29 June 2011
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Presbyterians Week Headlines
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[3] Evangelical Presbyterian Church Eases Ordination of Women to Ministry
[8] EHRC chief: Christians are More Militant than Muslims
[9] Trinity Review Article “Church Membership in an Age of Idolatry and Confusion” Published
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A 25 June 2011article by Lauren Sage Reinlie in the News Herald titled “Elderly Woman Asked to Remove Adult Diaper during TSA Search” reports that U.S. Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officers at Northwest Florida Regional Airport on 18 June 2011 singled out the ninety-five year old mother of fellow passenger Jean Weber for a forty-five minute enhanced security search, which included having the elderly wheelchair-bound woman remove her soiled adult diaper in order to complete a pat down search. Ms. Weber was flying her mother home to Michigan to be with her family during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.
TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz said: “The TSA works with passengers to resolve any security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner.” Koshetz went on to say that wheelchairs trigger certain protocols, including pat-downs and possible swabbing for explosives, and that: “During any part of the process, if there is an alarm, then we have to resolve that alarm….TSA cannot exempt any group from screening because we know from intelligence that there are terrorists out there that would then exploit that vulnerability.”
[Editor’s Note: To slightly paraphrase Joseph N. Welch, and for benefit of the TSA: “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency…at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”]
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+ News Herald , 501 West 11th Street, Panama City, Florida 32401, 850-747-5000, mmcazalas@pcnh.com
+ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington DC 20528, 202-282-8000, Contact Form
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A 20 June 2011 Mother Jones article by Jen Phillips titled “Surprise! TSA Is Searching Your Car, Subway, Ferry, Bus, AND Plane” reports that the U.S. Transportation Security Agency (TSA) for fiscal year 2012 is requesting an increased budget to expand their Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams from the current twenty-five to thirty-seven. TSA already conducts 8000 per year unannounced security screenings at locations including bus terminals, ferries, subways, and airports.
The Mother Jones article cited a 7 June 2011 KRGV.com article titled “Authorities Conduct Random Inspections at Port of Brownsville” which reports that TSA VIPR teams are currently conducting private car and commercial truck inspections at the Port of Brownsville, Texas, and that the TSA told KRGV.com that the Brownsville, Texas, inspections are a random operation and not in response to any specific threat.
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+ Mother Jones, 222 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, California 94108, 415-321-1700, Contact Page
+ KRGV.com, 900 East Expressway, Weslaco, Texas 78596, 956-631-5555, FAX: 956-973-5016, my5@krgv.com
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[3] Evangelical Presbyterian Church Eases Ordination of Women to Ministry
A 24 June 2011 article by David Waters in The Commercial Appeal titled “Presbyterians Meet in Memphis, Seal Deal on Ordaining Women” reports that at the 31st General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), meeting the week of 19 June 2011 at Hope Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee, the delegates adopted a constitutional amendment already approved of by eight of nine EPC presbyteries that will allow churches desiring to ordain women ministers to leave a presbytery that disapproves of the ordination of women for a geographically adjacent presbytery that approves of the ordination of women.
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+ The Commercial Appeal, 495 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38103, 901-529-2345, Contact Page
+ Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 17197 North Laurel Park Drive Suite 567, Livonia, Michigan 48152, 734-742-2020, Fax: 734-742-2033, webmaster@epc.org
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The Presbyterian Coalition has published a document titled “Examples of Policies and Procedures the nFOG Requires” in order to assist Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) churches in meeting the provisions of the new Form of Government voted for by a majority of PCUSA presbyteries:
http://www.reclaimbiblicalteaching.org/nFOG%20Policies%20needed.pdf
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+ The Presbyterian Coalition, 4604 Grove Avenue, Richmond, Virginia 23226, 804-615-3243, office@presbycoalition.org
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
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A 22 June 2011 article in The Chronicle titled “Concerns over Abortion Policy” reports that the Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCoA) has restricted abortions in the PCoA’s St. Andrews Hospital in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, to be performed only upon mothers facing imminent death.
