always claim that The Lord created all things but we seem to ignore the fact that The same Lord created the mind and brain to think rationally. Always, rational thinking is equated with compromise and walking in the flesh among some Christian Evangelicals and Pentecostals. Yet this ought not to be the case. Paul and the early Church fathers were people of reason, it is one reason why they left behind a written record and pattern we call the New Testament to follow. They employed their mind to thinking and not disengage rationally when it comes to spiritual matters.
2 Timothy 1:7 KJV For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Here is an interesting look at sound mind from the Greek language:
G4993, so-fron-eh'-o, From G4998; to be of sound mind, that is, sane, (figuratively) moderate: - be in right mind, be sober (minded), soberly.
G4994, so-fron-id'-zo, From G4998; to make of sound mind, that is, (figuratively) to discipline or correct: - teach to be sober.
G4995, so-fron-is-mos', From G4994; discipline, that is, self control: - sound mind.
We see that the following meanings are derived: Sane (sanity), rational, in their right minds, lucid, of sound mind, logical, coherent, moderate, be in right mind, sober, discipline, and self control; of which the opposite is basically irrationality and insanity.
A look at Harold Camping and stories that followed from Christendom that week on May 21st 2011, for example the Eddie Long sexual abuse story, shows that some Christians have simply chosen to disregard any reason, and blindly follow these Christian leaders regardless, and continue supporting them financially.
It is time that perhaps many Bible Prophecy bloggers take caution with their obsession with Prophecy Time-lines and date settings. It is important to note that always, these purportedly bible prophecy experts begin by claiming that they have the 'exact' historical dates of when certain Bible events happened, they then move on to make future projections. But the Bible is very clear that no one knows the day or the hour. While it is important to note that Jesus Christ did give us an abstract 'time-line', in Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13, He did not at anyone time state the exact date of when any of these events would happen.
Jesus Christ simply stated that when you see these things, know that the time is near and His coming would be soon. No one knows the “soon”, and how long that “soon” would be. Many Bible Prophecy teachers have claimed that they know these exact projected dates because of historical dates that they quote from secular historians who generally disagree as to the historical dates of Jesus Christ walking on earth, and laugh at the supposedly Bible Prophecy experts who claim to know the future Bible Prophecy Time-lines based on erroneous historical dates.
Yet all these efforts of date setting, show the desire to escape pain on earth to a better place. The reality is that we must deal with the pain on this earth and learn how to overcome the pain and suffering. Even our own Lord Jesus Christ did not see it fit to simply escape pain, suffering, and death on earth for some good peaceful place. He endured and overcame. Our perceptive must change otherwise we shall continue to become a source mockery for late night comedians. It would totally be another thing for the world and mass media to mock Christians for telling them that “Judgment is coming and no one knows the day or hour ...”, I think that would have been more powerful and not a waste of the 100 million dollars used in the Harold Camping campaigns.
Rather than set our focus on escaping suffering and pains, it would be better that we set focus on helping the suffering, sharing, caring, and ministering to those who are in suffering, loss, and pain, from Japan to Joplin, the opportunities are great and open for every Christian to minister without regard to financial status, at least give a cup of water to those in need in Jesus Christ's Name.
Lastly, let us employ our God created sound mind and brains, and use them to think. Thinking critically to discern is not sin, especially in these last days in which a lot of falsehood is going. For God has not given us a spirit of fear but love, power, and a sound mind.
Kato Mivule
Un like the Unrepentant False Prophet Harold Camping, Ugandan doomsday pastor apologizes to Christians
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/kasese-harrold-camping-doomsday-pastor.html
The world is ending on October, 21st, 2011 and Judgment day is on May, 21st 2011: Do not believe this Utter Nonsense and Stupidity
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/03/world-is-ending-on-october-21st-2011.html
World doesn't end: California prophet had no Plan B
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/world-doesnt-end-california-prophet-had.html
Harold Camping, Christian Sycophancy, and The Antidote of a Sound Mind
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/discernment/459-harold-camping-christian-sycophancy-and-the-antidote-of-a-sound-mind.html
Kato Mivule | June 1st, 2010
May 21st came and passed by with no Rapture Event taking place as was publicized by Harold Camping. Christians and Christianity again became a mockery and a joke on late night comedy. Furthermore, Bible Prophecy was reduced to ridicule and derision.
However, is the world to blame for the mockery and ridicule that many Christians had to go through, especially Evangelicals of the 'Left Behind' persuasion? One Pastor claimed the following Sunday that this mass media mockery of Christians concerning the Harold Camping predictions was what the bible had predicted would happen; that in the last days people would make mockery about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Could we as Christians respond with such rebuttals? Are we simply justifying what Harold Camping did by 'using' scripture quoted out of context as cover?
The issue here is that this type of mockery came about not because of the conspiracy working of the world and mass media but because of our own errors as Christians in both how we responded to this situation and how we respond to Christian leaders in the pulpit today. Some Christians hoped for a rapture out of sincerity and were just duped at that but with clear intentions that some sold their homes hoping to escape the pains of this earth on May 21st 2011.
But again it shows how far we have became as Christians, especially in the Evangelical settings. We have cast off any reason, intellect, critical thinking, and basically become sycophants who follow Christian leaders without any questions asked while disregarding the whole counsel of God's Word and throwing away the whole scriptural context. We choose to follow leaders who promise some sort of escape from the reality of pain and suffering. The quest to escape pain and suffering has left us with no reason and intellect to discern basic falsehood. Such leaders have become superstars in Christendom and Christians find their delight in offering such leaders their financial support. One would think that we Christians have lost our minds, and believe me, some preachers like such a status quo and don't entertain the idea of Christians being in their right minds; stamping out rationality is used as a means of mind control by such false preachers.
We always claim that The Lord created all things but we seem to ignore the fact that The same Lord created the mind and brain to think rationally. Always, rational thinking is equated with compromise and walking in the flesh among some Christian Evangelicals and Pentecostals. Yet this ought not to be the case. Paul and the early Church fathers were people of reason, it is one reason why they left behind a written record and pattern we call the New Testament to follow. They employed their mind to thinking and not disengage rationally when it comes to spiritual matters.
2 Timothy 1:7 KJV For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Here is an interesting look at sound mind from the Greek language:
G4993, so-fron-eh'-o, From G4998; to be of sound mind, that is, sane, (figuratively) moderate: - be in right mind, be sober (minded), soberly.
G4994, so-fron-id'-zo, From G4998; to make of sound mind, that is, (figuratively) to discipline or correct: - teach to be sober.
G4995, so-fron-is-mos', From G4994; discipline, that is, self control: - sound mind.
We see that the following meanings are derived: Sane (sanity), rational, in their right minds, lucid, of sound mind, logical, coherent, moderate, be in right mind, sober, discipline, and self control; of which the opposite is basically irrationality and insanity.
A look at Harold Camping and stories that followed from Christendom that week on May 21st 2011, for example the Eddie Long sexual abuse story, shows that some Christians have simply chosen to disregard any reason, and blindly follow these Christian leaders regardless, and continue supporting them financially.
It is time that perhaps many Bible Prophecy bloggers take caution with their obsession with Prophecy Time-lines and date settings. It is important to note that always, these purportedly bible prophecy experts begin by claiming that they have the 'exact' historical dates of when certain Bible events happened, they then move on to make future projections. But the Bible is very clear that no one knows the day or the hour. While it is important to note that Jesus Christ did give us an abstract 'time-line', in Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13, He did not at anyone time state the exact date of when any of these events would happen.
