2 March 2011
Presbyterians Week Headlines.
.
[1] PCUSA Minister Acquitted of Violating PCUSA Constitution for Getting “Married” to Same-Sex Partner
[3] U.S. Troops to Receive Battlefield Homosexual Sensitivity Training
[5] India to Deport Six Afghan Christian Converts from Islam Denied Refugee Status
[6] Somali Islamists Kill Twenty-Fourth Christian Convert from Islam since 2009
[7] Dearborn, Michigan, Law Enforcement Alleged to be Covering Up Muslim “Honor Killings”
[8] Saudi National on Student Visa Arrested for Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction
[9] Useful Idiocy at the University of Central Florida
[12] Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest Expands Its Ministries, Pursues Fraternal Relations
.
—
.
[1] PCUSA Minister Acquitted of Violating PCUSA Constitution by Getting “Married” to Same-Sex Partner
A 28 February 2011 article by Mary Jane Smetanka in the Star Tribune titled “Church Declines to Discipline Gay Pastor” reports that on 28 February 2011, the Rev. Erwin Barron was acquitted by a six-member panel of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)’s Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area in a trial on whether or not Barron violated the PCUSA constitution by getting married in 2008 in California to his same-sex partner. The voting deadlocked at 3-3, which was one vote less than the two-thirds majority needed to convict.
.
+ Star Tribune, 425 Portland Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55488, 612-673-4000
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, 122 West Franklin Avenue, Suite 508, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404, 612-871-7281, Fax: 612-871-0698, office@ptcaweb.org
.
A 28 February 2011 article Christian Concern article titled “Breaking News: High Court Judgment Suggests Christian Beliefs Harmful to Children. Fostering Christians Now in Doubt” announced that The High Court of the United Kingdom’s Royal Court of Justice on 28 February 2011 ruled that a Christian couple whose application to become foster parents was rejected by the Derby [England] City Council because the couple was not willing to promote homosexual practice to a young child. The High Court ruled that Christian beliefs on sexual ethics may be ‘inimical’ to children, and they implicitly upheld an Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submission that children risk being ‘infected’ by Christian moral beliefs.
Christian Concern commented: “The nature of the judgment means that Christians who hold orthodox Christian views on the family, marriage and sexuality will continue to face difficulties in the fostering and adoption process and the Courts will not intervene to stop this from happening. In fact, the summary contained in the judgment sends out the clear message that orthodox Christian ethical beliefs are potentially harmful to children and that Christian parents with mainstream Christian views are not suitable to be considered as potential foster parents.”
Ekklesia, in a 1 March 2011 press release titled “Misleading Claims about Discrimination against Christians” countered: “The argument of the socially conservative Christians who are pursuing these cases to seek to demonstrate ‘discrimination’ or ‘persecution’ against Christians in the UK appears to rest on two false premises. The first is that theirs is the only Christian view and should be backed up by law, irrespective of the dignity and rights of others. The second is that discriminatory actions justified on religious grounds should provide immunity from fulfilling legal requirements over equality and justice towards others in the public sphere. That cannot be right….However, it does further confirm what we at Ekklesia have been arguing for many years – which is that the era of Christendom, when Christian institutions and beliefs might be given special privilege, regard and exemption denied to others, is now over. For many – including Christians who wish to recover the levelling core of the Gospel message – that is good news, not a threat.”
Colin Hart, director of The Christian Institute, in a 1 March 2011 press release titled “Christian Institute Responds to Foster Carer Court Case” commented:
“The media has reported the case of Mr. and Mrs. Johns, a Christian couple who faced difficulties in fostering children because of their views on homosexuality.
“Much media reporting on this issue, and even some comments by Christians, have, in our view, been wide of the mark.
“The impression has been given that the High Court has ruled that Christians who believe that homosexuality is morally wrong cannot foster children. This is not true. No such ruling has been made.
“Christians are deeply concerned about the dramatic comments by the High Court judges in this case. It is no surprise that national newspapers are drawing attention to what has been said. Derby City Council seems to want a gay rights test to assess any potential foster parent. If so, this Council will be encouraged by the High Court, but thankfully other councils are free to take a different view.
