News, Prophecy and other

[nChrist]

Brother,

It took some praying on my part to post this news item. Yes you could have knocked me over, with a cotton ball. From my own research, the age is coming to a close. But you already know that.

One question for you brother, have you heard of the age of Gentiles. That began in 606 B.C., I've been doing some research on this. No I'd never heard of it before. So far it has been very instresting. I may make a study of this, as it looks like it relates to whats happening now.

Hello Dreamweaver,

YES, Brother, I have heard this term before, probably in several studies by various authors over the years. There are slightly different terms used to describe time frames, and some authors are closer than others to approximately the same meaning and time frame. Israel has definitely been set aside by God for a time, but God has promises yet to fulfill involving Israel and that time might be growing close.

Many other scholars have concentrated on the differences between Israel and the Church which is the BODY OF CHRIST. Most of my studies of Bible Prophecy have utilized this method. It's a fascinating time that we live in, and it might be very short.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 118:24 NASB  This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

[Shammu]

Gas Leak Sparks Mass Evacuations in China

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago

BEIJING - About 7,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after a leak was discovered at a gas well in a southwest Chinese town where more than 200 people were killed in an earlier gas leak, state media and an official said Sunday. No injuries were reported.

Workers at the gas field in Gaoqiao near the city of Chongqing ignited gas at the mouth of the well Saturday to avoid the possibility of a buildup and an explosion, said a county official who would give only his surname, Xia.

The roughly 7,000 people who were evacuated lived within a mile of the well, state television said.

Xia said workers were hoping to shut down the well Sunday and allow residents to return home.

The incident occurred in the same town where 243 people were killed in a gas leak in December 2003 — one of the country's worst industrial accidents. That leak spewed a deadly cloud of natural gas and hydrogen sulfide over a 10 square mile area. Many residents died in their sleep or collapsed while trying to flee, leaving the area strewn with bodies.

About 9,000 people were hurt and more than 41,000 villagers were forced from their homes. Many survivors suffered lung damage and burns on their eyes and skin.

Six employees of the Chuandong (East Sichuan) Drilling Co. were sentenced to prison in 2004 for negligence.

The same company operates the 11,000-foot-deep well where the latest leak was discovered, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The leak was discovered during final tests to bring the new well into production, Xinhua said, without providing further details.

A man who answered the telephone at Chuandong said he wasn't clear how or where the leak had occurred. He said workers were trying to shut down the well. He refused to give his name.

Gas Leak Sparks Mass Evacuations in China

[Shammu]

Another church burned in 'Bama

Fire comes in wake of arrests of 3
linked to Satanism, 9 other blazes
Posted: March 25, 2006
10:07 p.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Another Alabama church burned last night in a fire characterized by authorities as "suspicious."

The Faith Church of the Nazarene in Blount County in Northwest Alabama was destroyed by a fire that began in the rear of the buildings.

Ragan Ingram, spokesman for the Alabama Fire Marshal's office, called the blaze suspicious.

No one was injured in the fire, but the roof of the sanctuary and main building collapsed.

Earlier this month, three Birmingham college students were arrested in connection with a string of nine rural Alabama church fires. The trio, linked to Satanism as a possible motive for the arson, faces state and federal charges.


Benjamin Moseley, Russell Debusk, Matthew Lee Cloyd

Those booked were: Benjamin Moseley and Russell DeBusk, 19, theater students at Birmingham-Southern College, and Matthew Cloyd, 20, who lived in the same dorm as DeBusk.

Cloyd wrote to Moseley last summer, as the two planned a road trip: "Let us defy the very morals of society instilled upon us by our parents, our relatives and of course Jesus."

About the same time, DeBusk and Moseley started dabbling in the occult, according to a report by Religion News Service. They told friends they were Satanists on a hunt for knowledge.

DeBusk and Moseley, according to friends, claimed to be Satanists, which, they explained, was "not about worshipping the devil, but about the pursuit of knowledge."

Jeremy Burgess, DeBusk's roommate, said he discussed religion with him.