Jesus Christ simply stated that when you see these things, know that the time is near and His coming would be soon. No one knows the “soon”, and how long that “soon” would be. Many Bible Prophecy teachers have claimed that they know these exact projected dates because of historical dates that they quote from secular historians who generally disagree as to the historical dates of Jesus Christ walking on earth, and laugh at the supposedly Bible Prophecy experts who claim to know the future Bible Prophecy Time-lines based on erroneous historical dates.
Yet all these efforts of date setting, show the desire to escape pain on earth to a better place. The reality is that we must deal with the pain on this earth and learn how to overcome the pain and suffering. Even our own Lord Jesus Christ did not see it fit to simply escape pain, suffering, and death on earth for some good peaceful place. He endured and overcame. Our perceptive must change otherwise we shall continue to become a source mockery for late night comedians. It would totally be another thing for the world and mass media to mock Christians for telling them that “Judgment is coming and no one knows the day or hour ...”, I think that would have been more powerful and not a waste of the 100 million dollars used in the Harold Camping campaigns.
Rather than set our focus on escaping suffering and pains, it would be better that we set focus on helping the suffering, sharing, caring, and ministering to those who are in suffering, loss, and pain, from Japan to Joplin, the opportunities are great and open for every Christian to minister without regard to financial status, at least give a cup of water to those in need in Jesus Christ's Name.
Lastly, let us employ our God created sound mind and brains, and use them to think. Thinking critically to discern is not sin, especially in these last days in which a lot of falsehood is going. For God has not given us a spirit of fear but love, power, and a sound mind.
Kato Mivule
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Man sues priest for wife grabbing
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/756353
Wednesday, 1st June, 2011
By VISION REPORTER
A Catholic priest has been dragged to court for allegedly snatching the wife of a member of his flock.
Martin Okumu Masiga alleges that Fr. J.B Kalanzi Sseppuuya, the assistant parish Priest of St. Kizito Catholic Church in Bwaise, Kampala Archdiocese, fathered a child with his wife.
Fr. Sseppuuya presided over Masiga’s wedding to Margaret Mbakire Kyakuwa on December 30 2006 at Christ the King Church in Kampala.
It is forbidden for Catholic priests and nuns to marry as they are supposed to live a celibate life.
Through Rwakafuuzi and Co. Advocates, Masiga has filed a petition for a divorce and Fr. Sseppuuya has been summoned to appear in court on June 23, 2011 for the hearing of the case.
The suit filed at the High Court of Kampala on May 30, states that Sseppuuya has been committing adultery with Kyakuwa, a lecturer at the social sciences faculty of Makerere University since 2006.
Masiga alleged that Sseppuuya had a child with Kyakuwa on September 22, 2010 at Paragon Hospital in Kampala.
When the Catholic Church was contacted yesterday, the Vicar General, Charles Kasibante, declined to comment on the matter, saying he did not know about it.
“I need time to consult before I can comment,” he said.
The Archbishop of Kampala, Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, was reported out of the country but was due to return for the Martyrs Day celebrations due tomorrow.
In his suit, Masiga states; “Not only did the respondents wantonly commit adultery, they deliberately, purposefully, mindless of the marital vows made and in total disregard for your petitioner’s existence, devised and executed a plan to make a baby from their adulterous liaison.”
The petitioner further contends that the priest was one of the church ministers who solemnised his marriage and that he was the same priest before whom he did his penitence and confession on their wedding day.
Masiga asserts that he did not have a conjugal relationship with Kyakuwa when she conceived and delivered a child (names withheld).
He said he had been deeply disturbed by the adulterous relationship of his wife and decided to leave his matrimonial home.
In his petition, Masiga alleges that he has suffered acts of cruelty from his wife, with whom he has a five-year old boy (names withheld).
He said his wife persistently returned home late at night without reasonable explanation.
Masiga adds that Kyakuwa frequently received long telephone calls late in the night, which he suspected to be from Sseppuuya.
Kyakuwa at a certain stage is said to have gone to Netherlands, where she was pursuing a Phd at the University of Amsterdam, but on returning to Uganda, she did not go home but stayed in an undisclosed location.
Masiga believes she was consorting with the man of God.
He also alleges that his wife denied him sex at all encounters in 2009 and refused to pick his calls and respond to his e-mail messages.
Masiga alleges that all his email addresses were forwarded to to Sseppuuya.
“For the whole of 2009 she came home after midnight and denied me sex. She was extremely harsh when dealing with me. She wanted sacred sex from the messenger of God which I was not. In 2009 I was the most lonely husband in the world,” he said.
Asking for a divorce, Masiga states that his marriage to Kyakuwa had irretrievably broken down. He is claiming for damages to the tune of sh11,834,800 expended on their, “fairytale but bogus wedding”.
He also wants Sseppuuya to pay general damages amounting to sh500m for the extreme anguish and pain he put the petitioner in.
Masiga also demands that Sseppuuya be ordered to pay punitive damages for abuse of his position of authority and trust and for his high handed conduct.
To bolster his case, Masiga has assembled evidence in form of affidavits from witnesses, who include a maid called Margaret Kaahwa.
Kaahwa alleges that during one of Sseppuuya’s visits to the home, he made sexual advances to her which she rejected.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/756353
Wednesday, 1st June, 2011
By VISION REPORTER
A Catholic priest has been dragged to court for allegedly snatching the wife of a member of his flock.
Martin Okumu Masiga alleges that Fr. J.B Kalanzi Sseppuuya, the assistant parish Priest of St. Kizito Catholic Church in Bwaise, Kampala Archdiocese, fathered a child with his wife.
Fr. Sseppuuya presided over Masiga’s wedding to Margaret Mbakire Kyakuwa on December 30 2006 at Christ the King Church in Kampala.
It is forbidden for Catholic priests and nuns to marry as they are supposed to live a celibate life.
Through Rwakafuuzi and Co. Advocates, Masiga has filed a petition for a divorce and Fr. Sseppuuya has been summoned to appear in court on June 23, 2011 for the hearing of the case.
The suit filed at the High Court of Kampala on May 30, states that Sseppuuya has been committing adultery with Kyakuwa, a lecturer at the social sciences faculty of Makerere University since 2006.
Masiga alleged that Sseppuuya had a child with Kyakuwa on September 22, 2010 at Paragon Hospital in Kampala.
When the Catholic Church was contacted yesterday, the Vicar General, Charles Kasibante, declined to comment on the matter, saying he did not know about it.
“I need time to consult before I can comment,” he said.
The Archbishop of Kampala, Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, was reported out of the country but was due to return for the Martyrs Day celebrations due tomorrow.
In his suit, Masiga states; “Not only did the respondents wantonly commit adultery, they deliberately, purposefully, mindless of the marital vows made and in total disregard for your petitioner’s existence, devised and executed a plan to make a baby from their adulterous liaison.”
The petitioner further contends that the priest was one of the church ministers who solemnised his marriage and that he was the same priest before whom he did his penitence and confession on their wedding day.
Masiga asserts that he did not have a conjugal relationship with Kyakuwa when she conceived and delivered a child (names withheld).
He said he had been deeply disturbed by the adulterous relationship of his wife and decided to leave his matrimonial home.
In his petition, Masiga alleges that he has suffered acts of cruelty from his wife, with whom he has a five-year old boy (names withheld).
He said his wife persistently returned home late at night without reasonable explanation.