“Equality laws have closed down adoption agencies and are now being used against pillars of the community, such as Mr. and Mrs. Johns in this case and Mr. and Mrs. Bull, the Christian B&B owners from Cornwall.
“The last government created a conflict of laws. It is for Parliament to unscramble this conflict. That is what we want to see.
“Let us pray for those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Tim 2:1-4).
“Let us also pray that those in authority will defend vulnerable children and give them the opportunity to be raised in a loving home.”
.
+ Christian Concern, 70 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8AX, England, 020 7935 1488, Contact Page
+ Ekklesia, 2nd Floor, 145-157 St. John Street, London EC1V 4PY, England, 0845 056 5445, press@ekklesia.co.uk
+ The Christian Institute, Wilberforce House, 4 Park Road, Gosforth Business Park, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 8DG, England, 44-0-191-281-5664, Fax: 44-0-191-281-4272, info@christian.org.uk
.
[3] U.S. Troops to Receive Battlefield Homosexual Sensitivity Training
A 24 February 2011 article by Rowan Scarborough in The Washington Times titled “Combat Troops to Get Gay Sensitivity Training: New Policy OK’d for Battlefield” reports that Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, the top enlisted U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, announced 24 February 2011 that sensitivity training on respect for homosexual rights will be brought to all 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan including those at forward bases fighting Taliban militants.
+ The Washington Times, 3600 New York Avenue Northeast, Washington DC 20002, 202-636-3205
.
A 24 February 2011 Compass Direct News Service article titled “Afghan Convert Musa Released; Another Christian Still in Prison” reports that Afghan Christian Said Musa was released after nine months in prison and a pending death sentence for apostasy for the Muslim crime of leaving Islam. Musa left Afghanistan 21 February 2011 an unnamed country after visits from several Kabul embassy representatives offering asylum. Musa was heavily pressured by Afghan officials to renounce his Christian faith, but remained faithful. Musa wrote in a letter: “I told them I cannot [follow] Islam. “I am Jesus Christ’s servant. They pushed me much and much. I refused their demands.”
Another Afghan Christian convert from Islam, Shoib Assadullah, has been in a holding jail in a district of Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, since October 2010, after he was arrested for giving a New Testament to a man who reportedly turned him in to authorities. Assadullah wrote of his upcoming trial: “The court’s decision is most definitely going to be the death penalty for me, because the prosecutor has accused me under the Clause 139 of the criminal code which says, ‘If the crime is not cited in the criminal code, then the case has to be referred to the Islamic [S]haria law.’”
As of 27 February 2011, 1485 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the Afghanistan war officially called “Operation Enduring Freedom”.
.
+ Compass Direct News Service, Post Office Box 27250, Santa Ana, California 92799, 949-862-0304, Fax: 949-752-6536, info@compassdirect.org
.
[5] India to Deport Six Afghan Christian Converts from Islam Denied Refugee Status
A 24 February 2011 Barnabas Aid report titled “Christians Facing Death in Afghanistan Denied Refuge” reports that six Afghan converts to Christianity from Islam who fled to India and applied for refugee status have been denied said status by India and now face deportation to Afghanistan, where they risk arrest and possible execution for apostasy under the country’s Sharia-based law.
Four of the six Afghan Christians had their 2008 baptisms shown on Afghan television in May 2010, which was followed by angry responses from Muslims and the Afghan government, including Deputy Secretary of the Afghan Lower House of Parliament Abdul Sattar Khawasi calling in parliament for the public execution of the Afghan Christians shown in the television program.
As of 27 February 2011, 1485 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the Afghanistan war officially called “Operation Enduring Freedom”.
.
+ Barnabas Aid, 6731 Curran Street, McLean, Virginia 22101, 703-288-1681, Fax: 703-288-1681, usa@barnabasaid.org
.
[6] Somali Islamists Kill Twenty-Fourth Christian Convert from Islam since 2009
A 23 February posting by International Christian Concern titled “Somali Islamists Kill 24th Christian Convert, Another Convert Escapes” reports that on 26 January 2011, members of the Somali Islamic radical group Al-Shabaab killed Christian convert from Islam, Abdirahman Hussein Roble, in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, after being accused of spying and “fitna” (religious discord) among Muslims, a pejorative Islamic term used to describe Christian evangelism among Muslims. Roble leaves a widow and two children, and is the twenty-fourth Christian convert from Islam killed by Somali Islamists since 2009.
