Iraq's Assyrian Christians find temporary home in Kurdistan

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS - By Adam Ashton - August 5, 2009

AINKAWA, Iraq - For 35-year-old Rajo Qardaq Palander, a church security guard, the breaking point came last year, when insurgents demanded that he pay $20,000 or abandon his home in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood.
The choice was easy. He slipped out of Dora in the dead of night, joining the exodus of Assyrian Christians from Baghdad and Mosul to this haven in Iraq's Kurdish-controlled north.

"I held on as long as I could," Palander, 35 said. "I have no future in Iraq."
One of Iraq's most ancient national groups, the Assyrian Christians, who're Eastern Orthodox Christians, have largely quit their ancestral home in Arab Iraq and fled to the Kurdish region, where tens of thousands now live, or abroad.

The pressure on the Assyrians continues: Five churches were bombed in Baghdad in early July and killings continue in Mosul. In Ainkawa, a city of 40,000 on the outskirts of the main city of Irbil, there's sanctuary, castle-like churches, which dominate entire city blocks, and liquor, a trade that Christians dominated in Baghdad, is for sale openly.
Still, refugees and others who're choosing to stay in Iraq fear the days ahead. They're hoping to make political gains in Iraq's Kurdish provinces and to reclaim lost land.

"For the time being, it's a better place. But it's a dark future," said Father Isha Najiba, an Eastern Assyrian priest in Ainkawa who served in Dora until 2002.
He stresses that everyone in Iraq has suffered because of the war. The numbers of Assyrians make the pain especially acute for a minority proud of its history as the descendants of an empire that covered much of northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and parts of Iran in pre-Biblical times.

"If 100 Muslims die, it will have the same impact as the killing of one Christian because there are so few of us," Najiba said.
The number of Assyrians and Chaldean Catholics remaining in Iraq - including Kurdistan - is hard to pin down, with estimates ranging from 150,000 to 800,000. It's accepted that the war has driven as much as half the former population to seek refuge outside Iraq.

Najiba said that only 150 of the 1,100 Assyrians who lived in his Dora neighborhood before the war are still in Baghdad. The others are in Syria, Jordan, or cities such as Ainkawa, in Iraq's Kurdish provinces.
They leave a visible mark in Ainkawa. Residents say a third to half the people living here fled Baghdad or Mosul since the war started more than six years ago.

A huge poster showing Pope Benedict XVI greeting Kurdish President Massoud Barzani looms over the main intersection leading into the city, reflecting Barzani's overtures to the growing community.
Green banners for Heineken beer hang from restaurants and bars, advertising a hidden vice in the Muslim cities that surround Ainkawa.

The Kurds "don't do anything to harm us, and that's enough," said Samir Francis, 35, whose home in Dora was blown up two weeks after he abandoned it in 2006, a message telling him not to return. ...

Assyrians have been scattered across the globe since the Ottoman Empire flushed many of them out of Turkey in the early 20th century. They've lost territory in Iraq to Kurds and Arabs alike. Many Assyrians who could afford to leave fled the country under Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, settling in Europe, the U.S. and Australia.
Many now live in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, two primary destinations for Assyrians seeking refugee status in the U.S.

Under Saddam, politically active Assyrians faced targeted threats. Others were pushed off their land, particularly in the countryside. Yonadam Kanna, the only Assyrian member of Iraq's current parliament, had been sentenced to death by the late dictator.

Assyrian Christians and Chaldean Catholics describe Saddam's tenure as a time of persecution, but it was the sectarian violence that ripped apart Iraq between 2005 and 2008 that drove them from Baghdad and Mosul.

Refugees in Ainkawa said they were targeted either for their religious identity or to seize their money and property. They blame mostly Sunni Muslim insurgent groups for the intimidation that evicted them from Baghdad's Dora neighborhood.

Their main concern in Ainkawa today centers on the power of the two leading Kurdish political parties, Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Assyrians say their job prospects are limited if they don't join the KDP or the PUK, a concern shared by some Muslims in Irbil. ...

"Christians have been separated into many parts," he said. "There's no hope for the people who have emigrated. They won't come back."

ABOUT THE ASSYRIANS
Assyrians are said to be the oldest ethnic group to live in the region known today as Iraq. Three millennia ago, they controlled an empire that extended from modern-day Syria to Turkey, included northern Iraq and parts of Iran.
Their native language is Aramaic, which is thought to be the language Jesus spoke. Assyrians are Christians and belong to the Assyrian Church, a Catholic rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Church, both eastern Orthodox rites.
Prior to the U.S. military invasion in 2003, Assyrians in Iraq numbered 1.5 million, or some 8 percent of Iraq's population. At least half of them have since fled the country, however, after Assyrian churches, shops and businesses were attacked.





Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/08/05/73147/iraqs-assyrian-christians-find.html

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Fifty Christians Burned Alive in Pastor's Home in Nigeria

"Nigeria is truly becoming the new killing field for Christians ..."
THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Stoyan Zaimov - July 16, 2012
As the attacks on Nigeria's Christians continued in full force this past week, a particularly grisly attack saw fifty believers burned to death at their pastor's home, where they had fled for refuge from a terrorist attack.
Reports disclosed that over 100 people were killed by armed terrorists this past week, who went on a 12-village killing spree in Nigeria's Plateau state. Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has once again taken responsibility for the assaults.