Masiga adds that Kyakuwa frequently received long telephone calls late in the night, which he suspected to be from Sseppuuya.
Kyakuwa at a certain stage is said to have gone to Netherlands, where she was pursuing a Phd at the University of Amsterdam, but on returning to Uganda, she did not go home but stayed in an undisclosed location.
Masiga believes she was consorting with the man of God.
He also alleges that his wife denied him sex at all encounters in 2009 and refused to pick his calls and respond to his e-mail messages.
Masiga alleges that all his email addresses were forwarded to to Sseppuuya.
“For the whole of 2009 she came home after midnight and denied me sex. She was extremely harsh when dealing with me. She wanted sacred sex from the messenger of God which I was not. In 2009 I was the most lonely husband in the world,” he said.
Asking for a divorce, Masiga states that his marriage to Kyakuwa had irretrievably broken down. He is claiming for damages to the tune of sh11,834,800 expended on their, “fairytale but bogus wedding”.
He also wants Sseppuuya to pay general damages amounting to sh500m for the extreme anguish and pain he put the petitioner in.
Masiga also demands that Sseppuuya be ordered to pay punitive damages for abuse of his position of authority and trust and for his high handed conduct.
To bolster his case, Masiga has assembled evidence in form of affidavits from witnesses, who include a maid called Margaret Kaahwa.
Kaahwa alleges that during one of Sseppuuya’s visits to the home, he made sexual advances to her which she rejected.
US marine reveals Kyazze’s anti-Kayanja crusade
US marine reveals Kyazze’s anti-Kayanja crusade
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/756371
Wednesday, 1st June, 2011
By ANDANTE OKANYA
AN American marine Francis Kwezi yesterday revealed to court that Pastor Robert Kyazze spearheaded an anti-Pastor Robert Kayanja crusade in America in 2010 to portray him as a sodomist.
Kwezi, who claims to have left for America on November 15, 1987, is prosecution witness number nine.
He was testifying at Buganda Road Court in Kampala before trial magistrate Patrick Wekesa.
Kwezi said he joined the US marines on September 17,1996 but said he was not obliged to reveal his rank.
He claims to be in possession of an audio recording of Kyazze speaking ill of pastor Kayanja.
Kyazze, who heads the Omega Healing Centre Church, together with five others, are accused of conspiring to tarnish Kayanja’s reputation by claiming he was engaging in homosexuality.
The co-accused are pastors; Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Ministries, Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church and Robert Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre.
Kwezi claims Kyazze spoke ill of Kayanja during a fundraising ceremony attended by some pastors in Massachusetts.
He said he first met Kyazze between 1983 to 1985. Kwezi revealed that they would converge with others in Kayanja’s bedroom, to watch the famous American preacher Jimmy Swaggart.
“When Kyazze was given the floor, he started describing how Pastor Robert had been sodomising people in Uganda,”Kwezi stated.
Kwezi said he was offended by the derogative and abusive language Kyazze used against Kayanja.
He said he asked Kyazze why he was preaching such a devious gospel.
The magistrate rejected a plea by defence to strike off Kwezi’s testimony, saying the testimony would raise useful issues for the defence.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/756371
Wednesday, 1st June, 2011
By ANDANTE OKANYA
AN American marine Francis Kwezi yesterday revealed to court that Pastor Robert Kyazze spearheaded an anti-Pastor Robert Kayanja crusade in America in 2010 to portray him as a sodomist.
Kwezi, who claims to have left for America on November 15, 1987, is prosecution witness number nine.
He was testifying at Buganda Road Court in Kampala before trial magistrate Patrick Wekesa.
Kwezi said he joined the US marines on September 17,1996 but said he was not obliged to reveal his rank.
He claims to be in possession of an audio recording of Kyazze speaking ill of pastor Kayanja.
Kyazze, who heads the Omega Healing Centre Church, together with five others, are accused of conspiring to tarnish Kayanja’s reputation by claiming he was engaging in homosexuality.
The co-accused are pastors; Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Ministries, Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church and Robert Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre.
Kwezi claims Kyazze spoke ill of Kayanja during a fundraising ceremony attended by some pastors in Massachusetts.
He said he first met Kyazze between 1983 to 1985. Kwezi revealed that they would converge with others in Kayanja’s bedroom, to watch the famous American preacher Jimmy Swaggart.
“When Kyazze was given the floor, he started describing how Pastor Robert had been sodomising people in Uganda,”Kwezi stated.
Kwezi said he was offended by the derogative and abusive language Kyazze used against Kayanja.
He said he asked Kyazze why he was preaching such a devious gospel.
The magistrate rejected a plea by defence to strike off Kwezi’s testimony, saying the testimony would raise useful issues for the defence.
Nyerere beatification prayers kick off martyrs celebrations
Nyerere beatification prayers kick off martyrs celebrations
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1173464/-/c0w8tdz/-/index.html
By Emmanuel Mulondo
Posted Thursday, June 2 2011 at 00:00
Celebrations to mark the Uganda Martyrs Day began yesterday with prayers for the beatification of late Tanzanian President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. A special service held at the Namugongo Catholic Shrine, was directed to God to “accept intercession through the late Nyerere”.
If a Christian’s problem is solved after praying through Nyerere’s intercession, the former president will be on course to beatification, a first step to canonisation or sainthood.Hoima Diocese Bishop Emeritus Edward Baharagate led the service on the day now annually celebrated by Tanzania as Nyerere Day.
Those who attended included President Museveni, Tanzanian Premier Mzengo Peter Pinda, Charles Makongoro Nyerere – son of the late President, the Rev. Fr. Alfred Kwene, who represented Bukoba Diocesean Bishop Methodius Kilaini, and Mr Mamerito Mugerwa, the Mayor of Kira Town Council, in Namugongo parish, where the Uganda Martyrs were burnt to death. Christians from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, also in attended.
President Museveni described the late Nyerere as the “the greatest black man” who practiced Christianity by caring for all people. He commended Nyerere for his effort towards political and economic emancipation of Tanzania and Africa at large and also for promoting literacy through the introduction of universal education and establishing Dar-es-Salaam University.
The President said Africa is getting out of darkness through education.
“We shall continue coming to Namugongo to pray for the beautification and finally for Mwalimu’s canonisation. If we continue knocking and asking, Rome will open for us,” President Museveni said.
Meanwhile, pilgrims who started arriving on Monday for the event, continued streaming in from different areas of Uganda and other countries. Some walked while others travelled in taxis and buses.
“This year, we are expecting between 700,000 and one million pilgrims,” Fr Joseph Mukasa Muwonge, the promoter of the Namugongo Martyrs Shrine project said. The rotational leadership of the celebrations this year falls to Arua Diocese of Uganda. Moroto Diocese led last year while Kabale Diocese was in charge in 2009.
As a security precaution, police this time have proscribed erection of makeshift stalls by business people and food vendors.
Nyerere is greatest African - Museveni
Wednesday, 1st June, 2011
By RAYMOND BAGUMA
and JEFF LULE
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has described Tanzania’s first President Julius Nyerere as the greatest black man he had met. Museveni added that he deserves to be made a saint by the Catholic Church.
“I am happy when I speak of Nyerere because I am his supporter. I said he was the greatest black man that ever lived. There are other black men such as Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah; but Nyerere is the greatest black man that ever lived,” Museveni said yesterday.
He was speaking during prayers at Namugongo Uganda Martyrs’ shrine organised by the Catholic Church to intercede for the beatification of the former Tanzanian leader.
