By Lisa Miller
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 1:24 PM ET Dec 8, 2007
You need only go back to the first chapter of Genesis to see how elemental water is to the observance of faith: “And the Spirit of God,” the Bible says, “moved upon the face of the waters.” In the Torah, water is used to ordain priests and to purify the sons of Aaron before they enter the temple. In the New Testament, John baptizes Jesus with water from the Jordan River. Observant Muslims wash hands and feet before they pray, orthodox Jewish women take ritual baths once a month—and every Christian denomination still uses water as part of its sacred rites. Mormons, when they take the weekly sacrament, drink water instead of wine.

So it’s not surprising that a few savvy marketers would seize on this universal symbol of purity for financial gain. Inspired, perhaps, by vitamin and energy waters, a number of new companies have begun making more explicit claims: their water doesn’t just promote good health, it actually makes you good. Holy Drinking Water, produced by a California-based company called Wayne Enterprises, is blessed in the warehouse by an Anglican or Roman Catholic priest (after a thorough background check). Like a crucifix or a rosary, a bottle of Holy Drinking Water is a daily reminder to be kind to others, says Brian Germann, Wayne’s CEO. Another company makes Liquid OM, superpurified bottled water containing vibrations that promote a positive outlook. Invented by Kenny Mazursky, a sound therapist in Chicago, the water purportedly possesses an energy field that Mazursky makes by striking a giant gong and Tibetan bowls in its vicinity. He says the good energy can be felt not just after you drink the water but before, when you’re holding the bottle.

The most recent entry in this niche is Spiritual Water. It’s purified municipal water, sold with 10 different Christian labels. The Virgin Mary bottle, for example, has the Hail Mary prayer printed on the back in English and Spanish. Spiritual Water helps people to “stay focused, believe in yourself and believe in God,” says Elicko Taieb, the Florida-based company’s founder who was formerly in the pest-control business. All three companies give a portion of their profits to charity.

This small band of feel-good entrepreneurs may face objections from a surprising quarter. Some religious believers, also convinced of the elemental importance of water, are campaigning against its ubiquitous sale and packaging on the grounds that the practice is neither ethical nor good for the environment. “Water is life,” says Sister Mary Zirbes, a nun in the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minn. “It really should not be a commodity to be bought.” The Franciscan Sisters, together with a community of Benedictine nuns nearby, have launched a letter-writing campaign against the largest producers of bottled water and they’ve designed coasters to encourage people to drink glasses, not bottles, of water from the tap. The Vineyard church in Boise, Idaho, sells slim reusable plastic bottles in its bookstore, and it has placed water stations throughout the church. “In a world where a billion people have no reliable source of drinking water, where 3,000 children die every day of waterborne diseases, let’s be clear: bottled water is not a sin, but it sure is a choice,” says Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals. “Spending $15 billion a year on bottled water is a testimony to our conspicuous consumption, our culture of indulgence.” Taieb calmly refutes the implication that his Spiritual Water is bad for the planet. People put fewer of his bottles in the trash, he says, because they don’t want to discard images of Jesus or Mary. Instead, they refill them with other beverages. Obviously, even do-gooders can disagree. Some believe that water is life, while others believe that water is their livelihood.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/74380©   Newsweek Mag

——————————————————————————–
ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 20237 • Posted: Saturday December 29, 2007 

The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.

Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of “Godlessness.”

Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican “exorcistinchief,” to the online Catholic news service Petrus.

“Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on,” he said.

“Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist.

“Thankfully, Benedict XVI believes in the existence and danger of evil – going back to the time he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” The CDF is the oldest Vatican department and was headed by Benedict from 1982, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, until he became Pope in 2005.

Father Amorth said that during his time at the department Benedict had not lost the chance to warn humanity of the risk from the Devil.

He said the Pope wants to restore a prayer seen as protection against evil that was traditionally recited at the end of Catholic Masses. The prayer, to St Michael the Archangel, was dropped in the 1960s by Pope John XXIII.