Different sources have shared various reports of the number of lost lives from last week's assault on Christians, which have been occurring on a weekly basis for many months in Nigeria. But a story last week by the Baptist Press confirmed that about 50 members of the Church of Christ in Nigeria in the village of Maseh were burned alive after they took refuge in their pastor's house following a terrorist raid.
"Fifty of our church members were killed in the church building where they had fled to take refuge. They were killed alongside the wife of the pastor and children," said the Rev. Dachollom Datiri, vice president of the Church of Christ in Nigeria, in a July 11 interview.

Officials from the church confirmed that over 100 members were killed through various villages in Nigeria, which included Maseh, Ninchah, Kakkuruk, Kuzen, Negon, Pwabiduk, Kai, Ngyo, Kura Falls, Dogo, Kufang, and Ruk.
"Nigeria is truly becoming the new killing field for Christians. Hundreds of Christians have already been brutally murdered – including women and children – by the Boko Haram," said Open Doors, USA spokesman Jerry Dykst. "The Boko Haram earlier this week said that all Christians need to turn to Islam or 'they would never know peace again.' Their goal is make all of Nigeria a country run and dominated by Shariah law." ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.christianpost.com/news/fifty-christians-burned-alive-in-pastors-home-in-nigeria-78303/

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Muslims trying for revolution in Nigeria

Analyst warns ultimate goal is 'Islamic government that rules by Shariah law'
WND [WorldNetDaily] - By Michael Carl - June 21, 2012
Reports are documenting how more than 100 people have been killed as a result of gun battles between Muslim Boko Haram guerrillas and Nigerian soldiers in the northern state of Kaduna in recent days, following  another series of bomb attacks against Christians.
Those included  three bomb attacks in Kaduna and Zaria this week killed at least 50 people.

What’s going on, according to Heritage Foundation Africa analyst  Morgan Roach,  likely is an attempt at a revolution that would turn Nigeria into a Shariah-practicing Muslim nation.
“The first reason is ideological. [Boko Haram] wants to overthrow the Christian state and replace it with an Islamic government that rules by Shariah law,” Roach said.

But she said the Muslims also have a political motive.
“Attacks against Christians undermine the authority of President Goodluck Jonathan (a Christian) and exploit the government’s lack of will or ability to protect Nigerian citizens,” Roach said.

Yet another reason is simply to create intertribal and inter-religious strife.
“The attacks are a useful tool to create sectarian instability. It must be said that in many parts of Nigeria, Muslims and Christians get along quite well. However, this dynamic is marred by Boko Haram’s ability to instigate violence,” Roach said.

“As the Nigerian government has proven ineffective at defending its Christian population, Christians are losing patience and either taking up arms to defend themselves or retaliating outright through violence,” Roach said. ...
“Nigerian security forces are already a major part of the picture. They’re often a source of grievances [for] both Muslims and Christians as they are unprofessional and tend to maintain a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ mindset,” Roach said.

Christian human rights group  International Christian Concern Africa analyst Jonathan Racho says government security is lacking.
“The Nigerian security forces have failed to protect Christians from the attacks. We are afraid this trend will continue unless the international community, particularly the U.S., put pressure on Nigeria to protect the Christians,” Racho said. ...

Racho says that there is one other factor that would stop Boko Haram’s operations.
“Boko Haram has said that the only way in which they will stop the attacks against Christians is if the Christians convert to Islam. This is an unacceptable condition,” Racho said.

“We are observing a very dangerous trend in Nigeria where members of the radical Islamic group, Boko Haram, has been bombing churches during Sunday worship services,” Racho said.
“We urge Nigerian security forces to come up with strategy to stop this dangerous group from wiping out Christians from northern Nigeria,” Racho said. ...

”During my recent visit to Nigeria, I met several Christians who left their homes in the north due to attacks by Boko Haram. In some areas, members of Boko Haram go door-to-door hunting Christians,” Racho said.
Racho compares Boko Haram’s operations to genocide.
“In my opinion, what we are seeing in Nigeria amounts to religious cleansing and warrants serious consideration from the part of the international community,” Racho said.

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/muslims-trying-for-revolution-in-nigeria/

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Yale University May Revoke Fraternity's Charter Due to Its Christians-Only Bylaw

THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Katherine Weber - October 3, 2012
Reports from Yale University indicate that the largest Christian fraternity in the nation is struggling to attain official recognition at the prestigious school because its religion-based bylaws conflict with the school's non-discrimination policy.
Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX), the largest Christian fraternity in the nation, opened its new chapter at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., in mid-September. Just days after its opening, however, the school newspaper reported that the fraternity "will have to change its membership rules if it intends to comply with Yale's anti-discrimination policies."
The fraternity only allows men who are Christian to join, although it welcomes all students to its events. ...
Yale's non-discrimination policy does not allow student groups to carry the Yale name if they in any way discriminate against "sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, or national or ethnic origin," although, as Christian student news source World on Campus points out, there are exceptions, such as the student group Yale Law Women barring men from membership. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.christianpost.com/news/yale-university-may-revoke-fraternitys-charter-due-to-its-christians-only-bylaw-82598/

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American "Mainstream Media" changing war-on-terror terminology

Leftist media employ devious, sinister tactic to deceive Americans, alter perception

WND [WorldNetDaily] - By Joe Kovacs - September 5, 2011

American news media are deliberately reshaping war-on-terror terminology for propaganda purposes to prevent radical Muslims from being perceived in a negative light in the wake of the 9/11 attacks a decade ago. ...