The congregation included pilgrims from Tanzania, led by Nyerere’s wife Maria, and son Charles Lwanga Makongoro.
Every year, special prayers are conducted at Namugongo on June 1, to pray for the beautification and eventual canonisation of Nyerere.
The prayers precede the June 3 Martyr’s Day.
The mass was led by the retired Hoima diocese bishop, Edward Baharagate and the Arua diocese bishop, Sabino Ocan Odoki.
The rector of the Catholic Martyrs’ shrine, Fr. Deogratius Ssonko, asked Museveni to recognise the slain martyrs as national heroes during the upcoming June 9, Heroes Day commemoration.
Tanzania’s minister of state in the prime minister’s office Mary Nagu, who represented the Tanzanian Government, hailed Museveni and the Catholic Church for praying for the beautification of their former president.
Listing his attributes, Museveni said Nyerere was involved in the spiritual, political, cultural and economic struggles to free Tanzania, East Africa and Africa.
Referring to himself as a witness of Nyerere’s deeds, Museveni said in 1970s, when he was 26 years old, Nyerere helped in fighting Idi Amin even when other officials ignored him.
He said Nyerere had pioneered education in his country, having travelled from Musoma in Tanzania to study at Makerere University and later returned to his country to teach.
“Tanzania did not have a university until Mwalimu (Nyerere) was chief minister before independence when Dar es Salaam University was started. He introduced free education,” Museveni said.
Nyerere is unique. We shall continue coming to Namugongo every June 1, to pray for the beatification and eventual canonisation. A country without a vision would perish. Mwalimu had a vision for Africa,” Museveni added.
He said while Nyerere was involved in the economic emancipation of Africa, there were people who argued that Africans needed to remain enslaved.
Museveni described Namugongo as a place that represents a spiritual struggle. “As the new message of the christian religion came and it was in conflict with some of the bad practices of the kings of Buganda.”
He said when Kabaka Mwanga captured the Christian converts, he gave them a condition to abandon their new-found religion if he were to spare their lives.
However, the converts chose death, he added.
Museveni also said in a similar way, Uganda experienced a political struggle, which is commemorated on June 9, in honour of people who chose to die, instead of revealing freedom fighters’ hideouts.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1173464/-/c0w8tdz/-/index.html
By Emmanuel Mulondo
Posted Thursday, June 2 2011 at 00:00
Celebrations to mark the Uganda Martyrs Day began yesterday with prayers for the beatification of late Tanzanian President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. A special service held at the Namugongo Catholic Shrine, was directed to God to “accept intercession through the late Nyerere”.
If a Christian’s problem is solved after praying through Nyerere’s intercession, the former president will be on course to beatification, a first step to canonisation or sainthood.Hoima Diocese Bishop Emeritus Edward Baharagate led the service on the day now annually celebrated by Tanzania as Nyerere Day.
Those who attended included President Museveni, Tanzanian Premier Mzengo Peter Pinda, Charles Makongoro Nyerere – son of the late President, the Rev. Fr. Alfred Kwene, who represented Bukoba Diocesean Bishop Methodius Kilaini, and Mr Mamerito Mugerwa, the Mayor of Kira Town Council, in Namugongo parish, where the Uganda Martyrs were burnt to death. Christians from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, also in attended.
President Museveni described the late Nyerere as the “the greatest black man” who practiced Christianity by caring for all people. He commended Nyerere for his effort towards political and economic emancipation of Tanzania and Africa at large and also for promoting literacy through the introduction of universal education and establishing Dar-es-Salaam University.
The President said Africa is getting out of darkness through education.
“We shall continue coming to Namugongo to pray for the beautification and finally for Mwalimu’s canonisation. If we continue knocking and asking, Rome will open for us,” President Museveni said.
Meanwhile, pilgrims who started arriving on Monday for the event, continued streaming in from different areas of Uganda and other countries. Some walked while others travelled in taxis and buses.
“This year, we are expecting between 700,000 and one million pilgrims,” Fr Joseph Mukasa Muwonge, the promoter of the Namugongo Martyrs Shrine project said. The rotational leadership of the celebrations this year falls to Arua Diocese of Uganda. Moroto Diocese led last year while Kabale Diocese was in charge in 2009.
As a security precaution, police this time have proscribed erection of makeshift stalls by business people and food vendors.
Nyerere is greatest African - Museveni
Wednesday, 1st June, 2011
By RAYMOND BAGUMA
and JEFF LULE
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has described Tanzania’s first President Julius Nyerere as the greatest black man he had met. Museveni added that he deserves to be made a saint by the Catholic Church.
“I am happy when I speak of Nyerere because I am his supporter. I said he was the greatest black man that ever lived. There are other black men such as Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah; but Nyerere is the greatest black man that ever lived,” Museveni said yesterday.
He was speaking during prayers at Namugongo Uganda Martyrs’ shrine organised by the Catholic Church to intercede for the beatification of the former Tanzanian leader.
The congregation included pilgrims from Tanzania, led by Nyerere’s wife Maria, and son Charles Lwanga Makongoro.
Every year, special prayers are conducted at Namugongo on June 1, to pray for the beautification and eventual canonisation of Nyerere.
The prayers precede the June 3 Martyr’s Day.
The mass was led by the retired Hoima diocese bishop, Edward Baharagate and the Arua diocese bishop, Sabino Ocan Odoki.
The rector of the Catholic Martyrs’ shrine, Fr. Deogratius Ssonko, asked Museveni to recognise the slain martyrs as national heroes during the upcoming June 9, Heroes Day commemoration.
Tanzania’s minister of state in the prime minister’s office Mary Nagu, who represented the Tanzanian Government, hailed Museveni and the Catholic Church for praying for the beautification of their former president.
Listing his attributes, Museveni said Nyerere was involved in the spiritual, political, cultural and economic struggles to free Tanzania, East Africa and Africa.
Referring to himself as a witness of Nyerere’s deeds, Museveni said in 1970s, when he was 26 years old, Nyerere helped in fighting Idi Amin even when other officials ignored him.
He said Nyerere had pioneered education in his country, having travelled from Musoma in Tanzania to study at Makerere University and later returned to his country to teach.
“Tanzania did not have a university until Mwalimu (Nyerere) was chief minister before independence when Dar es Salaam University was started. He introduced free education,” Museveni said.
Nyerere is unique. We shall continue coming to Namugongo every June 1, to pray for the beatification and eventual canonisation. A country without a vision would perish. Mwalimu had a vision for Africa,” Museveni added.
He said while Nyerere was involved in the economic emancipation of Africa, there were people who argued that Africans needed to remain enslaved.
Museveni described Namugongo as a place that represents a spiritual struggle. “As the new message of the christian religion came and it was in conflict with some of the bad practices of the kings of Buganda.”
He said when Kabaka Mwanga captured the Christian converts, he gave them a condition to abandon their new-found religion if he were to spare their lives.
However, the converts chose death, he added.
Museveni also said in a similar way, Uganda experienced a political struggle, which is commemorated on June 9, in honour of people who chose to die, instead of revealing freedom fighters’ hideouts.
Monday, 30 May 2011
Lawyers demand Kayanja’s testimony
FIRST READ:
Pastor Robert Kayanja's “Image” and the Arrest of Pastor Solomon Male
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/443-pastor-robert-kayanjas-image-and-the-arrest-of-pastor-solomon-male.html
Lawyers demand Kayanja’s testimony
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/755736
Wednesday, 25th May, 2011
Bt Adante Okanya
LAWYERS representing the six people accused of tarnishing Pastor Robert Kayanja’s reputation yesterday demanded that court summons him to testify to help speed up the trial.