"He told me I was one of the more intelligent Christians he's talked to," Burgess said. "Coming from a Satanist, I didn't know quite how to interpret that."

[Shammu]

Hello Dreamweaver,

It's a fascinating time that we live in, and it might be very short.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 118:24 NASB  This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I think it is going to be short, as well brother.

[Shammu]

Russia Denies Intelligence Links With Saddam

Created: 25.03.2006 14:48 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 22:44 MSK, 12 hours 24 minutes ago

MosNews

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service is denying that Moscow provided information on U.S. troop movements and plans to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, AP reported Monday.

A Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman notes that, what he calls, “similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once.” A duty officer in his department says the service doesn’t believe it’s “necessary to comment on such fabrications.”

An unclassified Pentagon report released yesterday cites two captured Iraqi documents that say the Russians collected information from sources “inside the American Central Command.” The documents suggest that battlefield intelligence was provided to then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein through the Russian ambassador.

One respected independent Moscow-based military analyst says the report is within the realm of possibility.

Russian intelligence officials have repeatedly denied having any links to Iraqi spy services.

Russia Denies Intelligence Links With Saddam

[Shammu]

U.S. Presses Russia to Join Sanctions Against Iran

Created: 25.03.2006 11:58 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:58 MSK, 23 hours 10 minutes ago

MosNews

The United States pressed Russia on Friday to join the West in rebuking Iran at the United Nations as part of a U.S.-led campaign to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear programs, Reuters said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called her Russian counterpart after the countries’ UN ambassadors failed in days of haggling to agree on language for a U.N. Security Council statement against Iran.

Russia has put up the toughest resistance among major powers to the U.S. push for the United Nations to tell Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activity that could produce fuel for an atomic bomb.

Iran says its programs are to generate electricity.

Rice said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed in the call that the sides’ negotiators could work through the weekend to try to break the impasse.

“I think that everybody just needs to get to work and let’s get this done so that the Iranians have a very clear message about what’s going on,” Rice told reporters when asked if she believed Russia was stalling.

Her pressure on Russia followed a round of calls on Thursday among the council members’ foreign ministers seeking to produce a unified message to Iran. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called Lavrov on Thursday.

The five permanent council members with veto power — United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — are all established nuclear powers.

Britain and France drew up the draft statement, backed by the United States. China supports Russia, although diplomats said it has shown more flexibility.

Next week, Rice also plans to visit Germany, France and Britain, where she will hammer out a strategy that she hopes can be widely supported to stop Iran’s suspected pursuit of the atomic bomb.

The slow progress at the United Nations this month comes after the United States tried for years to get the council to take up the issue of confronting Iran over its nuclear programs.

In New York, diplomats said they expected France and Britain to revise the draft again, perhaps as early as Monday. Both nations said, however, they would not do so, if there were no chance of adoption of a statement, which needs the consent of all 15 council members.

Alternatively, if the West loses patience it could submit a resolution, which needs nine votes in favor and no veto from the permanent members. Russia and China would then have to approve, veto or abstain.

Lavrov has argued against Security Council involvement in the nuclear controversy, saying it would take the issue away from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, and could lead to punitive measures, such as sanctions.

U.S. Presses Russia to Join Sanctions Against Iran

[Soldier4Christ]

Compares independence to judge convert
with U.S. position on laws 'against nature'


An Afghan supreme court judge is pointing to "gay" marriage in the U.S. to bolster his argument for an independent Afghanistan judiciary and to justify continued resistance to political and diplomatic pressure to free a Christian man on trial for his life because he converted from Islam 16 years ago.

Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told the London Sunday Telegraph today, "In the United States men can be married in a gay marriage. That is irrational, illegal and against nature, but here in Afghanistan we are not talking about those cases."

Mawlavizada's comment follows statements by an official for President Hamid Karzai on Friday that suggested Abdul Rahman, 42, might be released in the next two days. Karzai himself had earlier "pledged" to several foreign leaders that Rahman would not be executed. A high-level meeting held yesterday with Karzai, his cabinet and local religious leaders failed to secure the Christian's release, but an official who attended said the president promised "he will deal with the issue himself."