"A big part of the problem facing America today is the obfuscation and disinformation fed to the American people as a daily diet of slow poison," says Geller, publisher of the popular AtlasShrugs.com.

"Today the left is manipulating language to make Americans ignorant or complacent about the Islamic threat."
She says one simple example can be seen with how the word "extremist" is now utilized in news stories.
"It is commonly used of both Islamic jihad terrorists, and those who fight against them and against Islamization in general," Geller explains.
"So for the mainstream lapdog media, the Fort Hood jihad assassin Major Hasan is an 'extremist,' and so am I. The word is used to claim that Islam has nothing to do with jihad terrorism - it's all just 'extremism,' and every religion has its 'extremists.' ...

Geller says in case you've ever wondered why you never got the straight story on Islam directly after Sept. 11, 2001, and still haven't, as well as "why the media seems in the tank for jihad, here's a clue."
"A couple of weeks after 9/11, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) issued a directive about how to cover Islam. For sheer propaganda, their 'Diversity Guidelines' are hard to beat. In fact, the enemy who attacked our country in an attempt to bring it down may just as well have been writing the narrative."

The guidelines, adopted less than a month after the terrorist attacks, urge journalists to "take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism and to reaffirm their commitment to use language that is informative and not inflammatory."
Some of the recommended steps include seeking out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing Americans mourning those lost in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, and seeking truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that help audiences understand the complexities of the tragic events.

The translation, says Geller, is "despite the horror, murder, and bloodshed of jihad, don't tell the people. That is what is important: the scrubbing of the truth. In effect, they are aiding in the self-enforcement of the Shariah (blasphemy laws)."
Another recommended step to deflect attention away from the Islamic character of jihad, reporters have been instructed to "portray Muslims, Arabs, and Middle Eastern, and South Asian Americans in the richness of their diverse experiences."

"Portray the beheaders, the homicide bombers, and the infiltrators in the 'richness of their diverse experience'?" asks Geller. "You mean the stonings, amputations, Shariah law, clitorectomies, Jew-hatred, Hindu-hatred, the brutal conquests of India and Persia, and the caliphate? Yes, infidels, that is the poisonous fruit of the revered institution of multiculturalism."
In her book, Geller gives an in-depth examination of how those who work at American news agencies are being turned against the very people for whom they report.
"The SPJ is telling journalists to throw Americans under the bus and kiss the adherents to the Islamic ideology that murdered our people and want to take over this country."

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=341749

• Related News

"Courageous effort" leads to resolution banning "I-word"

SPJ Diversity Committee Caps Exciting Week

WHOS NEWS DIVERSITY EVERY DAY > a blog of the Society of Professional Journalists - By Curtis Lawrence - September 30, 2011

This has been a great week for the Society of Professional Journalists' Diversity Committee.  We had a successful Diversity Leadership Program including six stellar women.  We also were able to pass two resolutions - one including diversity hiring and one urging journalists to cease the use of  "illegal alien" in news coverage.  The resolution urging the end of the "I-Word" was the result of a courageous effort led by Diversity Committee member Leo Laurence over a two-year span. ...
Below is a description of last week's events by Diversity Committee Member Jeremy Steele. He mentions some of the key players and includes the resolution at the end. ...
The following is a memo from Jeremy Steele to the SPJ Diversity Committee:

Good morning, everyone,

Yesterday's closing business session was certainly interesting and packed with thoughtful debate on a lot of big issues. I wanted to give members of the Diversity Committee an update.

... Then we began the work on four other resolutions, including the resolution put forward by the diversity committee on the use of "illegal alien" and "illegal immigrant," support of a federal shield law (passed), two resolutions attempting to bring back the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award (both failed) ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://blogs.spjnetwork.org/diversity/2011/09/30/spj-diversity-committee-caps-exciting-week/

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Meshing realism and idealism in Middle East

THE WASHINGTON POST [Wash Post Group/Graham] - By Henry A. Kissinger - August 2, 2012
The Arab Spring is often celebrated by reciting the roll call of overthrown autocrats. But revolutions, in the end, will be judged primarily by what they build, not what they destroy. And in this respect, a year of revolution has refashioned exhilaration into paradox.

The United States applauded the demonstrations in Egypt’s Tahrir Square. Blaming itself for too protracted an association with an undemocratic leader, it urged Hosni Mubarak to step down. But once he did so, the original exultant demonstrators have not turned out to be the heirs. Instead, Islamists with no record of democracy and a history of hostility to the West have been elected to a presidency they had pledged not to seek. They are opposed by the military, which had buttressed the previous regime. The secular democratic element has been marginalized. Where do we go from here?

Contrary to recent conventional wisdom, at no point was the internal structure of Egypt the United States’s to determine. For millennia, monarchs and military autocrats have held sway. In the 1970s, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat abandoned the Soviet alliance forged by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s military regime 20 years earlier. Sadat made peace with Israel, with the United States acting as mediator. These events helped to transform the Cold War. They reflected a hard-headed assessment by all parties of the relation of forces that emerged from the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Islamist extremists, whose continued terrorism was used by his successor, Mubarak, as justification for prolonged emergency powers.