“The prayer is useful not only for priests but also for lay people in helping to fight demons,” he said.

Father Paolo Scarafoni, who lectures on the Vatican’s exorcism course, said interest in Satanism and the occult has grown as people lost faith with the church.

He added: “People suffer and think that turning to the Devil can help solve their problems. We are being bombarded by requests for exorcisms.”

The Vatican is particularly concerned that young people are being exposed to the influence of Satanic sects through rock music and the Internet.

In theory, under the Catholic Church’s Canon Law 1172, all priests can perform exorcisms. But in reality only a select few are assigned the task.

Under the law, practitioners must have “piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.”

The rite of exorcism involves a series of gestures and prayers to invoke the power of God and stop the “demon” influencing its victim.

Some Israeli lawmakers are seizing on archeology as a way to fight Prime Minister Olmert’s apparent plan to divide the city of Jerusalem.

The Knesset members see archeological digs as the best way to illustrate the link between the Jewish people, Jerusalem and the Land of Israel — and to mobilize public opinion against the division of Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has indicated that he is willing to divide Jerusalem, keeping Jewish neighborhoods under Israeli control and giving Arab neighborhoods to the control of a future Palestinian state.

In almost every place where archeological digging is taking place throughout Israel, archeologists are uncovering Jewish artifacts and history. But there is no place in the entire country where Palestinian history is unearthed, Amitay told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday.

The more archeological artifacts that are uncovered, Amitay said, the harder it will be for Olmert to gain Jewish support for making a deal on Jerusalem, he said.

Rabbi Nissim Ze’ev from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which is currently a coalition partner in Olmert’s government, said the stones themselves “testify to the history of the Jewish people in this place.”

“The Jewish people were here a long time before the Palestinians arrived,” Ze’ev told Cybercast News Service. But that is not the way that the Palestinians want to view it. They insist that the Jews arrived in 1948 when the State of Israel was created, he said.

Palestinian officials, starting with former PLO leader Yasser Arafat, have claimed that Jewish Temples never stood on the Temple Mount. In fact, two successive Jewish temples were located there before and during the time of Jesus.

Palestinian denials are seen by many people as an attempt to de-legitimize Israel’s right to exist. If the Jewish people have no historical connection to the land, then there would have been no reason to establish a Jewish state here, the argument goes. (See earlier story)

Archeologists also have criticized the Israeli government for failing to stop renovations by Islamic religious authorities on the Temple Mount. They say the renovations have led to the destruction of countless antiquities. (See earlier story)

The lawmakers’ visit to the Old City digs “has everything to do with Annapolis and nothing to do with Annapolis,” said Knesset member Arieh Eldad, a member of the rightwing National Union/National Religious Party.

“We step on remains of more than 4,000 years of our history. My ability to be part of the Jewish nation is based on the stones that we step on,” said Eldad. Olmert has no mandate to give up Jerusalem in the name of the Jewish people, he said.

If Israel turns over more land in the West Bank, it will lead to the creation of a second Hamas state there, he warned.

Eldad charged that Israel should not listen to the advice of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, since she has twice pressured Israel into making concessions that turned out to be disastrous.

“Her previous advice in this area [was] a fiasco,” said Eldad. “Why should we listen this time?”

http://www.cnsnews.com/

“Palestinian” spokesmen have denounced as lies and deception Israeli claims that remains had been uncovered on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount dating back to the period of Solomon’s Temple.

According to the Associated Press, the Israel Antiquities Authority Sunday announced it had discovered fragments of ceramic table wares and animal bones dating back to the first Jewish temple – from the 6th to the 10th centuries BC. The finds also included fragments of bowl rims, bases and body sherds, the base and handle of a small jug and the rim of a storage jar.

But the Islamic Trust denied that any discovery was made, AP said.

AP got it right when it stated that “the site [Temple Mount] represents the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

For Muslims everywhere, and especially for the Arab nationalists out to appropriate part of the 3000-year-old City of David and turn it into the capital of a Palestinian state, denying any Jewish link to the most coveted sites has long been a central component of their strategy.