Despite the international pressure on Karzai to resolve the matter, Mawlavizada indicated he felt no such pressure on himself, saying that while Afghanistan was grateful for aid from other countries, that did not mean those countries could interfere with Kabul's laws or courts.

"We [the judiciary] have nothing to do with diplomatic issues," he said. "We will do our job independently" – a restatement of his earlier position, reported by WorldNetDaily earlier this week: "Afghanistan is an Islamic country and its judiciary will act independently and neutrally," according to a Reuters report. "No other policy will be accepted apart from Islamic orders and what our constitution says," Mawlavizada added.

Mawlavizada and his fellow members of the Supreme Court question Karzai's legal authority to intervene in the Rahman matter.

"The Quran is very clear, and the words of our prophet are very clear. There can only be one outcome: death," said cleric Khoja Ahmad Sediqi, who is also a member of the judicial body. "If Karzai releases him, it will play into the hands of our enemy and there could be an uprising."

Indeed, some clerics have threatened to kill Rahman if he is released.

Rahman worked with an international Christian group in Peshawar, Pakistan, just across the Afghan border, for four years then spent the next nine in Germany.

He encountered problems when he returned to Afghanistan in 2002 and tried to recover two teenaged daughters who were living with his parents in Kabul.

Rahman's father resisted, denouncing his son as a convert and reporting him to police. Rahman immediately was arrested and a Bible was found in his possession.

The constitution in Afghanistan is based on Sharia law, which states any Muslim who rejects his or her religion should be sentenced to death.

If sentenced, Rahman apparently would be the first person punished for leaving Islam since the Taliban was ousted by American-led forces in late 2001.

An Afghan Christian in the U.S. who has regular contact with Christians in his home country through his ministry, posted a video clip of Rahman on his website.

Rahman says in the clip, according to Andaryas: "The punishment by hanging? I will accept it gladly, but I am not an infidel. I am not a traitor. I am a follower of Jesus."

[Soldier4Christ]

 Echoing military commanders, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday the U.S. could withdraw a significant number of troops from Iraq this year if Iraqi forces are able to assume greater control of the country's security.

"I think it's entirely probable that we will see a significant drawdown of American forces over the next year. ... It's all dependent on events on the ground," the chief American diplomat said.

 Just this past week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declined to predict when U.S. forces would be out of Iraq. President Bush has said that decision would be up to a future U.S. president and a future Iraqi government.

"The level of the forces in Iraq will depend on conditions on the ground and the recommendations of the commanders," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. He said he had not yet received a recommendation from Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, on whether or when to reduce the size of the force.

There are now about 133,000 American troops in Iraq. Military officials have expressed hope they can reduce the number below 100,000 by year's end.

Rice, on NBC's "Meet the Press," noted that Casey "has talked about a significant reduction of American forces over the next year. And that significant reduction is because Iraqi forces are taking and holding territory now."

Rumsfeld said last week he did anticipate a drawdown of U.S. troops this year "because we think the government will be formed, it will meet with reasonable acceptance," and Iraqi security forces will perform well.

The military is carrying out plans announced by Rumsfeld in December to cut troop levels this year by up to 7,000 soldiers by canceling the planned deployment of two Army brigades. Further cuts are being debated.

Military leaders have said a drawdown of U.S. troops cannot be done until Iraqi soldiers display enough mettle to take on insurgents _ as well as loyalty to a civilian government that represents Iraq's major groups: Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds.

[Soldier4Christ]

Saddam Hussein planned to use "camels of mass destruction" as weapons to defend Iraq, loading them with bombs and directing them towards invading forces.

The animals were part of a plan to arm and equip foreign insurgents drawn up by the dictator shortly before the American-led invasion three years ago, reveals a 37-page report, captured after the fall of Baghdad and just released by the Pentagon. It is part of a cache of thousands of documents that the United States Department of Defence says it does not have the resources to translate.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon released copies in the original Arabic onto the internet in the hope that others would interpret them into English.