Throughout, Egypt and its government were facts of international life; American administrations of both parties, faced with the Cold War and looming turmoil in the region, judged it crucial to work with a major Arab country willing to take risks for regional peace. As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton affirmed in her recent Cairo press conference, “We worked with the government of the country at the time.”

At what point, faced first with Soviet adventurism and then the consequences of the Soviet Union’s disintegration, did the United States have an option to intervene directly in the region’s domestic politics? From Nixon through Clinton, American presidents judged the risks of such a course to outweigh its benefits. The George W. Bush administration did urge Mubarak to permit multiparty elections and criticized his suppression of dissent, and President Obama affirmed a similar direction early in his administration. U.S. foreign policy is neither the cause of, nor the solution to, all shortcomings in other countries’ domestic governance - especially in the Middle East.

With a constitution yet to be drafted, the function of key institutions in contention between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military, and an electorate closely divided between dramatically different visions of their country’s future, Egypt’s revolution is far from its end. U.S. policy is torn between competing imperatives. The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged by electoral processes called for by democratic values, while the military stands for outcomes that are closer to the the U.S. concept of international security (and possibly of domestic pluralism). If the United States erred in the Cold War period by excessive emphasis on the security element, it now runs the risk of confusing sectarian populism with democracy.

Amid these tremors, the debate regarding the determinants of U.S. foreign policy is reigniting. Realists judge the events from the perspective of security strategy; idealists see them as an opportunity to promote democracy. But the choice is not between the strategic and the idealistic. If we cannot combine both elements, we will achieve neither.

In that context we must face, and not fudge, the following questions: Do we stand aloof from these internal processes, or do we try to shape them? Do we back one of the contestants or concentrate on advocating electoral procedures (knowing that this may guarantee a strategically repugnant result)? Can our commitment to democracy avoid leading to a sectarian absolutism based on managed plebiscites and one-party rule?

In Egypt, backing a military council composed mostly of Mubarak associates offends democratic sensibilities. Postulating shared values with an explicitly Islamist party, which for generations has advocated an anti-Western course for the entire region, substitutes hope for experience. Military regimes have proved fragile; ideologically driven organizations have used democratic institutions for undemocratic ends and to challenge regional order. We should be open to genuine moderation shown by ideological opponents. But we should not be reluctant to affirm our security interests. In this narrow passage, U.S. policy must navigate without deluding itself that the key players are waiting for our instructions.

In Syria, even more complex comparable dilemmas loom. (On one level, Syria contradicts the argument that the United States could have promoted a more democratic outcome in Egypt by withholding cooperative relations. U.S. aloofness surely did not moderate the Assad family’s authoritarianism.)

In our public debate, the crisis in Syria is generally described as a struggle for democracy, and its culmination is presumed to be the removal of Bashar al-Assad. Neither attribute fits the essence of the problem. The real issue is a struggle for dominance between Assad’s Alawites, backed by many of the other Syrian minorities, and the Sunni majority.

Assad himself is an unlikely leader with a reputation for indecisiveness. Having settled in London as an ophthalmologist - a profession that usually does not attract the power-hungry - he was drafted into Syrian politics only after the death of his elder brother, the designated heir to their dominant father. The conflict in Syria is therefore likely to continue - probably even intensify - upon Assad’s welcome and all but inevitable removal. With their front man gone, Assad’s clan and the Alawite minority, dominant in Syria’s military, may consider themselves reduced to a struggle for physical survival.

Constructing a political alternative to the Assad regime will prove even more complex than the course in Egypt or the other Arab Spring countries, since the contending factions are more numerous and less clearly delineated, and their differences more intense. Without creative leadership to build an inclusive political order - a prospect not yet clearly in evidence among the combatants - Syria may break into component ethnic and sectarian entities, whose strife would then risk spreading by means of affiliated populations into neighboring countries.

On all sides of the Syrian conflict, the commitment of the belligerents to democratic values and alignment with Western interests is, at best, untested. Al-Qaeda has now entered the conflict, effectively on the side that the United States is being asked to join. In such circumstances, U.S. policymakers encounter a choice not between a “realistic” and an “idealistic” outcome but between competing imperfections, between considerations of strategy and of governance. We are stymied on Syria because we have a strategic interest in breaking the Assad clan’s alliance with Iran, which we are reluctant to avow, and the moral objective of saving human lives, which we are unable to implement through the U.N. Security Council.

Since the Arab uprisings began, four governments have fallen, and several others have been seriously tested. The United States has felt obliged to respond to and occasionally to participate in this drama, but it has still not answered fundamental questions about its direction: Do we have a vision of what strategic equation in the region serves our and global interests? Or of the means to achieve them? How do we handle the economic assistance which may be the best, if not the only, means to influence the evolution?