Now-deceased arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization have spent a fortune in financial and political capital trying to “sever” the Jews’ claim to the Temple Mount.

Down the decades since 1967, Palestinian Arab academics, archeological “experts” and popular television and radio talk-show hosts have all collaborated to “prove” that there is no physical evidence to support the Jews’ claim to having had a homeland in “Palestine” two millennia ago.

At Camp David in 2001, while participating in negotiations with Prime Minister Ehud Barak under the auspices of US President Bill Clinton, Arafat shamelessly stated as “fact” that the Jews had never had a temple in Jerusalem, and that King Solomon had built his house of worship not far from Jericho.

Arafat in fact sought to be buried on the Temple Mount – a site the Islamic world calls its “third holiest” – and to which Muslims turn their backs when praying towards Mecca and Medina five times a day.

The mass-murderer of Jews and others believed that interring his corpse at the site would help strengthen the Arab claim to sovereignty over it.

Bible-believing Christians and Jews understand why the Temple Mount is so sought after by the PLO and in fact by the entire Muslim world.

According to both the Hebrew Scriptures (”Old” Testament) and the New Testament, Israel’s Messiah will establish His kingdom in Jerusalem, taking His place on the Throne of David that will be erected on the Temple Mount, and from there ruling over the nations of the world.

God’s mortal enemy has long sought to wrest the hilltop from Jewish control, hoping thereby to prevent this foretold messianic event from coming to pass.

The outburst of anger in response to the Israeli archeologists’ find should be seen in this context.

© Jerusalem Newswire 2002-2006
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2206

New Video by Al-Qaeda Commander in Iraq Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi: “We are Fighting in
Iraq, but Our Eyes are Set Upon Jerusalem” [Excerpts]

MEMRI [Middle East Media Research Institute] – Special Dispatch Series – No. 1149 -
April 27, 2006 – On April 25, 2006, the Islamist web forum, posted a
video by Al-Qaeda Commander in Iraq Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi. The video culminates in
footage of Al-Zarqawi with masked fighters, firing an automatic weapon, and the firing
of what the leader of the fighters claims are new missiles developed by “the brothers.”
The following is the translation of this clip:

“We are Fighting in Iraq, but Our Eyes are Set Upon Jerusalem”
[Graphic of hands holding up a black banner.]

Screen: “The Shura Council of the Mujahideen in Iraq”

Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi: “When the Crusader enemy entered Iraq, it intended to gain
control over the [Islamic] nation, and to strengthen the state of the sons of Zion, from
the Nile to the Euphrates. But Allah has given the mujahideen sons [of the nation] the
strength to face the cruelest Crusader campaign, invading the lands of the Muslims.
They have withstood this invasion for more than three years.”

“My dear nation, we in Iraq are but a stone’s throw away from the place of the
Prophet’s ascension. We are fighting in Iraq, but our eyes are set upon Jerusalem,
which will only be restored to us through the guidance of the Koran and the support of
the sword. Allah’s guidance and support suffice.”

Psa 122:6  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

But now Crouch must deal with the worst slur of 21st-century Christendom: his network, critics say, is soft on Islam.

The charge followed TBN’s recent decision to drop the half-hour Zola Levitt Presents from its broadcast schedule. Network officials told the show’s producers they were no longer interested in running the show after its longtime host, Zola Levitt, passed away this spring from lung cancer.  Levitt’s ministry says . . . “TBN, you see, is modifying its programming to be suitable for broadcast in Arab nations.” Zola Levitt Ministries offered no elaboration but added it would “join the good company of Hal Lindsey in dusting our feet.”

“Dusting” refers to Jesus’ admonition to his apostles: if people don’t want to hear the Good News, “when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet” (Mt 10:14).

But the inclusion of Lindsey . . . was intended to inflame evangelicals.  This January, Lindsey announced to followers that his “The International Intelligence Briefing” would no longer air on TBN after the network asked him to temper his statements on Islam. He cited no examples. TBN originally denied Lindsey’s claim, but network spokesperson John Casoria eventually retracted that statement, telling the conservative website  WorldNetDaily that TBN was concerned Lindsey “placed Arabs in a negative light.”