Handwritten on official paper, one of the reports appears to be a road map for the insurgency, with detailed instructions for training what it calls suicide bombers.

In the memo, they are described as "estishehadeyeen", Arabic for suicide martyrs, and would almost certainly have been foreign volunteers.

The memo details a training commission to be headed by senior officers, including a colonel from the "Directory of Political Orientation". Their job, says the report, was to "prepare a very intensive training course", "to raise the physical fitness and train in the use of Kalashnikovs and hand grenades".

It continues: "The largest section of the course will be specialised to focus on using the explosive material in the body, in motorcycle, in cars, and in camels". Camels will be "provided by the Directory of General Military Intelligence".

The memo also reveals the incredible bureaucracy that underpinned Saddam's Iraq. Rifles and hand grenades were to be provided by a Department of Armament and Equipping, explosives by the Directory of Military Engineering and "religious sermons that emphasise jihad'' by the Directory of Political Orientation and the Religious Scholars.

The papers have been translated by Arabic-speaking members of Free Republic, a conservative internet discussion forum that believes the documents will justify British and American claims that Saddam had made Iraq a haven for terrorists.

If the translation is correct, it suggests that many of the foreign fighters now attacking coalition forces and bombing Iraqi civilians were directly trained by the Saddam regime, although there are no known reports of camels being used in suicide attacks.

[Shammu]

"Christian" Group Bites the Hand that Rescues It    
By Mark D. Tooley
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 27, 2006

Christian Peacemaking Teams (CPT) celebrated the liberation of the CPT hostages in Iraq by ignoring the military personnel who rescued them and even condemning the U.S. and British military mission in Iraq.

Apparently CPT is not sufficiently Christian to believe in the virtue of gratitude. Nor is CPT’s commitment to "peacemaking" much broader than opposing U.S. foreign policy and denouncing Israel.

A CPT statement expressed joy that three of its volunteers were "safely released" in Iraq. Of the British and U.S. warriors who "released" them, there is no mention. Just as oddly, the CPT statement refers obliquely to the murdered CPT volunteer Tom Fox, "whose body was found" two weeks ago, but avoids noting how Fox died: the self-proclaimed Iraqi "Swords of Righteousness Brigades" tortured and slaughtered Fox.

CPT made no mention of this, while condemning the "illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces," which are the "root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq."

CPT also urged Christians around the world to demand "justice and respect" for the thousands of Iraqis "illegally" detained by U.S. and British forces in Iraq. Of course, there is no mention that it was an interrogation by allied forces of one of these detainees that elicited the information leading to the liberation of the CPT captives.

CPT has expressed no concern about the thousands of Iraqis routinely brutalized by Iraqi insurgents and groups like the "Swords of Righteousness Brigades." That would disrupt its hypothesis that U.S. and British forces are the root cause of Iraq sufferings.

CPT is an initiative of the Mennonites, Church of the Brethren and Quakers, all three of which are historically pacifist. This refusal to take by arms, dating back to the Anabaptists of the Reformation era, has been admirably sustained by many sincere believers. But most in the legitimate tradition of what are today called "the peace churches," while insisting on their own personal vocation for non-resistance, have not denied the civil state’s responsibility for military defense, nor the vocation of other Christians to serve in the military.

This traditional "peace" tradition was corrupted in the 20th century by theologians like the late John Howard Yoder and the still very much alive Stanley Hauerwas, both of whom dogmatically insisted "non-violence" is the heart of the Gospel. Hauerwas is a Methodist who teaches at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina and has been named by Time magazine as America’s most influential theologian.

Their adherents often sanctimoniously insist that Christians who subscribe to historic just war teachings are betraying Jesus. Unfortunately, the Yoder-Hauerwas influence extends beyond the "peace" churches and has increasingly shaped "mainline" (read: left-wing) Protestant and even some Evangelical teaching.