The lawyers on the defence team were Paul Rutisya, Kato Ssekabanja, Francis Gimara, Edward Akankwasa and Isaac Walukagga.
The state prosecutor, Stephen Asaba, said Kayanja was on the list of over 10 witnesses whom prosecution intended to summon.
“Defense has no right to direct us. They need not worry. Kayanja will come and testify,” Asaba said.
The accused are pastors Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Ministries, Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church, plus Michael Kyazze and Robert Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre. Others are State House employee Dorothy Kyomuhendo and local musician David Mukalazi.
Yesterday, the trial resumed at the Buganda Road Court before Grade One Magistrate Patrick Wekesa. The lawyers want Kayanja to explain the circumstances under which his reputation was injured.
Prosecution alleges that in 2008, the accused “conspired to cause injury to the personality and reputation” of Pastor Kayanja by saying he participates in homosexuality.
Walukagga argued that summoning Kayanja would save court’s time since he is the main complainant. “Why is prosecution fishing for witnesses who are not the complainant? The complainant needs to testify. We want the big fish,” he said.
Wekesa said he could not issue summons for Kayanja because the “case belongs to the prosecution” and that if he did, he would be perceived as biased.
Pastor Robert Kayanja's “Image” and the Arrest of Pastor Solomon Male
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/443-pastor-robert-kayanjas-image-and-the-arrest-of-pastor-solomon-male.html
Lawyers demand Kayanja’s testimony
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/755736
Wednesday, 25th May, 2011
Bt Adante Okanya
LAWYERS representing the six people accused of tarnishing Pastor Robert Kayanja’s reputation yesterday demanded that court summons him to testify to help speed up the trial.
The lawyers on the defence team were Paul Rutisya, Kato Ssekabanja, Francis Gimara, Edward Akankwasa and Isaac Walukagga.
The state prosecutor, Stephen Asaba, said Kayanja was on the list of over 10 witnesses whom prosecution intended to summon.
“Defense has no right to direct us. They need not worry. Kayanja will come and testify,” Asaba said.
The accused are pastors Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Ministries, Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church, plus Michael Kyazze and Robert Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre. Others are State House employee Dorothy Kyomuhendo and local musician David Mukalazi.
Yesterday, the trial resumed at the Buganda Road Court before Grade One Magistrate Patrick Wekesa. The lawyers want Kayanja to explain the circumstances under which his reputation was injured.
Prosecution alleges that in 2008, the accused “conspired to cause injury to the personality and reputation” of Pastor Kayanja by saying he participates in homosexuality.
Walukagga argued that summoning Kayanja would save court’s time since he is the main complainant. “Why is prosecution fishing for witnesses who are not the complainant? The complainant needs to testify. We want the big fish,” he said.
Wekesa said he could not issue summons for Kayanja because the “case belongs to the prosecution” and that if he did, he would be perceived as biased.
Crystal Cathedral Plans to Sell Church to Exit Bankruptcy
Crystal Cathedral Plans to Sell Church to Exit Bankruptcy
http://www.christianpost.com/news/crystal-cathedral-up-for-sale-to-end-debt-woes-50573/
By Alison Matheson | Christian Post Correspondent
The Crystal Cathedral is being put on the market as the church seeks a way out of its crippling debt.
The Orange County church is hoping the sale of its imposing glass building will generate enough revenue to save it from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and make good with some 550 creditors.
It has been looking for an exit strategy from its financial woes ever since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October.
The reorganization plan includes the sale of the 40-acre campus to a real estate group with a guaranteed option of leasing it back for 15 years.
After four years, the church would have the option of buying back the Crystal Cathedral, the 13-story Tower of Hope, the welcome center and the cemetery.
Not part of the buy-back deal, however, is the Family Life Center, the campus’s four-story office building that is already up for sale.
Creditors and vendors are still waiting for a combined total of $7.5 million in overdue payments from the church, which it has promised to re-pay in the next 42 months.
No details have been given about potential buyers or the sale price. The Southern California megachurch, whose founder is Robert H. Schuller, is set to be considered at a June 1 hearing.
Church spokesman John Charles told the LA Times: “It’s great news. It gives us the opportunity to pay everybody off and start fresh.”
The Crystal Cathedral will still continue its ministry, which includes worship services, community outreach programs and the weekly Hour of Power broadcast, uninterrupted.
Sheila Schuller Coleman, senior pastor and daughter of the founder, expressed optimism in the new plan, noting that paying back the creditors has been a top priority and that this is the chance to finally do so.
“We are pleased that we are able to honor the debt that we have incurred and to honor the creditors who are due their payment,” she said in a statement.
"The Crystal Cathedral Ministries would like to thank our church members and friends around the world who have given from their hearts to help rebuild a solid foundation from which we can continue our ministry and launch the new vision for the Crystal Cathedral Ministries."
The new vision includes stepping up community outreach efforts such as feeding the hungry and providing resources for job searches.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/crystal-cathedral-up-for-sale-to-end-debt-woes-50573/
By Alison Matheson | Christian Post Correspondent
The Crystal Cathedral is being put on the market as the church seeks a way out of its crippling debt.
The Orange County church is hoping the sale of its imposing glass building will generate enough revenue to save it from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and make good with some 550 creditors.
It has been looking for an exit strategy from its financial woes ever since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October.
The reorganization plan includes the sale of the 40-acre campus to a real estate group with a guaranteed option of leasing it back for 15 years.
After four years, the church would have the option of buying back the Crystal Cathedral, the 13-story Tower of Hope, the welcome center and the cemetery.
Not part of the buy-back deal, however, is the Family Life Center, the campus’s four-story office building that is already up for sale.
Creditors and vendors are still waiting for a combined total of $7.5 million in overdue payments from the church, which it has promised to re-pay in the next 42 months.
No details have been given about potential buyers or the sale price. The Southern California megachurch, whose founder is Robert H. Schuller, is set to be considered at a June 1 hearing.
Church spokesman John Charles told the LA Times: “It’s great news. It gives us the opportunity to pay everybody off and start fresh.”
The Crystal Cathedral will still continue its ministry, which includes worship services, community outreach programs and the weekly Hour of Power broadcast, uninterrupted.
Sheila Schuller Coleman, senior pastor and daughter of the founder, expressed optimism in the new plan, noting that paying back the creditors has been a top priority and that this is the chance to finally do so.
“We are pleased that we are able to honor the debt that we have incurred and to honor the creditors who are due their payment,” she said in a statement.
"The Crystal Cathedral Ministries would like to thank our church members and friends around the world who have given from their hearts to help rebuild a solid foundation from which we can continue our ministry and launch the new vision for the Crystal Cathedral Ministries."
The new vision includes stepping up community outreach efforts such as feeding the hungry and providing resources for job searches.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
INSIDE EDITION Investigates TV Ministers' Lifestyles
INSIDE EDITION Investigates TV Ministers' Lifestyles
http://www.insideedition.com/news/6332/inside-edition-investigates-tv-ministers-lifestyles.aspx
Air date: 5/24/2011
They are some of the most popular TV preachers in the country, packing their mega churches each week and taking in millions every year. They urge the faithful followers to donate generously and in return the Lord will bring them prosperity.
There's no denying some people have prospered handsomely—the pastors themselves. They live like rock stars with huge mansions, private jets, and fancy cars. Their lifestyles are so lavish, six of them have been investigated by the U.S. Senate.