This isn’t the first time TBN has faced the charge that it coddles Muslims. In January 2002, Crouch published an open letter to disgruntled TBN programmers explaining his fire-and-brimstone-free approach to proselytizing among Muslims.

“Let’s be careful how we treat the Arabs and Islam,” Crouch wrote. “Let’s not slam Mohammed and Islam. Let’s reach out to them in love.” Similarly, TBN released a statement after canning Zola Levitt Presents that read, “As to TBN being accused of reaching out to the Muslim world with the love of God, TBN must plead guilty. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he said, go into ‘ALL nations,’ not just the non-Muslim ones.”

(Arellano, Orange County Weekly, 9/14/06)

In order for the emerging church to succeed, the Bible has to be looked at through entirely different glasses, and Christianity needs to be open to a new type of faith. Brian McLaren calls this new faith a “generous orthodoxy.”1 While such an orthodoxy allows a smorgasbord of ideas to be proclaimed in the name of Christ, many of these ideas are actually forbidden and rejected by Scripture.

Pagitt believes that he is part of a cutting-edge response to the new postmodern world. It’s a response he and others see as completely unique, never having been tried before in the history of man. Pagitt states:

It seems to me that our post-industrial times require us to ask new questions-questions that people 100 years ago would have never thought of asking. Could it be that our answers will move us to re-imagine the way of Christianity in our world? Perhaps we as Christians today are not only to consider what it means to be a 21st century church, but also and perhaps more importantly-what it means to have a 21st century faith.2

Many people I meet at conferences who come from a wide variety of church backgrounds tell me the church they have been attending for years has radically changed. Their pastor no longer teaches the Bible. Instead, the Sunday morning service is a skit or a series of stories. The Bible seems to have become the forbidden book. While there are pastors who do still teach the Bible, they are becoming the exception rather than the rule.

Emergent leaders often say the message remains the same, but our methods must change if we are going to be relevant to our generation. The measure of success for many pastors today is how many are coming, rather than how many are listening and obeying what God has said in His Word. Let’s consider how Doug Pagitt uses the Bible in his own church. He states:

At Solomon’s Porch, sermons are not primarily about my extracting truth from the Bible to apply to people’s lives. In many ways the sermon is less a lecture or motivational speech than it is an act of poetry-of putting words around people’s experiences to allow them to find deeper connection in their lives… So our sermons are not lessons that precisely define belief so much as they are stories that welcome our hopes and ideas and participation.3

What Pagitt is describing is a contextual theology; that is, don’t use the Bible as a means of theology or measuring rod of truth and standards by which to live; and rather than have the Bible mold the Christian’s life, let the Christian’s life mold the Bible. That’s what Pagitt calls “putting words around people’s experiences.” As this idea is developed, emerging proponents have to move away from Bible teachings and draw into a dialectic approach. That way, instead of just one person preaching truth or teaching biblical doctrine, everyone can have a say and thus come to a consensus of what the Bible might be saying. Pagitt explains:

To move beyond this passive approach to faith, we’ve tried to create a community that’s more like a potluck: people eat and they also bring something for others. Our belief is built when all of us engage our hopes, dreams, ideas and understandings with the story of God as it unfolds through history and through us.4

You may not have heard the term before, but contextual theology is a prominent message from the emerging church. In his book, Models of Contextual Theology (1992), Stephen B. Bevans defines contextual theology as:

… a way of doing theology in which one takes into account: the spirit and message of the gospel; the tradition of the Christian people; the culture in which one is theologizing; and social change in that culture, whether brought about by western technological process or the grass-roots struggle for equality, justice and liberation.5

