25 April 2012

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Presbyterians Week Headlines

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[1] And He Was Not

[2] Largest PCUSA Church in Colorado Votes to Leave for Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians

[3] Hungarian Government Pressing Ahead with Religion Classes at All Schools

[4] Hardback Version of the book McIntire: Defender of Faith and Freedom Available from CarlMcIntire.com

[5] Planned Parenthood Priests of Baal and Molech in the Midst of Forty Days of Prayer for Abortion

[6] World Congress of Families Meetings in May 2012

[7] Islam is State Religion of Ohio Prison System

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[1] And He Was Not

By T. M. Moore

[Editor’s Note: the Rev. T.M. Moore is the editor of the Worldview Church, serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum, and serves as principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. Mr. Moore has additionally authored a daily devotional for the Christian Observer every day since the web-based version began publication on 31 October 2008.]

And then God took him.

The Lord accepts into his household those of good will and compassion; they are the company who always keep within themselves the likeness and image of God, and do not go against the Father’s law.

  – Anonymous, Fis Adomnan (Irish 9th century)

Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

  – Genesis 5.24

“Mr. Moore, my name is Charles Colson, and I work for a ministry called Prison Fellowship.”

Thus began one of the most important relationships of my life. It ended all too soon, when, like Enoch, Chuck was suddenly summoned home.

I had just come home from work and was catching the news before dinner when the phone rang. Our daughter, Ashley, answered, and came into the den to say it was for me. “Hello?” I ventured, and then came Chuck’s reply.

He introduced himself as though he had no reason to expect that I should know who he was. That same humility characterized Chuck though all the twenty-five years I knew him, during which we worked together on a wide range of projects.

Chuck was a man of eminent good will and compassion, as witness the way he devoted his life to the last, the lost, and the least among us. He loved prison inmates not just because he had been one of them, but because he saw something in them few bothered to observe:

They are made in the image and likeness of God.

God’s call to Chuck to work with prisoners is in many ways of parable of the Gospel itself, and of its promise to bring redemption and renewal to even the most lawless, downcast, and defeated person – or society.

Chuck understood that unless a society is grounded in the truth of the Gospel and divine Law – the works of the Law being written on the hearts of all men (Romans 2:14, 15) – there is no possibility of justice, no hope that compassion can prevail, and no abiding way to work for good will among men. From this conviction sprang his devotion to Christian worldview and to training leaders to build the Church in the years to come.

I will miss Chuck. From that first call, when he asked me to come by his office for an interview, to the night, now almost three weeks ago, I wheeled him off the platform to the waiting EMTs, I counted him as a friend, and he treated me like one. While I’m sure my contribution was never as important or significant as he always insisted it was, it was a great privilege and a source of deep satisfaction and joy to be in his company and be drawn along in the slipstream of the break-neck pace at which he sought the Kingdom and righteousness of God.

Chuck walked with God. And then God took him.

Thanks be to God.

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+ The Fellowship of Albee, Contact Page

+ Prison Fellowship, 44180 Riverside Parkway, Lansdowne, Virginia 20176, 800-206-9764, Contact Page

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[2] Largest PCUSA Church in Colorado Votes to Leave for Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians

A 23 April 2012 article by Michael Gryboski in The Christian Post titled “Largest Presbyterian Church in Colorado Votes to Leave PCUSA” reports that in a 22 April 2012 congregational meeting, 1,689 of 1,769 congregants present out of the 4000 members of First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs (FPCCS), Colorado, voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in order to join the Covenant Presbyterian Church.

FPCCS voted to leave the PCUSA largely over the PCUSA’s 2010 decision to allow the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals.

The FPCCS vote will come before the PCUSA’s Pueblo Presbytery at the presbytery’s 16 June 2012 meeting.

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+ The Christian Post, National Press Building, 529 14th Street Northwest, Suite 420, Washington DC 20045, 202-347-7734, info@christianpost.com

+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005

+ Pueblo Presbytery, 803 W. 4th Street, Suite H, Pueblo, Colorado 81003, 719-542-1013, Fax: 719-545-7956, puebloep@aol.com

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[3] Hungarian Government Pressing Ahead with Religion Classes at All Schools

A 23 April 2012 Politics.hu article titled “Government Pressing Ahead with Religion Classes At all Schools, Support for Hungarian-Language Nurseries in Neighboring Countries” reports that the government of Hungary is moving to implement provisions of the new public education laws including the requirement for all children at public and private primary schools to attend one ethics or religious education class per week.

Ethics classes will be taught be school teachers that have completed a sixty-hour training session, and the religious education classes will be taught by teachers from state-registered churches whose curriculum has been approved by the school.

The head of the educational office of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Kornel Papp, said that guidelines from Hungary’s secretariat in charge of education should be available by the summer of 2012.