It is thought that the reason for several members of the hospital’s board of directors recently being removed by the PCoA was because the board members tried to overrule the PCoA’s new abortion policy.
A hospital specialist called the policy change “an extremely retrograde step”, and a spokesman for the city organization that represents obstetricians and gynaecologists in private practice said that the hospital always has performed abortions “under very strict guidelines….But we would view with extreme concern any proposal to change to more restrictive policies.”
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+ The Chronicle, 618 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia, 61-7-4690-9300, news@thechronicle.com.au
+ Presbyterian Church of Australia, Post Office Box 2196, Strawberry Hills, New South Wales 2012, Australia, 02-9690-9333, Fax: 02-9310-2148, general@pcnsw.org.au
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A 25 June 2011 article by Paul R. Kopenkoskey in The Grand Rapids Press titled “Allendale Church to Split from RCA” reports that the Lighthouse Community Church (LCC) of Allendale, Michigan, has laid the groundwork for leaving the Reformed Church in America (RCA) after being in the RCA for ninety years, for reasons including what LCC senior pastor the Rev. Steve Demers terms a “counterfeit unity not founded upon truth.”
Pastor Demers commented: “We really see this as God calling us to something as much as away from something. We’re hoping to gather like-minded believers who really want to go back to the early church and devote ourselves to the apostles’ teachings.”
Demers cited theologically problematic agreements the RCA has made with the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches with their social gospel emphasis, and with denominations including the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) that now ordain homosexuals.
Demers continued: “It’s a counterfeit unity not founded upon truth but a desire to be united rather than to be one. For us, it’s not a homosexual issue as much as it’s an issue of the authority of the word of God….We end up spending energy on trying to defend the truths within the denomination rather than spending our time proclaiming the truth to the world. The RCA has not officially taken a stand contrary to God’s word, but it’s a direction it seems to be going in.”
If LCC sucessfully separates from the RCA, the church hopes to affiliate with the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
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+ The Grand Rapids Press, 155 Michigan Street Northwest, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503, 616-222-5818, dgaydou@grpress.com
+ Reformed Church in America, 4500 60th Street Southeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512, 800-968-6065, questions@rca.org
+ World Council of Churches, 150 route de Ferney, CH-1211, Geneva 2, Switzerland, 41-22-791-6111, Fax: 41-22-791-0361
+ National Council of Churches, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 880, New York, New York 10115
+ United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, 216-736-2100, ogm@ucc.org
+ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 8765 West Higgins Road, Chicago, Illinois 60631, 773-380-2700, Fax: 773-380-1465, info@elca.org
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, 1716 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, 215-546-3696, Alliance@AllianceNet.org
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“The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland met on 14th June 2011 deplores the recent action of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland facilitating homosexual sin among its office-bearers by allowing ‘the induction into pastoral charges (of) ministers and deacons ordained before May 2009 who are in a same-sex relationship’. The Synod declares that it regards this as an act of direct rebellion against the church’s King and Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is even now sat down at the right hand of God. The decision is a blatant rejection of the basic Biblical teaching that ‘God created man…male and female created he them’ (Genesis 1:27) and the prohibition, ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination’ (Leviticus 18:22, see also Romans 1:26-28, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). The Assembly’s decision is the outworking of the rejection of Biblical authority that has long been at work in the Church of Scotland.
“We regard mere expressions of concern as wholly inadequate as a Christian reaction to this development. Nor do we regard it as a genuine expression of Christian compassion to fail to declare all homosexual practice, however regulated, to be sinful before God. Rather, we must lovingly call all our fellow-sinners, including those guilty of homosexual sin, to repentance and faith in Christ in whom alone forgiveness is to be found.
“Our society is being vigorously indoctrinated with the lie that a homosexual lifestyle is merely an acceptable alternative to what the Bible teaches; that marriage is between one man and one woman. Government has legislated in favour of this falsehood.