The United States can and should assist on the long journey toward societies based on civil tolerance and individual rights. But it cannot do so effectively by casting every conflict entirely in ideological terms. Our efforts must also be placed within a framework of U.S. strategic interests, which should help define the extent and nature of our role. Progress toward a world order embracing participatory governance and international cooperation requires the fortitude to work through intermediate stages. It also requires that the various aspirants to a new order in the Middle East recognize that our contribution to their efforts will be measured by their compatibility with our interests and values. For this, the realism and idealism we now treat as incompatible need to be reconciled.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/henry-kissinger-meshing-realism-and-idealism-in-syria-middle-east/2012/08/02/gJQAFkyHTX_print.html

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Hillary Clinton : We created Al-Qaeda

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The Painful Truth About "CHEMTRAILS"

SOVEREIGN MIND MAGAZINE - By Jerry E. Smith - May/June 2009
I have been aggressively researching "chemtrails" since 1996. I first heard the phrase in 1995 and witnessed them in 1996 while working on my book "HAARP: The Ultimate Weapon of the Conspiracy." I devoted 100 pages to this subject in my next book on the subject: "WEATHER WARFARE: The Military’s Plan To Draft Mother Nature."

In "WEATHER WARFARE" I documented (from the open scientific and military literature and other mainstream sources) that there are indeed extremely high altitude atmospheric releases for scientific and military purposes (mainly releases of barium and aluminum). These are primarily used for Surveillance and Communications, such as for over-the-horizon radar and creating artificial radio bounce spots. These releases are at altitudes two or three times higher than commercial jet aircraft fly and do not leave visible "trails." ...

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Number of faithful Mormons rapidly declining

KTVX-TV ABC 4/40 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH [Newport Television, LLC] - January 31, 2012

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2011 Norway attacks: Perfect opportunity for anti-Christian Politicians & Media to attack Bible believing Christians at the expense of all truth

Norway's Killer, "Christian Fundamentalism,"
and the Media

LIFEWAY REASEARCH BLOG - By Ed Stetzer - July 23, 2011

The phrase "Christian fundamentalist" is all over the news today. Anders Behring Breivik (the Norwegian mass murderer) appears to be one, according to many news sources, but particularly The Atlantic. Fair enough-- he very well may identify himself that way, but I'd like to know why that term has now been so readily embraced.

Before getting to that, let me say that this is a tragedy of enormous proportion. A nation is grieving. My discussion of labeling and terminology should not distract us from that. Please pray with me for the families of the victims.

Yet, there are concerns here-- and I think they point to a growing perception among the media and elsewhere that "Christian fundamentalists" are a looming threat. Many are beginning to notice and comment on the "fundamentalist" connection.

The Atlantic headline shouts, "The Christian Extremist Suspect in Norway's Massacre" and later gives the reason why ...  

My concern is that this narrative has quickly caught on because, for many, some have been expecting such a thing from these "crazy Christian fundamentalists." As such, you can expect more articles and commentaries like the one from Frank Schaeffer, comparing "Christian fundamentalists" to the Taliban.

Some might say (and with some justification) that this is how Muslims feel (see Salon.com for more on that). And, there are some Christian fundamentalists that do indeed live and act in intolerant ways. Yet, the quick embrace of this label by many drives me to ask, "What is going on here?" ...  

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.edstetzer.com/2011/07/christian-fundamentalist-and-t.html


See Also:

Anders Berhring Breivik (Norway Killer) - Christian Fundamentalist or Religious Tyrannist?

LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH PROJECT/FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE BLOG - The Blog of Lighthouse Trails Research - July 25, 2011

[...] We know that many in the world will now blame "Christian fundamentalism" on this act in Norway. In time, and escalated because of these types of violent acts driven by demonic forces, Bible believing Christians will be told they can no longer say Jesus Christ is the only way to God. It will be a hate crime. As was the case  in the 911 terrorist attack in 2001, the Norway shootings will be used to further the progress of a one-world unified religion that will have no place for the Bible-believing Christian.
In 2006, Rick Warren helped set the tone for animosity and marginalization against Bible-believing Christians (Fundamentalists) when he stated  that fundamentalism will be "one of the big enemies of the 21st century. . . . Muslim fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism - they're all motivated by fear. Fear of each other. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=6957

A Christian Response to a Deranged "Crusader"

DEFEND CHRISTIANS.org - July 25, 2011

[...] For those looking to bash the right, especially the Christian right, the predictable "tar and feathering" is on its way. But, is it logical to blame the right for the acts of a deranged man? It is no more justifiable to blame the right as it is to blame the left for all the carnage of it's mad men, like the Tucson Arizona left wing lunatic, Jared Lee Loughner, who killed six and wounded fourteen, including Democratic Congresswoman Gifford. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://defendchristians.org/commentary/a-christian-response-to-a-deranged-crusader/

Media wrong to label Breivik as a Christian

THE POST-STANDARD, Syracuse, New York [Advance/Newhouse] > The Readers' Page - August 2, 2011

Letter to the Editor: Breivik not a Christian
To the Editor:
I am appalled by the media elite portraying Anders Behring Breivik, the man behind the horrific slaughter of 60 plus innocent children at the youth camp on Utoya Island, Norway, as a right-wing, fundamentalist Christian.
Apparently, the media elite have no clue what a Christian is, but delight when one describes himself as one and commits atrocities such as Breivik did. Yes, it makes great headlines.
If anyone had the sense enough to do just a little digging, he would find out what Breivik meant when he termed himself a Christian. By Breivik's own admission in his self-published 1,500-page manifesto, he describes himself as a cultural Christian, and not a religious one. He writes, "If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God, then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do, however, believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian."
Wrong. It makes you someone who likes the perks that comes with union membership but does not want to join.
Breivik is a terrorist, nothing more, nothing less.
- Lance Hillyer
Fayetteville [NY]

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2011/08/tuesdays_letters_auburn_waste.html#incart_mrt

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Reprint of Frankie Schaeffer's "Christian Jihad"

Ed. Note: Obviously, the author below has not the slightest clue the content of the Scriptures in context. Sadly, what he is observing is a group of people who call themselves “Christians” who suffer from the same blindness as he does, some who are well intentioned but just deceived and others who are just following the culture they have always known. One thing is for sure, Frank Schaeffer (Jr.) is wrong in his observations, but he is doing much for the anti-Christ, truth-hating establishment that he works for and his father of lies to whom he currently belongs.