In other words, the Bible in, and of itself, is not free-standing-other factors (culture, ethnicity, history) must be taken into consideration, and with those factors, the message of the Bible must be adjusted to fit. As one writer puts it, “Contextual theology aims at the humanization of theology.”6 But two questions need to be asked. First, will the contextualizing of Scripture cause such a twisting of its truth that it no longer is the Word of God, and secondly, is Scripture ineffective without this contextualization? To the first, I give a resounding yes! And to the second, an absolute no. The Word of God, which is an inspired work of the living Creator, is far more than any human-inspired book and has been written in such a way that every human being, rich or poor, man or woman, intelligent or challenged will understand the meaning of the Gospel message if it is presented in their native language; and thanks to the tireless work of missionaries for centuries, the Gospel in native languages is becoming a reality in most cultures today.

Dean Flemming is a New Testament teacher at European Nazarene College in Germany and the author of Contextualization in the New Testament. In his book, he defends contextual theology:

Every church in every particular place and time must learn to do theology in a way that makes sense to its audience while challenging it at the deepest level. In fact, some of the most promising conversations about contextualization today (whether they are recognized as such or not) are coming from churches in the West that are discovering new ways of embodying the gospel for an emerging postmodern culture.7

These “churches in the West” Flemming considers “most promising” are the emerging churches. He would agree with Bevans’ model of theology, but he has an answer to the emerging church’s dilemma. He states:

Many sincere Christians are still suspicious that attempts to contextualize theology and Christian behavior will lead to the compromising of biblical truth … we must look to the New Testament for mentoring in the task of doing theology in our various settings.8

There’s good reason some Christians are suspicious. But it can seem harmless at first because Flemming suggests the answer is in the New Testament, which he believes should be used as a prototype or pattern rather than something for doctrine or theology. New Testament theology is always open for change, he says, but we can learn how to develop this change by studying New Testament stories and characters. The premise Flemming presents of contextualizing Scripture is that since cultures and societies are always changing, the Word must change with it and be conformed to these changes. But I would challenge this. The Bible says the Word is living, active, and powerful:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

And if the Word is this powerful, then it is stable and eternal as well. God, in His magnificence, is the Author of Scripture, and He surpasses time, culture, and societies. Contextualizing says people and cultures change, and therefore God’s Word must change. But, on the contrary, it’s people who need to change to conform to Scripture. If we really believe that the Bible is God’s Word, this would be clear to see; but if we think to ourselves that the Word is not infallible, not inspired, then contextualization would be the obvious expectation.

While certain parts of the Bible may be read as poetry (as Pagitt suggests), for indeed the Bible is a beautifully written masterpiece, it is also a living mechanism that is not to be altered-rather it alters the reader’s heart and life. It is much more than putting words around people’s experiences as emergents suggest.

The Bible tells us God is always right; it is man who is so often wrong. When we rely upon human consensus, we will end up with man’s perspective and not God’s revelation. This is a dangerous way to develop one’s spiritual life-the results can lead to terrible deception.

Brian McLaren put it well when he admitted it isn’t just the way the message is presented that emerging church proponents want to change … it’s the message itself they are changing:

It has been fashionable among the innovative [emerging] pastors I know to say, “We’re not changing the message; we’re only changing the medium.” This claim is probably less than honest … in the new church we must realize how medium and message are intertwined. When we change the medium, the message that’s received is changed, however subtly, as well. We might as well get beyond our naivete or denial about this….9

While reaching today’s generation for the cause of Christ is something we as Christians should all desire, we must remember Jesus Christ challenged us to follow Him and be obedient to His Word. Scripture commands us to “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). But the emergents are leading followers in the opposite direction, teaching that the Word of God needs to be conformed to people and cultures instead of allowing it to conform lives through Jesus Christ…. reimagining Christianity allows a dangerous kind of freedom; like cutting the suspension ropes on a hot air balloon, the free fall may be exhilarating but the results catastrophic.(From Faith Undone (http://www.lighthousetrails.com/faithundone.htm), pp. 42-45.)

Click here for endnote references… http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=735&more=1&c=1

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter072307.htm

“Mom and Dad” as well as “husband and wife” have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.