Another Somali Christian convert from Islam was arrested 8 January 2011 by Al-Shabaab Islamists in the Afgoye district of Somalia, but managed to escape his makeshift prison while the Islamists attended an evening prayer.
.
+ International Christian Concern, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest #941, Washington DC 20006, 800-422-5441, Fax: 301-989-1709, superadmin@persecution.org
.
[7] Dearborn, Michigan, Law Enforcement Alleged to be Covering Up Muslim “Honor Killings”
The Thomas More Law Center on 22 February 2011 filed a lawsuit against the City of Dearborn, Michigan, its Mayor, John B. O’Reilly, its Chief of Police, Ronald Haddad, seventeen City police officers, and two executives of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce for violating the civil rights of four Christian missionaries who were arrested 18 June 2011 after police officers witnessed Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, a Muslim convert to Christianity, peaceably discussing his Christian faith with Muslim youths, charged with “breaching the peace.” The Christians were led away in handcuffs to the applause and cheers of Muslim onlookers who had just witnessed a victory of Sharia law over the Christians.
A second incident occurred on 20 June 2011, as two missionaries, Rezkalla and Josh Hogg, stood on the public sidewalk handing out the Gospel of John to passersby willing to take them. The Christians were there for approximately five minutes when eight City of Dearborn police officers descended upon them, seized them, and brought them to the police command trailer located inside the Arab festival where the Christians were admonished, photographed, and ordered to stop their peaceful religious activity.
The arrested missionaries were later found not guilty of all charges after a jury trial.
The ninety-six page lawsuit contains 450 allegations against the defendants, including:
“265. During the “booking” at the City jail, a sympathetic City police officer told Plaintiffs Qureshi and Rezkalla that some of the police officers were “on their side,” “agreed with what they were doing,” and “didn’t think they did anything wrong,” or words to that effect, demonstrating further that Defendants retaliated against Plaintiffs for their religious speech activity.
“266. The sympathetic police officer told Plaintiffs that the security personnel hired for the Arab Festival were mostly “criminals and gang members.”
“267. The sympathetic police officer told Plaintiffs that there were instances in the City [of Dearborn, Michigan,] where “honor killings” permitted by [S]haria law had taken place, but they were covered up.”
.
+ Thomas More Law Center, 24 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, 734-827-2001, Fax: 734-930-7160, info@thomasmore.org
.
[8] Saudi National on Student Visa Arrested for Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction
A 25 February 2011 article by Laura Garsea in the Richland Chronicle titled “College Student Targets North Texas, Bush Residence” reports that former Texas Tech chemical engineering student and current business student at South Plains College near Lubbock, Texas, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, was arrested on 23 February 2011 for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction after trying to buy bomb making chemicals over the Internet with the intent of blowing up several targets in the U.S. including dams, nuclear plants, and the home of former U.S. President George W. Bush.
Aldawsari had written in his journal that he had been planning for years to wage jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the United States by launching terrorist bombing attacks.
.
+ Richland Chronicle, El Paso Hall, Room E-020, 12800 Abrams Road, Dallas, Texas 75243, 972-238-6079, Fax: 972-238-6037, chronicle@dcccd.edu
.
[9] Useful Idiocy at the University of Central Florida
A 24 February 2011 article by Ben Howe of RedState titled “University of Central Florida Hosts Terrorists & Forcibly Removes Their Detractors” reports that in November 2010, Randy McDaniels, a chapter leader of ACT! for America, attended a panel discussion at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where members of the Muslim Public Affairs Council were invited to speak.
Mr. McDaniels politely asked Jamal Badawi, a member of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), about the Islamic law book “Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik,” which contains the FCNA stamp of approval, whether Badawi endorses the laws in the book which call for the stoning and execution of apostates who leave Islam as well as all non-Muslims.
Mr. McDaniels then sat down and proceeded to listen to Badawi answer the question. Mr. McDaniels was then asked to leave, and then forcibly removed from the event by uniformed policemen.