“We consider it our duty and privilege to uphold the truth in the face of this onslaught, out of desire to honour Christ and seek the good of others. We encourage those who love Christ to separate themselves from church fellowship with those who, in the name of Christianity, support that which God, in the Bible, declares that He detests.
“The standards of the holy God of heaven are not altered by any human consensus. His people rejoice in this unchanging God who nonetheless sends an unchanging Gospel to sinful people.”
Rev Peter Jemphrey (Moderator)
Rev Edward McCollum (Clerk)
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+ Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, 98 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 6AG, Northern Ireland, 44-1232-660-689, Fax: 44-1232-823-794, info@rpc.org
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[8] EHRC chief: Christians are More Militant than Muslims
The head of the equality commission has damaged his credibility by claiming that British Christians are more militant than Muslims in complaining about discrimination.
Critics say Sir Trevor Phillips must be “living in a different Great Britain” and the commission’s ignorance is “woeful”.
Sir Trevor Phillips said that Muslims are trying hard to integrate into British society while Christians are claiming to be victims of discrimination for ‘political’ reasons.
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Irrelevant
The chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) also branded African-Caribbean Christianity as irrelevant “old time religion”.
But the Evangelical Alliance (EA) has accused Mr. Phillips of being “mistaken”, warning that the “likely reality is that Christianity is seen as a soft target”.
The EA also warned that the Commission had failed to properly engage with Christians.
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Failure
They added: “This failure to engage may have largely destroyed the Commission’s own credibility with the faith sector not least by actively taking sides against them, and forced hard-pressed Christians to feel they have no option but to defend themselves.”
And Andrea Minichello Williams, director of the campaign group Christian Concern, said: “Trevor Phillips appears to be living in a different Great Britain to me.”
Mr. Phillips made his comments during an interview with The Sunday Telegraph ahead of a new report into religious discrimination.
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Gaffes
Mr. Phillips’ comments are the latest in a series of anti-Christian gaffes from the beleaguered quango.
Earlier this year, a lawyer for the Commission warned that children could be “infected” by the moral views of Christian foster parents who oppose homosexual behaviour.
And the Commission funded a recent legal action against the Christian owners of a [Bed & Breakfast] who restrict double rooms to married couples.
When they won, they took out another legal action to demand a stiffer penalty against the Christians. But they withdrew after a public outcry and said it was an “error of judgment”.
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+ 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
+ Equality and Human Rights Commission, 3 More London, Riverside Tooley Street, London, SE1 2RG England, 020-3117-0235, Fax: 0203-117-0237, info@equalityhumanrights.com
+ Evangelical Alliance, Whitefield House, 186 Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4BT England, 020 7207 2100, Fax: 020-7207-2150, info@eauk.org
+ Christian Concern, 70 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8AX, England, 020 7935 1488, Contact Page
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[9] Trinity Review Article “Church Membership in an Age of Idolatry and Confusion” Published
A website-only special issue of The Trinity Review has been published with an article by Kevin Reed titled “Church Membership in an Age of Idolatry and Confusion”. In this Review, Reed critiques Dr. David Engelsma’s Bound to Join: Letters on Church Membership (Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2010).
Additionally, The Trinity Foundation is offering both of the books Imperious Presbyterianism by Kevin Reed for US$5.95 and Come Out From Among Them: “Anti-Nicodemite” Writings of John Calvin for US$29.95, referenced in the article – and a project for which Kevin Reed served as editor and publisher – for US$25 postage paid to addresses in the United States and US$33 postage paid to non-U.S. addresses. Please send orders to the address below or call for credit card orders. Quantities are limited, and the offer expires 1 August 2011.
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+ The Trinity Foundation, Post Office Box 68, Unicoi, Tennessee 37692, 423-743-0199, Fax: 423-743-2005, tjtrinityfound@aol.com
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