Christian Jihad? Why We Should Worry About Right-Wing Terror Attacks Like Norway's in the US

There is a growing movement in America that equates godliness with hatred of our government -- in fact, hatred of our country.

ALTERNET - By Frank Schaeffer - July 23, 2011

The Norwegian police on Saturday charged a 32-year-old man, whom they identified as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing connections, over the bombing of a government center and a shooting attack on a nearby island that together left at least 91 people dead.

In my new book "Sex, Mom and God" I predicted just such an action. I predicted that right wing Christians will unleash terror here in America too. I predict that they will copy Islamic extremists, and may eventually even make common cause with them.

There is a growing movement in America that equates godliness with hatred of our government in fact hatred of our country as fallen and evil because we allow women choice, gays to marry, have a social safety net, and allow immigration from other cultures and non-white races.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the killer wrote:

"Today's Protestant church is a joke," he wrote in an online post in 2009. "Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centres. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic."

It seems Anders Behring Breivik longed for a "pure" and ultra conservative religion. He was a man of religious conviction, no liberals with their jeans need apply! Liberals beware.

Norway is just a first taste of what will happen here on a larger scale.

A HISTORY of VIOLENT ACTION

There is a history to the far right, religious right extremism on the rise today, extremism so extreme that in its congressional manifestation it is risking the good faith and credit of the US in the debt calling fiasco. The Tea Party activists also want purity of doctrine.

My family was part of the far right/violent right's rise in the 1970s and 80s when we helped create the "pro-life" movement come into existence that in the end spawned the killers of abortion providers. These killers were literally doing what we'd called for.

The terror unleashed on Norway - and the terror now unleashed by the Tea Party through Congress as it holds our economy hostage to extremist "economic" theories that want to destroy our ability to function -- is the sort of white, Christian; far right terror America can expect more of.

THE "CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD"

Call this the ultimate "Tea Party" type "answer" to secularism, modernity, and above all our hated government. Call this the Christian Brotherhood. From far right congress people, to far right gun-toting terror in Norway and here at home, our own Western version of the Taliban is on the rise.

Foreigners, visitors from another planet and Americans living in a bubble of reasonable or educated people might not know this but the reality is that the debt ceiling confrontation is by, for and the result of America's evangelical Christian control of the Republican Party.

It is the ultimate expression of an alternate reality, one that has the mistrust of the US government as its bedrock "faith," second only to faith in Jesus.

To understand why an irrational self-defeating action like destroying the credit of the USA might seem like the right thing to do you have to understand two things: that the Republican Party is now the party of religious fanatics and that these fanatics -- people like Michele Bachmann -- don't want to work within our system, they want to bring it down along the lines of so-called Christian "Reconstruction." (See my book for a full account of what this is.)

In the scorched-earth era of the "health care reform debates" of 2009 and beyond, Evangelicals seemed to believe that Jesus commanded that all hospitals (and everything else) should be run by corporations for profit, just because corporations weren't the evil government. The right even decided that it was "normal" for the state to hand over its age-old public and patriotic duties to private companies -- even for military operations ("contractors"), prisons, health care, public transport, and all the rest.

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151751/christian_jihad_why_we_should_worry_about_right-wing_terror_attacks_like_norway's_in_the_us_

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'Occupy' protests sending sharp anti-Jew message

WND [WorldNetDaily] - By Bob Unruh - October 21, 2011

The dark scourge of anti-Semitism has reared up at many "Occupy" protests across the country, and the subject could well become a campaign 2012 issue as Republicans have been quick to point out to voters that many Democrats, including the president, are aligning themselves with the protests.

The protesters generally are expressing a viewpoint that rich people need to pay much more in taxes and they, the protesters, need more from government; big banks need the heavy hand of Washington to help spread their wealth and make things "fair" and they have a "message" or want to "make a point" for the wealthy.

 But there's also a current of targeting Jews.

Protesters have proclaimed that "Zionist Jews" still "need to be run out of the country," and they condemn "Nazi Bankers Wall Street."  And Barack Obama's perspective?

"I think that it [the movement] expresses the frustrations that the American people feel," he said.

And the ranking Democrat in the U.S. House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said "I support the message."

Statements such as those opened the door for Republicans to launch their criticism of the Democrats' endorsement of the encompassing message of the "Occupy" protests - going on across the country now - that includes anti-Semitism. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=358449


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Pachamama Wants Your Children

TRUTH X CHANGE - Dr. Peter Jones - May 5, 2011 :: InsideOut article IO 78

Two years ago, President Evo Morales, of Incan/Aymaran descent, claimed the rights to all three branches of government, and his goons were eliminating opponents in the dead of night. At the time, I was teaching pastors in Cochabamba, Bolivia and so witnessed the rise of indigenous paganism as a political force. In January 2011, Morales introduced legislation that grants legal rights to the Earth and provides an ombudsman to hear nature's complaints as voiced by the all-knowing high priests of deep ecology, who claim to be spiritually in touch with Nature!