On 25 February 2011, the UCF hosted a visit by Sirhaj Wahajj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
Badawi, the November 2010 speaker, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States, a Hamas front group, and was listed as a co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Trial, otherwise known as the largest terrorism fundraising trial in American History
.
+ RedState, 1 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Suite 600, Washington DC 20001, contact@redstate.com
+ Muslim Public Affairs Council, 110 Maryland Avenue Northeast, Suite 210, Washington DC 20002, 202-547-7701, Fax: 202-547-7704, contact@mpac.org
.
A 28 February 2011 Newsmax article by Mike Tighe titled “Farrakhan: Mideast-Like Revolution Headed for US” reports that Nation of Islam leader and avowed friend of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Lewis Farrakhan, is predicting that revolution like that currently happening in the Mideast will soon come to the U.S.
.
+ Newsmax, Post Office Box 20989, West Palm Beach, Florida 33416, 561-686-1165, Fax: 561-686-3350
.
Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny (BOND) founder and leader the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson on 24 February 2011 issued the following press release:
Los Angeles—As reported on FoxNews.com, two Protestant U.S. churches are creating a stir by opening their church buildings to Muslims for worship. According to the report, Heartsong Church in Cordova, [Tennessee], let members of the Memphis Islamic Center hold Ramadan prayers there. And the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria, [Virginia], allows the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) to hold regular Friday prayers in their building. Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, called this a dangerous and foolish trend being promoted by weak Christians. The following is Rev. Peterson’s statement regarding this matter:
“This is an example of tolerance gone wild. I see many so-called ‘Christians’ misrepresenting Christianity as a timid and passive faith. The Bible says love thy neighbor, but it doesn’t say anything about turning Christian sanctuaries over to Muslims. This is a dangerous and foolish trend.
“ICNA, one of the groups using church buildings for worship, describes themselves as ‘a leading American Muslim organization dedicated to the betterment of society through the promotion of Islamic values.’ What ‘Islamic values’ are they referring to? Are they promoting Sharia? Is this group affiliated with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood? These are legitimate questions.
“These churches don’t understand their own faith, and they’re ignorant about Islam. The Quran tells Muslims that Christians and Jews are infidels and worthy of death. If Christians allow Muslims groups to take over their churches—it’s just a matter time before they will overrun these communities.
“According to the Pew Forum, mosque construction is at an all-time high. As of September, there were 1,897 mosques in the United States, a 57 percent increase since 2000. Organizations like CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) are using our laws and Constitution to infiltrate and to try and conquer this nation from within.
“Unless Christians in America wake up and recognize this domestic threat, it’s only a matter of time before America, like Europe, will be forced to make concessions to radical Muslims. I can assure you that Muslims would not allow Christians to worship in their mosques. The threat of radical Islam is real both abroad and at home. God has given Christians the power and authority to overcome the darkness of this world, where is that authority today?”
.
+ Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, Post Office Box 35090, Los Angeles, California 90035, bond@bondinfo.org
.
[12] Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest Expands Its Ministries, Pursues Fraternal Relations
Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest (RPM) held its annual stated meeting on Saturday, 26 February 2011. The gathering was hosted by Falls Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. In addition to the members of the court, churchmen from at least two other communions, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), were present.
RPM is a regional court with an organized congregation in New London, Wisconsin. Two new mission churches, in Milwaukee and Antigo, Wisconsin, were established by the Presbytery.
Besides hearing reports on the various ministries of RPM, the other major item of business was with regard to fraternal relations. The Synod of the RPCNA last June referred to its Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery a request from RPM for fraternal relations with a view toward full organic union. Representatives of RPM are expected to attend the meeting of Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery, which is being held in Indianapolis, Indiana, 3-5 March 2011.
.
+ Frank J. Smith, Ph.D., D.D., Pastor, Northminster Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCNA), 5830 Millstone Drive, Cumming, Georgia 30028, 770-241-3946
+ Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest, c/o Rev. J. Bruce Martin, Clerk of Synod, JBruMar@hotmail.com
+ Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), 7408 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15208, 412-731-1177, Fax: 412-731-8861
+ The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 607 North Easton Road, Building E, Box P, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania 19090, 215-830-0900, Fax: 215-830-0350
.
Comments are closed for this Article !