Clergy and activists from these churches, none of which is historically pacifist, have flocked to CPT. Rick Ufford-Chase, the chief moderator of the 3.2 million member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a CPT activist. According to his resume, he and his wife spent a "month in intensive training to become reservists" CPT after he had developed a "profound sense of despair after our country's war on Iraq."

Although CPT is supposedly concerned about "violence" generically, its focus areas have been Iraq, Afghanistan, Puerto Rico, "Palestine," Colombia, U.S., and Canadian treatment of "indigenous" people, most of whom are not indigenous -- like foreign jihadists in Iraq and illegal immigrants at the U.S. border with Mexico.

CPT activists protest against Israel’s new security wall to guard against Palestinian terrorism, against the Colombian government’s war on narco-traffickers, against the soon-to-be-closed U.S. Navy munitions testing facility at Vieques, and against the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan. CPT was actually present in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion began to protest against United Nations sanctions, and to show "solidarity" with the Iraqis should war begin. But Saddam Hussein’s regime expelled CPT just before hostilities began.

The spiritual myopia of groups like CPT, and of the larger Yoder-Hauerwas worldview that guides much of elite Protestant thought in America, makes no distinction among forms of "violence." In a December 8, 2005, letter urging release of the CPT captives, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Moderator Ufford-Chase and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick declared: "We believe that all violence is wrong, and that the action of kidnapping cannot be justified under any circumstance. We pray for those who are holding the Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers, and for all those who are unjustly detained. We are gravely concerned about their [the CPT captives] safety, as well as the safety of all people, both Iraqi and United States, whose lives have been endangered because of the United States’ war against Iraq," the Presbyterians intoned.

The Presbyterian letter, like CPT, was unable to find moral difference between the terrorists holding the CPT captives and the detainees held by Allied forces in Iraq. Of course, the Presbyterians, like CPT, blame the United States and its allies exclusively for all turmoil and injustice.

Not surprisingly, CPT is not averse to exploiting Christian symbols and other holidays for its political statements. It used Epiphany in January to demonstrate outside the White House to demand an end to the "U.S. occupation" of Iraq. On Martin Luther King Day, it launched its "Shine the Light" campaign, in which CPT demonstrators processed in front of the Pentagon, State Department, Capitol building, and CIA to "expose" the torture, hostage-taking and abuse of detainees in Iraq. None of the CPT demonstrations were aimed at non-U.S. entities.

In the wake of the hostages’ "release," Geneva-based World Council of Churches chief Samuel Kobia was lightning fast in congratulating CPT (but not the military liberators of the hostages). "We also pray that amid all the pain and anxiety of this case, those engaged in the violence in Iraq may remember and heed the many voices both Christian and Muslim who made publicly clear that among the many people of faith concerned for peace there are also people called to be peacemakers." Kobia wrote, in CPT-style, indiscriminately lumping together all "those engaged in violence."

The handcuffed and tortured Tom Fox was murdered by butchers whom CPT refuses to criticize, preferring instead to blame the same Allied personnel who rescued Fox’s surviving colleagues. But God knows who committed the crime, and who performed with valor. So, too, do millions of Americans, the vast majority of whom are more morally perceptive than the church officials who support CPT’s political posturing.

"Christian" Group Bites the Hand that Rescues It

[Shammu]

More Than a Million French Protest Law

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago

PARIS - More than 1 million people poured into the streets across France and strikers disrupted air, rail and bus travel Tuesday — even shutting down the Eiffel Tower — in the largest nationwide protest over a youth labor law.
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Scattered violence erupted in Paris, and riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse several thousand youths who pelted them with stones and bottles after an otherwise peaceful march. More than 240 people were arrested.

Unions and the leftist opposition joined in solidarity with the angry students for the one-day strike, increasing the pressure on Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to withdraw the measure that makes it easier to fire young workers.

Although Villepin held firm, cracks opened in his conservative government. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, in a clear break with Villepin, suggested suspending the law to allow for negotiations.