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+ Politics.hu, 36-30-370-3561, editors@politics.hu

+ Reformed Church in Hungary, MRE Zsinata1146 Budapest, Abonyi u. 21, Hungary, 30-3361-666, info@reformatus.hu

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[4] Hardback Version of the book McIntire: Defender of Faith and Freedom Available from CarlMcIntire.com

A hardbound version of McIntire: Defender of Faith and Freedom is again available on CarlMcIntire.com for US$35 plus US$3.99 shipping to U.S. addresses. The paperback version of the book is available for list price US$28 from Xulon Press and from Amazon.com.

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+ Carl McIntire: Defender of Faith and Freedom, Contact Page

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[5] Planned Parenthood Priests of Baal and Molech in the Midst of Forty Days of Prayer for Abortion

A 19 April 2012 article by Jordon Sekulow and Matthew Clark on Lifenews.com titled “Abortion Doc Runs Group Making Planned Parenthood ‘Prayers’” reports that Planned Parenthood is promoting its own “40 Days of Prayer: Supporting Women Everywhere” between 18 March 2012 and 27 April 2012, which encourages pro-abortion supporters to offer prayers of “thanks for abortion providers” and the “sacred care” they provide.

The group that wrote the prayers is Faith Aloud, among whose board members include partial-birth abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart.

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+ LifeNews.com, Post Office Box 270841, Fort Collins, Colorado 80527, news@lifenews.com

+ Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 434 West 33rd Street, New York, New York 10001, 212-541-7800, Fax: 212-245-1845

+ Faith Aloud, 3672 Arsenal Street – Suite A, St. Louis, Missouri 63116, 888-717-5010, info@faithaloud.org

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[6] World Congress of Families Meetings in May 2012

The World Congress of Families has two events scheduled for May 2012.

The first is “One Man, One Woman: Making the Case for Marriage, for the Good of Society,” scheduled for 23 May 2012 at The Law Society in London, England. The colloquium includes “Remembering the Nature of Marriage” with Peter Duckworth, Barrister and Family Specialist; “Observing the State of Marriage” with Sir Paul Coleridge, High Court Judge, Family Division, and Allan C. Carlson, Founder, World Congress of Families; and “Making the Case for Marriage” with Phillip Blond , Director, ResPublica, Cristina Odone, Journalist and Media Commentator, and Ben Harris-Quinney, Chairman, The Bow Group.

The second is “Marriage and Family, Future of Society,” scheduled for 25-27 May 2012 at the Palace of Congresses in Madrid, Spain. The extensive program is available at:

http://congresomundial.es/wcf-vi-madrid/program/

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+ World Congress of Families, 934 North Main Street, Rockford, Illinois 61103, 815-964-5819, Fax: 815-965-1826, info@worldcongress.org

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[7] Islam is State Religion of Ohio Prison System

A 21 April 2012 Godfather Politics article by Giacomo titled “Islam is State Religion of Ohio Prison System” reports that after Muslims jailed in Ohio prisons started to demand they be fed meals that were ‘halal’ meals per Sharia law, Gary Mohr, Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction ordered all prison kitchens to stop using pork and to make the meals Islam friendly. Mohr was attempting to prevent a lawsuit by the Muslim prisoners.

Non-Muslim inmate James Rivers subsequently filed a lawsuit against Mohr and the Ohio prison system for forcing all inmates to eat halal Muslim meals. United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Judge James S. Guin dismissed Rivers’ case, writing:

Plaintiff asserts that this…violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, subjects him to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eight Amendment, denies him substantive and procedural due process, and denies him Equal Protection.

While the removal of pork from prison meals may benefit Muslim as well as Jewish inmates, it also creates a meal that can be eaten by all inmates regardless of faith.

[Nor would] a reasonable person … conclude that the menu change endorsed the Muslim faith. The choice is neutral to religion. Several faiths prohibit the consumption of pork…

Plaintiff has not alleged any facts or cited any law which suggest he has a constitutionally protected interest in eating pork as part of his prison diet…

Plaintiff’s substantive due process claim is based on conduct alleged to be so severe that it shocks the conscience…To the contrary, Plaintiff objects to being treated the same as all other inmates. He does not allege he was denied pork while all other inmates were served this dish. Instead, he complains that all inmates are treated the same, regardless of whether they have a religious dietary restriction of this nature.

Former Navy chaplain Dr. Gordon James Klingenschmitt, director of The Pray in Jesus Name Project commented on Judge Guin’s dismissal ruling:

In other words, because the prison enforces Muslim Sharia law equally upon all prisoners, none of them face discrimination–they are all treated as Muslims equally, and forced to eat Muslim food equally, so Christians have no dietary rights.

Godfather Politics writer Giocamo concludes:

Every day or two, I see another example of Islam and Sharia law creeping into the American judicial and governmental systems while Christianity is being pushed out and ruled against time and time again.  Mark my words, if Barack Hussein Obama is elected to a second term, the thirteen stars on the US flag will be replaced by a star and crescent.

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+ Godfather Politics, 457 Nathan Dean Boulevard, Dallas, Georgia 30132

+ Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, 770 West Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43222, 614-752-1159, drc.publicinfo@odrc.state.oh.us

+ United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Carl B. Stokes United States Court House, 801 West Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44113, 216-357-7000, OHNDdb_CleGeneral@ohnd.uscourts.gov