“We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California,” said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.

“With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers.”

“Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. “This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms.

“Shame on Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians for ensuring that every California school becomes a homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination center,” he said.

(Story continues below)

Analysts have warned that schools across the nation will be impacted by the decision, since textbook publishers must cater to their largest purchaser, which often is California, and they will be unlikely to go to the expense of having a separate edition for other states.

The bills signed by Schwarzenegger include SB777, which bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as negative toward homosexuality, bisexuality and other alternative lifestyle choices.

There are no similar protections for students with traditional or conservative lifestyles and beliefs, however.

“SB 777 will result in reverse discrimination against students with religious and traditional family values,” said Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Institute. “These students have lost their voice as the direct result of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s unbelievable decision. The terms ‘mom and dad’ or ‘husband and wife’ could promote discrimination against homosexuals if a same-sex couple is not also featured.

“Parents want the assurance that when their children go to school they will learn the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic – not social indoctrination regarding alternative sexual lifestyles. Now that SB777 is law, schools will in fact become indoctrination centers for sexual experimentation,” she said.

Also signed was AB394, which targets parents and teachers for such indoctrination through “anti-harassment” training, CCF said.

Schwarzenegger had vetoed almost identical provisions a year ago, saying existing state law already provided for penalties for discrimination.

“We had hoped that the governor would once again veto this outrageous legislation but he obviously decided to side with the out-of-touch extremists that control the legislature. This law does not reflect the true values of the average Californian,” said England. “True leadership means standing up for what is true and right.”

Thomasson said SB777 prohibits any “instruction” or school-sponsored “activity” that “promotes a discriminatory bias” against “gender” – the bill’s definition includes cross-dressing and sex changes – as well as “sexual orientation.”

“Because no textbook or instruction in California public schools currently disparages transsexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality, the practical effect of SB777 will be to require positive portrayals of these sexual lifestyles at every government-operated school,” CCF noted.

Offenders will face the wrath of the state Department of Education, up to and including lawsuits.

CCF noted that now on a banned list will be any text, reference or teaching aid that portrays marriage as only between a man and woman, materials that say people are born male or female (and not in between), sources that fail to include a variety of transsexual, bisexual and homosexual historical figures, and sex education materials that fail to offer the option of sex changes.

Further, homecoming kings now can be either male or female – as can homecoming queens, and students, whether male or female, must be allowed to use the restroom and locker room corresponding to the sex with which they choose to identify.

AB394 promotes the same issues through state-funded publications, postings, curricula and handouts to students, parents and teachers.

It also creates the circumstances where a parent who says marriage is only for a man and a woman in the presence of a lesbian teacher could be convicted of “harassment,” and a student who believes people are born either male or female could be reported as a “harasser” by a male teacher who wears women’s clothes, CCF said.

Thomasson said Schwarzenegger also signed AB14, which prohibits state funding for any program that does not support a range of alternative sexual practices, including state-funded social services run by churches.

Affected will be day cares, preschool or after-school programs, food and housing programs, senior services, anti-gang efforts, jobs programs and others.

Thomasson said it also forces every hospital in California – even private, religious hospitals – to adopt policies in support of transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality and opens up nonprofit organizations to lawsuits if they exclude members that engage in homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual conduct.

“It’s the height of intolerance to punish individuals, organizations, businesses, and churches that have moral standards on sexual conduct and sexual lifestyles,” said Thomasson, in response to the signing of AB14. “This is another insensitive law that violates people’s moral boundaries.”

The vitriol over the issue rose to new levels in its latest campaign.

As WND reported, a board member for the homosexual advocacy group Equality California verbally attacked and threatened CRI for its opposition to the bill earlier.

The board member sent an e-mail and video to CRI threatening the group would be buried if it continued efforts opposing the homosexual advocacy.

“The shocking hate mail we received shows that those behind this legislation do not promote true tolerance,” said England. “Only politically correct speech will be tolerated. Those with religious or traditional moral beliefs will not be allowed to express their opinions in public schools.”