With the government in crisis,
President Jacques Chirac canceled a trip planned for later in the week to stay in Paris.

Police and organizers' estimates for the number of marchers varied greatly, but both showed that the protest movement is growing in strength.

Police said 1,055,000 people took part in more than 250 protests nationwide, including 92,000 in Paris. The organizers' total was closer to 3 million, with 700,000 at the march from the Left Bank to the heavily policed Place de Republique.

Elsewhere, 31,000 marched in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, 28,000 in the southern port of Marseille, 26,000 in the Alpine city of Grenoble, 17,000 in Lyon and hundreds of thousands in dozens of other cities and towns, according to police.

Riot police, under orders to arrest as many troublemakers as possible, moved aggressively in Paris to prevent a repeat of the intense violence of past demonstrations.

Marchers ranged across all age groups, from students with "Non" painted on their faces, to older union militants. Many said they wanted to defend the status quo.

"Young people are sacrificed in the name of the economy, and we are here to fight against it," said Maxime Ourly, 18, a literature student at the Paris march. "We don't know what will happen in the future, and we want to control our futures."

Students and labor unions say the labor law will erode France's cherished workplace protections. Set to take effect next month, it would let companies fire employees under 26 without reason in the first two years on the job.

Villepin told parliament that he was open to talks on employment and possible changes to the law but did not say that he would withdraw it.

"Only in action will we convince all of the French that tomorrow can be better than today," he said, loudly heckled by opposition politicians.

Villepin says the greater flexibility will encourage companies to hire young workers, who face a 22 percent unemployment rate — the highest in Western Europe. But as protests have grown, his government — and his chances of running for president next year — have appeared increasingly fragile.

Sarkozy, who also wants to be the conservative camp's presidential candidate, told lawmakers from the ruling party that the labor law should not go into force, so that talks to resolve the crisis can take place, his aides said.

Villepin's sputtering effort at reform underscores the dilemma facing many European countries that have expensive job protections and social safety nets under threat by competition from Asian economies with cheaper, less-protected workers.

The nationwide strike — the first time that unions had ordered walkouts in solidarity with students spearheading the protests — slowed train, plane, subway and bus services to a fraction of their normal levels.

The Eiffel Tower was closed, its employees said. Some elementary and high schools also were shut as teachers walked off the job.

National newspapers were not on sale at newsstands, and radio and television broadcasts were limited.

The State Department advised Americans in France to avoid areas where crowds were expected to gather and to exercise caution, particularly at night.

"We are here for our children. We are very worried about what will happen to them," said Philippe Decrulle, an Air France flight attendant at the Paris protest. "My son is 23, and he has no job. That is normal in France."

More Than a Million French Protest Law

[Shammu]

Asheville pastor protests gay marriage stance
Hanger severing ties with Methodist Church but will stay with Jubilee!
by Andre A. Rodriguez, Staff Writer published March 28, 2006 6:00 am

ASHEVILLE – After more than 30 years as an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, the Rev. Howard Hanger and the 11 million-member denomination are parting ways.

Hanger, founder and spiritual leader of Jubilee! Community, announced during his two services Sunday that he intends to give up his ordination in the United Methodist Church because of the denomination’s opposition to same-sex unions. Hanger will remain as spiritual leader of Jubilee! But he will disassociate himself from the United Methodist Church.

» Jubilee! Community

“I have realized I can’t operate under the banner of a church that is blatantly discriminatory in this regard,” said Hanger, who was ordained in South Dakota in 1972.

Hanger said he is pursuing a transfer of his ordination to the United Church of Christ, a 1.4 million-member denomination, which openly supports and affirms gay marriage.

“What it’s looking like is the UCC — United Church of Christ — is a very open denomination in this regard. In many regards, actually,” Hanger said. “Kind of synchronistic, the bishop who ordained me into the United Methodist Church is now a UCC minister. We’re even talking about him re-ordaining me in the UCC if that should come about.”