One preacher, Paula White, lives in multimillion dollar homes in New York City and Tampa, Florida. And another preacher, Creflo Dollar, gets around in style, flying in private jets to preach around the country. He owns a mansion in an exclusive Atlanta suburb.
Not one of them would would sit down for an interview about their opulent lifestyle so INSIDE EDITION's Lisa Guerrero caught up with Creflo Dollar at an event in New York City. She asked him, "How do you justify your million dollar mansions and private jets to your donors?" Dollar had no comment.
But when it comes to opulence, few religious leaders compare to Kenneth Copeland. He lives in an 18,000 square foot home outside Ft. Worth, Texas worth $6 million. It has beautiful water views that comes complete with a boat house. But that's not all.
Copeland is an avid pilot, and his pride and joy is a $20 million Cessna Citation jet. It's the fastest private jet money can buy. He said he needed it to better serve the Lord, and proudly did a fly by for his followers after the church bought it.
But that's not the only plane used by the church. We found a fleet of planes registered to the church. And you won't catch him waiting in line at the airport, because he's got his own. The Kenneth Copeland Airport is located right next to his mansion.
"I think Copeland is unbelievably greedy", said Ole Anthony of the Trinity Foundation, a church watchdog group that worked with the Senate Committee investigating Copeland and other TV
"Televangelism is a $2 to $3 billion industry, untaxed, unregulated," said Anthony.
That's right—by law, religious groups like Copeland's are exempt from federal taxes, and they don't have to report how they spend their money to anyone.
Copeland and his church takes in tens of millions a year, through donations and selling books and DVD's to his donors.
When Kristi Parker's mother died of cancer, she said she found diaries that showed her mother sent Copeland most of her life's savings, hoping her faith and donations would heal her deadly disease.
"She sent them a lot of money, a whole lot of money", said Parker.
Guerrero asked Parker, "What do you think of Kenneth Copeland's lifestyle?"
"TV doesn't do it justice. Their office furniture is probably worth more than most people's houses. It make you sick." said Parker.
Copeland, like the other preachers investigated by the Senate, refused INSIDE EDITION's request for an interview, so we caught up with him at an event in North Carolina.
Guerrero asked, "Can you explain to us why you are living such a lifestyle of luxury off of church donations?"
An assistant to Copeland said, "We don't have any time for this," and tried to usher Copeland away. At the same time a hotel employee tried to block our camera.
Guerrero continued to try to get answers from Copeland.
"Why won't you answer any of our questions? It's a simple questions, sir," said Guerrero.
Copeland then agreed to chat and said, "I'm going to give you a simple answer. My life follows scripture. We've never asked anyone for money. We give. We believe we're open."
Guerrero then asked, "Sir, you have a fleet of private jets. Why is that necessary? How many jets do you have?"
Copeland answered, "That's none of your business."
Right after that he walked away.
http://www.insideedition.com/news/6332/inside-edition-investigates-tv-ministers-lifestyles.aspx
Air date: 5/24/2011
They are some of the most popular TV preachers in the country, packing their mega churches each week and taking in millions every year. They urge the faithful followers to donate generously and in return the Lord will bring them prosperity.
There's no denying some people have prospered handsomely—the pastors themselves. They live like rock stars with huge mansions, private jets, and fancy cars. Their lifestyles are so lavish, six of them have been investigated by the U.S. Senate.
One preacher, Paula White, lives in multimillion dollar homes in New York City and Tampa, Florida. And another preacher, Creflo Dollar, gets around in style, flying in private jets to preach around the country. He owns a mansion in an exclusive Atlanta suburb.
Not one of them would would sit down for an interview about their opulent lifestyle so INSIDE EDITION's Lisa Guerrero caught up with Creflo Dollar at an event in New York City. She asked him, "How do you justify your million dollar mansions and private jets to your donors?" Dollar had no comment.
But when it comes to opulence, few religious leaders compare to Kenneth Copeland. He lives in an 18,000 square foot home outside Ft. Worth, Texas worth $6 million. It has beautiful water views that comes complete with a boat house. But that's not all.
Copeland is an avid pilot, and his pride and joy is a $20 million Cessna Citation jet. It's the fastest private jet money can buy. He said he needed it to better serve the Lord, and proudly did a fly by for his followers after the church bought it.
But that's not the only plane used by the church. We found a fleet of planes registered to the church. And you won't catch him waiting in line at the airport, because he's got his own. The Kenneth Copeland Airport is located right next to his mansion.
"I think Copeland is unbelievably greedy", said Ole Anthony of the Trinity Foundation, a church watchdog group that worked with the Senate Committee investigating Copeland and other TV
"Televangelism is a $2 to $3 billion industry, untaxed, unregulated," said Anthony.
That's right—by law, religious groups like Copeland's are exempt from federal taxes, and they don't have to report how they spend their money to anyone.
Copeland and his church takes in tens of millions a year, through donations and selling books and DVD's to his donors.
When Kristi Parker's mother died of cancer, she said she found diaries that showed her mother sent Copeland most of her life's savings, hoping her faith and donations would heal her deadly disease.
"She sent them a lot of money, a whole lot of money", said Parker.
Guerrero asked Parker, "What do you think of Kenneth Copeland's lifestyle?"
"TV doesn't do it justice. Their office furniture is probably worth more than most people's houses. It make you sick." said Parker.
Copeland, like the other preachers investigated by the Senate, refused INSIDE EDITION's request for an interview, so we caught up with him at an event in North Carolina.
Guerrero asked, "Can you explain to us why you are living such a lifestyle of luxury off of church donations?"
An assistant to Copeland said, "We don't have any time for this," and tried to usher Copeland away. At the same time a hotel employee tried to block our camera.
Guerrero continued to try to get answers from Copeland.
"Why won't you answer any of our questions? It's a simple questions, sir," said Guerrero.
Copeland then agreed to chat and said, "I'm going to give you a simple answer. My life follows scripture. We've never asked anyone for money. We give. We believe we're open."
Guerrero then asked, "Sir, you have a fleet of private jets. Why is that necessary? How many jets do you have?"
Copeland answered, "That's none of your business."
Right after that he walked away.
Why people stick by scandal-plagued pastors
Why people stick by scandal-plagued pastors
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/05/27/church.scandal/index.html?hpt=C2
By John Blake, CNN
May 27, 2011 -- Updated 1352 GMT (2152 HKT)
(CNN) -- The streets that were once choked with traffic are now bare. The church's sprawling parking lot is half full. Inside the stylish sanctuary, ushers sway to choir music in front of empty seats.
On a typical Sunday morning, New Birth Missionary Church in suburban Atlanta would be hopping. But on a recent Sunday, the sprawling church complex looked half-deserted and the mood seemed flat.
Six months after a sex scandal involving New Birth's senior pastor, Bishop Eddie Long, became public, the megachurch no longer packs them in. Yet there are loyalists, like C.D. Dixon, who have not joined the exodus.
"I come back to the church even more now because the word is more powerful," she said as she stood with a serene smile in the parking lot before a recent service.
Last fall, four young men accused Long of using his spiritual authority to pressure them into sexual relationships, charges that Long has vehemently denied. On Thursday, lawyers for the four men released a statement saying only that "the matter has been resolved."
Belief Blog: Bishop Eddie Long settles with accusers
For Dixon, though, the allegations only make Long's sermons more powerful.