The worship of Pachamama, the fertility Goddess of Nature, is now a fundamental element in the law code of Bolivia, and Morales (in his commitment to Pachamama and to the ancient Incan religion of Bolivia) is supported by a shadow cabinet of shamans, who sacrifice llamas as part of this spirituality.

Bolivia is perhaps the first example of a Marxist state that is religiously, occultically pagan. Is Bolivia a picture of our global future-a spiritual, nature-worshiping collectivist state, where Caesar is Lord? Will ecology be the "power shift" (Van Jones's words to 10,000 young climate activists-to thunderous applause!) that joins pagan spirituality to coercive politics? An earth-worshiping "green agenda" will open the minds and souls of our youth to the iron grip of Pachamama. As Mary Poppins knew, "Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down!" Our urgent task is to teach our young people to worship the Creator, not Mother Earth.

You may think me overly sensational. Consider the fact that Bolivia just tabled a treaty at the United Nations, giving "Mother Earth" the same global rights as humans-complete with enforceable laws, by 2014. On April 22, 2011 the UN declared the second International Mother Earth Day, which the White House heralded on Easter weekend in an eight-paragraph statement-while making not one mention of Easter!

The international Pachamama Alliance's mission is to "empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture... [and] to bring forth a sustainable world." Notice the move from the Amazon "rainforests" to "the world." Van Jones, President Obama's 2010 "green jobs czar" is a board member of the Pachamama Alliance, whichclaims a close relationship with the UN Development Program. Clearly, these ideas are circulating in the highest circles of political power. Jones is also a member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which merges ecology, politics and "progressive" spirituality. Other members include the UN's Maurice Strong, Deepak Chopra, Michael Lerner, Matthew Fox, Stanislav Grof, Jean Houston, Starhawk, Brian Swimme, Richard Tarnas, Neale Donald Walsch, Marianne Williamson and Barbara Marx Hubbard, names known to those who read my books on spiritual One-ism.

This agenda is more advanced than we might imagine, thanks to the very spiritual Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev. Their 2002 Earth Charter, a document determining environmental and ethical life on the planet for all nations, was received at the UN as the "new law" for the global age. Housed in "the Ark of Hope," it was clearly meant to replace the Law of Moses. In a public lecture I attended, one of the drafters of this document showed how placing phrases in the Preamble of The Earth Charter introduced an animistic spiritual interpretation of reality (e.g. "Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe...Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life"). The "native peoples" on the committee exulted because, "for the first time an international document expressed their [religiously pagan] worldview." For now, the Earth Charter is "soft law," but proponents are working to make it "hard law" for the entire planet.

Back in Bolivia, God, the Father and Creator of nature, who calls us to care for His creation, is now identified with the "alien" religion of the gringo/Spanish who exploited Bolivian land (some of which is true, alas). Christianity must be marginalized to make way for the now legal and obligatory ancient animistic worship of Mother Earth. This is the same conflict Elijah faced, between the Lord the Creator and the worship of the forces of Nature represented by Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 18).

I remember a tiny, deeply tanned Aymaran Christian lady, dressed in the typical billowing skirt and bowler hat perched on the top of her head, who was seated on the front row of the church where I was preaching. After the service, with tears in her eyes, she gave me a hug of Christian affection, having heard once more of the Gospel of the Savior she loves. Pray for our Bolivian Christian brothers and sisters, to speak God's truth courageously to all. And let's pray for our youth as we teach them the crucial difference between care for the earth and worship of it.

About the author: Dr. Peter Jones is Director of truthXchange, and Adjunct Professor of New Testament, as well as Scholar in Residence, at Westminster Seminary California. He has written The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back (1992), Spirit Wars (1997), Gospel Truth/Pagan Lies (1999), Capturing the Pagan Mind (2003), Cracking DaVinci's Code (2004, co-author, James Garlow), Stolen Identity (2006) and The God of Sex (2006). Peter Jones is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and is married to Rebecca Clowney Jones. They have seven children and twelve grandchildren. For recreation, Dr. Jones enjoys playing jazz piano and golf.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://truthxchange.com/articles/2011/05/05/io-78-pachamama-wants-your-children/

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Iran's Christians urgently need the West's support

LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Fleur Brading - September 30, 2011
For the first time in 20 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has issued a formal death sentence for a Christian. Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, leader of the Church of Iran denomination in Rasht, was arrested in October 2009 while seeking to register his church. He has been on death row since being found guilty of apostasy, conversion from Islam, in September 2010. ...
Although apostasy does not carry a formal death penalty under Iran's penal code, judges in Rasht were able to use the supremacy of Islamic jurisprudence in Iran's constitution to sue for the death sentence based on religious fatwas, or Islamic rulings, by leading Ayatollahs. ...
There have been over 300 arrests of Christians in 35 cities across Iran since June 2010. Detainees are typically held in unsanitary prisons, sometimes in solitary confinement, with evidence of torture and interrogation tactics being used against them on account of their faith. Excessively high bail demands, some as great as $30,000, see title deeds to detainees' houses being given in return for their liberty. Those inmates whose families cannot meet these demands, such as Pastor Farshid Fathi, who was detained in a brutal crackdown against evangelical Christians over Christmas of last year, remain detained. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8799149/Irans-Christians-urgently-need-the-Wests-support.html