Hanger said he has been thinking about this decision since the UMC enacted a prohibition on its ministers performing same-sex unions about five or six years ago.

The situation came to head two weeks ago when Hanger received a letter from Dakotas Conference of the UMC’s presiding Bishop Deb Keisey reprimanding Hanger for a same-sex commitment ceremony he performed in 2004.

“They (the couple) put the announcement in The New York Times, so needless to say word got out,” Hanger said. “So there it was, and it wasn’t as if I would deny it.”

Trend widens in WNC

Hanger joins the ranks of the Revs. Joe Hoffman and Mark Ward, who are also protesting institutional stances on same-sex marriages.

Hoffman, pastor of the 300-member First Congregational United Church of Christ in Asheville, and Ward, pastor of the 540-member Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, both announced in recent weeks that they would no longer perform civil marriage ceremonies for North Carolina until the state recognizes same-sex marriages.

“There is grief in me that sometimes, in order to do what we need to do, that we have to leave one group and do that work with another group,” Hoffman said. “I’m delighted with his (Hanger’s) courage and delighted with his sense of justice that he needs to do this in order to continue to ministering the people that are part of his congregation and the people that he feels called to be a minister with.”

Dan Petersen of Swannanoa has known Hanger for 13 years and considers Jubilee! his spiritual home. He strongly supported Hanger’s decision, saying, “Howard Hanger practices love and what Christ stood for and what he taught and told us to do. Howard Hanger lives it in his life and he lives it in his ministry. And he’s brought more care and more Christianity to his congregation and to this community than any preacher that I’ve seen in the 25-30 years that I’ve been here.”

Ward said he was pleased to learn of Hanger’s decision and that he considers him brave for taking a stand against the policies of the UMC.

“What we’re really talking about is the civil right to marry, and that gays and lesbians deserve the same opportunity as others do,” Ward said.

Hanger said he will still be a minister in good standing, having been appointed by his church, and will still be entitled to perform weddings. He also will remain spiritual leader of Jubilee!, according to Jubilee! board member Hardy LeGwin.

“As far as we’re concerned he’s going to be our minister,” he said. “We support him 100 percent. We’re totally supportive of him and what he’s doing.”

Even with the support of his congregation, Hanger said he is heartbroken about having to part with the UMC.

“Since 1972, I’ve been ordained in this tradition,” he said. “I don’t do it easily. It’s not like a flippant thing at all.”

Asheville pastor protests gay marriage stance

[Shammu]

Pro-Family Lawyer Criticizes Christian Educators' Collaboration With GLSEN

By Jim Brown
March 28, 2006

(AgapePress) - A Christian attorney is denouncing a new agreement reached between a homosexual advocacy group and the Christian Educators Association on how to deal with the issue of sexual orientation in public schools.

The Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) and the pro-homosexual Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) have collaborated on a document called "Public Schools and Sexual Orientation: A First Amendment Framework for Finding Common Ground." The document urges school officials to "take seriously complaints of name calling, harassment, and discrimination," and to avoid discriminating against student clubs because of their political or religious message.

Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (AFA Law Center), finds the collaboration between the Christian group and the homosexual advocacy group disturbing. He says while he supports civil debate on issues relating to homosexuality, he has serious concerns about Christian educators coming to the table with a group like GLSEN.

    
Steve Crampton
"I think GLSEN is a grave danger to our kids," Crampton explains, "and so, to the extent you reach out the hand of friendship, or in this case, 'common ground,' you are doing a disservice to the community, and especially to the innocent kids in that community."

The pro-family attorney says Christians have no business legitimizing a group that is "all about advocating teenage homosexual sex." AFA Law Center litigators "have been involved in matters that have grown out of GLSEN conferences, in which graphic descriptions and instructions in homosexual sexual practices have taken place under GLSEN's purview, indeed sometimes with taxpayer dollars at stake," he contends.