"The cry from the bishop's belly is more now. We're not dealing with right or wrong. We're dealing with God's deliverance. I don't know if that makes sense to you."
For some, it doesn't. While most church scandals revolve around the conduct of a pastor, there's another question lurking behind the headlines that onlookers often ask: Why do some people stick by their pastor even when everyone else in the church seems to be leaving?
Building a firewall
Some do it because they've placed a "spiritual firewall" around their pastor, and in their own mind, said Sue Thompson, a professional speaker who attended a church that disintegrated after a pastor's extramarital affair was exposed.
We were on the front page for all of the wrong reasons.
--Janet Shan, on megachurch destroyed by pastor scandals.
She said some parishioners cannot leave a pastor because they credit him or her with a life-changing event, such as inspiring them to overcome drug addiction or turning around a disastrous marriage.
To accept such a pastor's guilt, she said, would lead them to contemplate another possibility: Is my life-changing event just as fraudulent as the pastor who inspired it?
"There is a suspension of common sense, a refusal to put two and two together," Thompson said. "For a lot of people, this is the man who gave them the keys to a whole new way of living. They can't separate the good they received from the man himself, so they feel it would be a betrayal to turn on him now."
When outsiders ratchet up criticism against an embattled pastor, members often go into battle mode, said Thompson, author of "The Prodigal Brother: Making Peace with Your Parents, Your Past, and the Wayward One in Your Family."
"They circle the wagons to protect their guy," Thompson said. "They don't want to see, and they don't want to be made to see what 'the world' sees. They believe the world's view is false, so they form the firewall."
Conditioned by the language of persecution
Some parishioners can't let go because of their reading of the Bible, a religion scholar said.
The Bible is full of persecution stories: The Egyptian oppression of the Israelites, the persecution of Jesus. Some pastors who are frequent targets for criticism condition their followers to stick by them no matter what by invoking these stories, said Jonathan Walton, an assistant professor of religion at Harvard Divinity School in Massachusetts.
Parishioners rallied around televangelist Jim Bakker for years before a scandal destroyed the pastor's ministry.
"Many of these churches are conditioned to be under scrutiny," Walton said. "They view themselves as saints living in exile in the world. Nobody at the end of the day wants to be labeled Judas or, God forbid, Peter, the one who denied the faith at the moment of persecution."
The persecution mentality can take on another dimension when race is added to the mix, said Marla Frederick, author of "Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith."
African-American history is filled with examples of charismatic black religious figures -- the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; Malcolm X; Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam -- who were targeted by shadowy political forces trying to discredit them, Frederick said.
"At the time, it was seen as a white racist society trying to dismantle a strong black organization," Frederick said. "They didn't like to see black men being successful. People felt like there were larger political forces at work."
'Watching a train wreck every Sunday morning'
Sometimes, people stick by an embattled pastor for voyeuristic reasons -- they like watching "train wrecks," said one sociologist who has studied megachurches.
Shayne Lee, a sociologist and co-author of "Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace," said some parishioners see scandal as a spiritual spectacle. They view themselves as participants in a cosmic struggle.
"When you have a spiritual world view that emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit and you see all these dynamic tensions in church, it's exciting to see the forces of evil and the power of God at work," Lee said. "There's a certain dynamism that's attractive and keeps people coming back."
And then some parishioners won't let preacher scandals drive them away because they say that the message they receive is more important than the vessel that delivers it.
Thomas Kirkpatrick cited that rationale as he walked to New Birth for Sunday service. He shrugged at the allegations surrounding Long.
Long publicly denied the sexual coercion claims, and compared himself to David fighting Goliath. The scandal's impact on New Birth, though, may already be apparent. Attendance has dropped, staff is being laid off and Long recently announced that he would take a salary cut.
A New Birth spokesman attributed the changes to a sour economy and said the declining attendance is the result of more people watching the church service online.
None of this appeared to matter to Kirkpatrick. He said Long would have to answer to God, not him.
"I don't think Bishop Long can do anything worse than what Judas did, and God still loved him," Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick compared pastors to doctors.
"There are people who we trust with our lives every day, like doctors, who do all sorts of things, but we don't question them. This is our spiritual medicine. We come here to get what we need and then we leave."
When asked if there was anything that would cause him to stop attending New Birth, Kirkpatrick lowered his head and paused before he finally said:
"The church would have to close."
Breaking through the firewall
They believe the world's view is false so they form a firewall.
-- Susan Thompson, Christian author, on parishioners who stick by scandal-plagued pastors no matter what
Janet Shan said she couldn't wait that long at her former church. She wrote an online essay about the emotional whiplash she experienced when her church became engulfed in scandal.
Shan was a regular attendee at Chapel Hill Harvester Church, an Atlanta megachurch whose pastor was caught in a sex scandal that involved several women. The church was eventually forced to sell its massive cathedral and close.
When the media first reported the women's accusations, the church's pastor, Bishop Earl Paulk, denied allegations.
He also invoked scripture.
"He blamed it all on Satan," said Shan, a freelance writer and editor of an online magazine, The Hinterland Gazette.
Shan said she didn't initially believe the accusations because she thought the women had ulterior motives. But as more accusations surfaced, she became suspicious.
So did many in the congregation. She said the church pews started emptying "faster than someone yelling fire." Those remaining began arguing among themselves. Church leaders vanished from the pulpit without explanation, she said.
"People were devastated," Shan said. "There was a feeling of defeat in the atmosphere. We were on the front page for all of the wrong reasons."
The allegations over Paulk's sexual indiscretions made headlines for over a decade. One accuser said Paulk molested her when she was a child. That allegation ended in a civil suit that was settled out of court.
During a deposition in another suit filed by a woman, Paulk said under oath that he had slept with only one woman outside of marriage. A court-ordered paternity test then revealed that he had also fathered a child with his brother's wife.
Paulk eventually pleaded guilty to lying under oath, and was fined $1,000 and placed on probation for 10 years. He died in 2009 at 81 from cancer.
Shan left Paulk's church, but like others who had abandoned churches rocked by scandal, it took time to recover.
"I didn't go to church for a year or two," she said. "I've lowered my expectations for pastors."
Trying to persuade a parishioner to leave is difficult, though, said Thompson, the professional speaker who left her own embattled church.
"It cannot be done by simply showing the person who still believes in the charlatan 'the truth' about him," she said. "It can't be done by ridiculing and dismissing the person's faith in the man. It is done by sincere biblical discussions, talking about the red flags that everyone saw but many were ignoring."
Thompson said church members must ultimately learn two lessons: The message must be disconnected from the messenger, and "psychopaths and narcissists live in the church world, too."
Then again, that still might not be enough, she said.
"For a lot of people, it will take catching the guy in the act -- he runs off with church money, he goes to jail, he's caught on film with a prostitute," she said. "And even then, some are so fundamentally misinformed about concepts of forgiveness and judgment that they blindly go on supporting him."
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/05/27/church.scandal/index.html?hpt=C2
By John Blake, CNN
May 27, 2011 -- Updated 1352 GMT (2152 HKT)
(CNN) -- The streets that were once choked with traffic are now bare. The church's sprawling parking lot is half full. Inside the stylish sanctuary, ushers sway to choir music in front of empty seats.
On a typical Sunday morning, New Birth Missionary Church in suburban Atlanta would be hopping. But on a recent Sunday, the sprawling church complex looked half-deserted and the mood seemed flat.