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Algeria: Provincial Official Orders Churches to Close

CDN / COMPASS DIRECT [Compass Direct News] - May 25, 2011
ISTANBUL - Seven Algerian churches face closure this week after the governor of their province sent them written notice that they were operating "illegally."
The notice on Sunday (May 22) from Police Chief Ben Salma, citing a May 8 decree from the Bejaia Province governor, also states that all churches "in all parts of the country" will be closed for lack of compliance with registration regulations, but Christian leaders dismissed this assertion as the provincial official does not have nationwide authority.

"All buildings permanently designated for or in the process of being designated for the practice of religious worship other than Muslim will be permanently closed down in all parts of the country, as well as those not having received the conformity authorization from the National Commission," Salma stated in the notice.
On Sunday (May 22) the governor of Bejaia sent a statement to the president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) informing him that all churches in the province were illegal because they were unregistered. Registration is required under controversial Ordinance 06-03, but Christians report the government refuses to respond to or grant their applications for registration.
The controversial law was introduced in 2006 to regulate non-Muslim worship. ...

According to the governor's statement, if the churches do not comply, authorities may use force. The leaders of the churches in Bejaia have decided to conduct church services this weekend as scheduled and "see what happens," said Krim, who also expects police to show up. ...
There are more than 99,000 Christians in Algeria, less than 0.3 percent of the total population of 35.4 million people, according to Operation World. Muslims make up more than 97 percent of the population.

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/13314/article_113076.html

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Analysis: Mideast Christians struggle during Arab Spring

REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - June 23, 2011
VENICE - Middle East Christians are struggling to keep hope alive with Arab Spring democracy movements promising more political freedom but threatening religious strife that could decimate their dwindling ranks.
Scenes of Egyptian Muslims and Christians protesting side by side in Cairo's Tahrir Square five months ago marked the high point of the euphoric phase when a new era seemed possible for religious minorities chafing under Islamic majority rule.
Since then, violent attacks on churches by Salafists - a radical Islamist movement once held in check by the region's now weakened or toppled authoritarian regimes - have convinced Christians their lot has not really improved and could get worse. ...

The Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, feared the three-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad spelled a bleak future for the 850,000 Christians there.
"If there is a change of regime," he said, "it's the end of Christianity in Syria. I saw what happened in Iraq."
The uncomfortable reality for the Middle East's Christians, whose communities date back to the first centuries of the faith, is that the authoritarian regimes challenged by the Arab Spring often protected them against any Muslim hostility.
Apart from Lebanon, where they make up about one-third of the population and wield political power, Christians are a small and vulnerable minority in Arab countries.
The next largest group, in Egypt, comprises about 10 percent of the population while Christians in other countries are less than 5 percent of the overall total.
Under Saddam Hussein, about 1.5 million Christians lived safely in Iraq. Since the US-led invasion in 2003, so many have fled from Islamist militant attacks that their ranks have shrunk to half that size, out of a population of 30 million. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=226236


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Obama Should Condemn Anti-Christian Violence in Egypt

WHITE HOUSE DOSSIER - By Keith Koffler - May 12, 2011

Even as he renews his outreach to Muslims, President Obama should seek to stem the growing tide of violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt by condemning last weekend’s attacks that left a dozen people dead and scores injured.

The attacks, about which Obama has been silent, also resulted in the burning of Coptic Orthodox churches and the destruction of Christian homes and businesses.

The president needs to say more to stem religious violence that creates opportunities for Islamic extremists who want to seize power in Egypt, our most important Arab ally.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday “strongly” condemned the violence, saying, “We stand behind the Coptic Christian community and their right to practice their faith in safety and security, free of persecution.”

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Obama is preparing to try to reengage Muslims with a speech, possibly next week, that will make the case that Muslims should “reject Islamic militancy in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death and embrace a new era of relations with the U.S.”

Whether Obama views condemning Muslim violence against Christians as inopportune during the lead up to a renewed outreach to Muslims is unclear. But it’s worth noting that after Obama seemed inexplicably slow off the mark supporting the masses of Iranian protestors two years ago, there was widespread belief that he was concerned about compromising his outreach to the Iranian government.

Obama, though a Christian, seems to view his background, which includes a Muslim grandfather and several years living as a child in Muslim Indonesia, as giving him a special conduit into the Muslim world. But I doubt this type of personal outreach by one man changes the way people view the United States. And it shouldn’t interfere with other aspects of U.S. policy.

Obama commendably condemned a New Year’s Eve church bombing in Alexandria, Egypt that killed 21. But he has said little - actually nothing that I could find - about the religious killings and tensions since then, which included the deaths of 12 people Jan. 30 during a raid of Christian homes in Upper Egypt.

Obama also should speak about about the growing violence against Christians in Iraq, a country where we have some real sway. Four were killed and 171 injured in attacks over the weekend, prompting a reaction from Pope Benedict XVI.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/05/12/obama-should-condemn-anti-christian-violence-egypt/


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