Although CEAI executive director Finn Laursen has said his group did not in any way compromise its beliefs by reaching an agreement with GLSEN, Crampton is not convinced that no harm has been done. "What I see in the big picture here," he asserts, "is a tremendous loss for those of us who believe that homosexual behavior is sinful conduct, should never be legitimized, and should never be recognized as some sort of equal partner in the educational experience."

The AFA Center for Law & Policy has been battling GLSEN's agenda for years, an agenda that promotes what Crampton describes as "a sinful and destructive lifestyle that threatens the very existence of our society." He questions whether a Christian organization like CEAI should be seeking "common ground" with such an organization.

[Soldier4Christ]

Key Security Council members said that they were "very close" to agreeing a watered-down statement urging Iran to come clean on its nuclear program and presented a new draft to other members, AFP reported.

After a series of informal discussions involving the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, participants reported considerable progress and voiced hope that a new draft could be adopted by the full 15-member body Wednesday.

"I think that we are very close and we will inform the president of the Security Council and offer him consultations tomorrow," France's UN envoy Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said.

"We have reached agreement on the bulk of the text and there was movement on all sides," US ambassador John Bolton said. "We are very close.

It's a very satisfactory text. We have been incredibly flexible."

Britain and France, the co-sponsors of the statement, circulated the new draft late Tuesday three weeks after International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohamed ElBaradei sent its assessment report on the Iranian nuclear program to the Security Council.

The non-binding statement requires unanimous approval by the 15 council members.

The council's five permanent members were to hold another round of consultations on the text Wednesday morning prior to a meeting of the full body, diplomats said.

The latest text, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, calls upon Iran to meet IAEA demands and "underlines the particular importance of re-establishing full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, to be verified by the IAEA."

It stressed that "such suspension and full, verified Iranian compliance" with IAEA demands "would contribute to a diplomatic, negotiated solution that guarantees Iran's nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes."

In a concession to Russia and China, it "requests in 30 days a report from the Director General of the IAEA on the process of Iranian compliance with the steps required by the IAEA Board, to the IAEA Board of Governors and in parallel to the Security Council, and agrees to keep this issue under review."

The original draft had said ElBaradei should present its report in 14 days.

The new text also merely stated that the Council "recalls its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security."

This was seen as another bid to mollify Russia and China, which have opposed language in the proposed statement that would even hint at punitive measures against Iran, an ally and key trading partner.

A diplomat, who asked not to be named, said Moscow would be prepared to accept the text if it dropped any reference to a threat to international peace and security which under the UN charter's Chapter 7 could lead to sanctions.

The flurry of diplomatic activity comes as foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany prepared to meet Thursday in Berlin to try to map out a long-term strategy on how to deal with Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which could be used to make bombs.

"Our hope still would be to reach agreement tomorrow so the ministers in Berlin can focus on the future and the next steps (in the showdown with Tehran)," Bolton said.

Russia's UN envoy Andrei Denisov also expressed guarded optimism, saying: "We are closer and closer".

But he cautioned: "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."

"We are making some progress," said China's UN envoy Wang Guangya, who stressed that differences between the Western powers on one side and Russia and China on the other had been narrowed in the latest consultations.

The United States and its allies believe Iran's civilian nuclear program hides an effort to develop weapons. Tehran says its research is peaceful.

Germany, France and Britain, the so-called EU-3, have pursued three years of inconclusive negotiations to coax Tehran off its nuclear program in exchange for economic incentives.

The Security Council has been trying for nearly three weeks to clinch a deal on the US-backed Franco-British statement.

[Shammu]

Canada Suspends Aid to Palestinians

17 minutes ago

TORONTO - Canada said Wednesday it was suspending assistance to the
Palestinian Authority because the new Hamas-led government refuses to renounce violence and recognize
Israel.   

Hamas formally took power Wednesday, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swearing in its 24-member Cabinet, including 14 ministers who served time in Israeli prisons.

Hamas and new Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh insist they won't soften the militant group's violent ideology or formally recognize its longtime nemesis.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement that Canada had no choice but to suspend assistance and decline any contact with the new Hamas Cabinet.

Canada Suspends Aid to Palestinians