Six months after a sex scandal involving New Birth's senior pastor, Bishop Eddie Long, became public, the megachurch no longer packs them in. Yet there are loyalists, like C.D. Dixon, who have not joined the exodus.
"I come back to the church even more now because the word is more powerful," she said as she stood with a serene smile in the parking lot before a recent service.
Last fall, four young men accused Long of using his spiritual authority to pressure them into sexual relationships, charges that Long has vehemently denied. On Thursday, lawyers for the four men released a statement saying only that "the matter has been resolved."
Belief Blog: Bishop Eddie Long settles with accusers
For Dixon, though, the allegations only make Long's sermons more powerful.
"The cry from the bishop's belly is more now. We're not dealing with right or wrong. We're dealing with God's deliverance. I don't know if that makes sense to you."
For some, it doesn't. While most church scandals revolve around the conduct of a pastor, there's another question lurking behind the headlines that onlookers often ask: Why do some people stick by their pastor even when everyone else in the church seems to be leaving?
Building a firewall
Some do it because they've placed a "spiritual firewall" around their pastor, and in their own mind, said Sue Thompson, a professional speaker who attended a church that disintegrated after a pastor's extramarital affair was exposed.
We were on the front page for all of the wrong reasons.
--Janet Shan, on megachurch destroyed by pastor scandals.
She said some parishioners cannot leave a pastor because they credit him or her with a life-changing event, such as inspiring them to overcome drug addiction or turning around a disastrous marriage.
To accept such a pastor's guilt, she said, would lead them to contemplate another possibility: Is my life-changing event just as fraudulent as the pastor who inspired it?
"There is a suspension of common sense, a refusal to put two and two together," Thompson said. "For a lot of people, this is the man who gave them the keys to a whole new way of living. They can't separate the good they received from the man himself, so they feel it would be a betrayal to turn on him now."
When outsiders ratchet up criticism against an embattled pastor, members often go into battle mode, said Thompson, author of "The Prodigal Brother: Making Peace with Your Parents, Your Past, and the Wayward One in Your Family."
"They circle the wagons to protect their guy," Thompson said. "They don't want to see, and they don't want to be made to see what 'the world' sees. They believe the world's view is false, so they form the firewall."
Conditioned by the language of persecution
Some parishioners can't let go because of their reading of the Bible, a religion scholar said.
The Bible is full of persecution stories: The Egyptian oppression of the Israelites, the persecution of Jesus. Some pastors who are frequent targets for criticism condition their followers to stick by them no matter what by invoking these stories, said Jonathan Walton, an assistant professor of religion at Harvard Divinity School in Massachusetts.
Parishioners rallied around televangelist Jim Bakker for years before a scandal destroyed the pastor's ministry.
"Many of these churches are conditioned to be under scrutiny," Walton said. "They view themselves as saints living in exile in the world. Nobody at the end of the day wants to be labeled Judas or, God forbid, Peter, the one who denied the faith at the moment of persecution."
The persecution mentality can take on another dimension when race is added to the mix, said Marla Frederick, author of "Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith."
African-American history is filled with examples of charismatic black religious figures -- the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; Malcolm X; Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam -- who were targeted by shadowy political forces trying to discredit them, Frederick said.
"At the time, it was seen as a white racist society trying to dismantle a strong black organization," Frederick said. "They didn't like to see black men being successful. People felt like there were larger political forces at work."
'Watching a train wreck every Sunday morning'
Sometimes, people stick by an embattled pastor for voyeuristic reasons -- they like watching "train wrecks," said one sociologist who has studied megachurches.
Shayne Lee, a sociologist and co-author of "Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace," said some parishioners see scandal as a spiritual spectacle. They view themselves as participants in a cosmic struggle.
"When you have a spiritual world view that emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit and you see all these dynamic tensions in church, it's exciting to see the forces of evil and the power of God at work," Lee said. "There's a certain dynamism that's attractive and keeps people coming back."
And then some parishioners won't let preacher scandals drive them away because they say that the message they receive is more important than the vessel that delivers it.
Thomas Kirkpatrick cited that rationale as he walked to New Birth for Sunday service. He shrugged at the allegations surrounding Long.
Long publicly denied the sexual coercion claims, and compared himself to David fighting Goliath. The scandal's impact on New Birth, though, may already be apparent. Attendance has dropped, staff is being laid off and Long recently announced that he would take a salary cut.
A New Birth spokesman attributed the changes to a sour economy and said the declining attendance is the result of more people watching the church service online.
None of this appeared to matter to Kirkpatrick. He said Long would have to answer to God, not him.
"I don't think Bishop Long can do anything worse than what Judas did, and God still loved him," Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick compared pastors to doctors.
"There are people who we trust with our lives every day, like doctors, who do all sorts of things, but we don't question them. This is our spiritual medicine. We come here to get what we need and then we leave."
When asked if there was anything that would cause him to stop attending New Birth, Kirkpatrick lowered his head and paused before he finally said:
"The church would have to close."
Breaking through the firewall
They believe the world's view is false so they form a firewall.
-- Susan Thompson, Christian author, on parishioners who stick by scandal-plagued pastors no matter what
Janet Shan said she couldn't wait that long at her former church. She wrote an online essay about the emotional whiplash she experienced when her church became engulfed in scandal.
Shan was a regular attendee at Chapel Hill Harvester Church, an Atlanta megachurch whose pastor was caught in a sex scandal that involved several women. The church was eventually forced to sell its massive cathedral and close.
When the media first reported the women's accusations, the church's pastor, Bishop Earl Paulk, denied allegations.
He also invoked scripture.
"He blamed it all on Satan," said Shan, a freelance writer and editor of an online magazine, The Hinterland Gazette.
Shan said she didn't initially believe the accusations because she thought the women had ulterior motives. But as more accusations surfaced, she became suspicious.
So did many in the congregation. She said the church pews started emptying "faster than someone yelling fire." Those remaining began arguing among themselves. Church leaders vanished from the pulpit without explanation, she said.
"People were devastated," Shan said. "There was a feeling of defeat in the atmosphere. We were on the front page for all of the wrong reasons."
The allegations over Paulk's sexual indiscretions made headlines for over a decade. One accuser said Paulk molested her when she was a child. That allegation ended in a civil suit that was settled out of court.
During a deposition in another suit filed by a woman, Paulk said under oath that he had slept with only one woman outside of marriage. A court-ordered paternity test then revealed that he had also fathered a child with his brother's wife.
Paulk eventually pleaded guilty to lying under oath, and was fined $1,000 and placed on probation for 10 years. He died in 2009 at 81 from cancer.
Shan left Paulk's church, but like others who had abandoned churches rocked by scandal, it took time to recover.
"I didn't go to church for a year or two," she said. "I've lowered my expectations for pastors."
Trying to persuade a parishioner to leave is difficult, though, said Thompson, the professional speaker who left her own embattled church.
"It cannot be done by simply showing the person who still believes in the charlatan 'the truth' about him," she said. "It can't be done by ridiculing and dismissing the person's faith in the man. It is done by sincere biblical discussions, talking about the red flags that everyone saw but many were ignoring."
Thompson said church members must ultimately learn two lessons: The message must be disconnected from the messenger, and "psychopaths and narcissists live in the church world, too."
Then again, that still might not be enough, she said.
"For a lot of people, it will take catching the guy in the act -- he runs off with church money, he goes to jail, he's caught on film with a prostitute," she said. "And even then, some are so fundamentally misinformed about concepts of forgiveness and judgment that they blindly go on supporting him."
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