She also cited an informational document published by the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and the Transgender Law Center that already is lobbying for special treatment in the school system.

“If you want to use a restroom that matches your gender identity … you should be allowed to do so,” it advises. “Whenever students are divided up into boys and girls, you should be allowed to join the group or participate in the program that matches your gender identity as much as possible.”

Further, the groups advise, “If you change your name to one that better matches your gender identity, a school needs to use that name to refer to you.” The advocacy group also warns schools against bringing parents into any such discussion with students.

WND has documented a number of earlier cases in which educators, including leaders in California, have taken it upon themselves to promote a homosexual lifestyle to children under their charge.

WND reported California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, under whose supervision hundreds of thousands of children are being educated, has used his state position and taxpayer-funded stationery to praise a “gay” pride event used in the past to expose children to sexually explicit activities.

That drew vehement objections from several educators, including Priscilla Schreiber, the president of the Grossmont Unified High School District governing board.

“I am outraged that a person in this high-ranking elected position would advocate an event where diversity is not just being celebrated but where pornography and indecent exposure is being perpetrated on the young and innocent children of our communities,” she said.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58130

For 10 years, Zakir Hussain and his wife consulted gynecologists and even visited clairvoyants to see how they could have children.Now the father of two sons, Hussain shared the secret of their success. “Not medicine, but Mary answered our prayers,” the 35-year-old Muslim told UCA News at the National Marian Shrine at Mariamabad, where he had beseeched the blessed mother’s help. His first boy was born in 2004, followed a year or so later by the second. He vowed to bring his family to pay homage to Mary at the shrine’s grotto for 12 consecutive years.Hussain and his young family were among the 900,000 devotees who joined in the 58th annual pilgrimage to the shrine for the Sept. 8 feast of the Nativity of Mary. Groups of Muslims as well as Catholics started pouring into the village 260 kilometers (about 160 miles) south of Islamabad on Sept. 6. Lahore Archdiocese administers the shrine in Mariamabad, literally the city of Mary.The three-day festival at the shrine began with a procession on Sept. 7. Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad and 20 priests walked at the head of the procession, following a palanquin bearing a statue of the Blessed Mother. Villagers placed bed sheets on the ground and strewed rose petals along the way through the streets of Mariamabad, as the crowd recited Hail Marys and chanted slogans for Jesus.The compound of the Church of St. Mary and St. Joseph remained jam-packed throughout the three days of prayers, while stalls outside did a brisk business in food and religious cassettes, compact discs and pictures. Both the Church and CLAAS (Center for Legal Aid and Assistance), a Christian NGO, ran medical clinics.Among Muslims at the shrine who expressed their gratitude to the blessed mother, one woman, who chose to remain anonymous, told UCA News her family owes its prosperity to Mary’s blessing, following the death of her husband.Following her visit to the shrine, circumstances changed during the last six years, she reported. One of her sons opened an auto repair shop and another a flower shop. “My daughters are now all married. It’s a miracle I never thought would happen this way,” she continued, adding that she has come on the pilgrimage each of those six years.Similarly, Balli Masih, 20, has made five consecutive annual pilgrimages after his prayer for a snooker club was answered. The leader of the “Mother Mary Group” now organizes free travel caravans to the event from Lahore. “My parents used to scold me for wandering after I left school,” he told UCA News, adding that he now earns up to 18,000 rupees (US$300) a month.

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=25368

October 3, 2007: In the north [of Nigeria], anti-Christian violence continues. The most recent outbreak came about when paranoid Moslem high school students accused Christian students of planning an attack on a mosque. This led to attacks on the Christian minority in the northern Kano state (which is mostly Moslem), the death of nine Christians, the wounding of 61 others. Some 500 Christians were forced to flee their homes, and nine churches were burned down. Islamic radical preachers in the north are constantly preaching against the Christian “war on Islam,” even though nearly all the religious violence in the world is Moslems attacking non-Moslems.

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/nigeria/articles/20071011.aspx