Newslinks 05/30/08

Friday’s Newslinks brought to you by

At Ease Tees

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052308.html

Habitat for Humanity, a Christian non-profit organization, has agreed to a plan that would

help Planned Parenthood open an abortion clinic in Sarasota, Florida. The plan was drawn up by PP due to Sarasota zoning regulations. The regulations state that PP cannot build their clinic with the presence of a multi-family liner building. To circumvent this, PP has enlisted Habitat for Humanity. PP has agreed to sell land to Habitat for $10 so that it can fulfill the regulation requirements. Jim Sedlak, vice-president of the American Life League, said,” Habitat for Humanity, which claims to be a Christian ministry, says that this was only a real estate transaction. However, Planned Parenthood could not open its abortion facility without Habitat’s help.” Habitat’s website says that they are committed to provide “every man, woman and child should have a simple, decent, affordable place to live in dignity and safety”. Sedlak said that he didn’t see how helping a company that “kills babies, promotes pornography, and covers up for rapists gives a family dignity or safety”.

Sadly, I think that Habitat has made both their beliefs and their intentions known to those who are paying attention. To them, this was just a real estate transaction with another company. Obviously, Habitat’s claims about dignity and family safety aren’t something they really believe, they are just something that sounds good and helps bring in money. If Habitat truly believed in their stated “convictions” they wouldn’t partner with PP for any reason, including real estate. If they were truly a Christian organization, they wouldn’t align themselves with an organization that is clearly against God. If they were a Christian organization, their Christian convictions would come first and they would trust God to provide them with real estate.

Habitat for Humanity of Sarasota, Florida can be reached at 941-365-0700 and tsouza@sarasotahabitat.com.

Habitat for Humanity International’s complaint line is 1-800-461-9330.

Related Articles:

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080527/32539.htm

Christian Ministry Criticized for Planned Parenthood Partnership

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http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080523/32503.htm

Preaching ‘Sound Doctrine’ in an Age that Avoids It

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle, says that there is very little teaching of sound doctrine in today’s churches. “The rule is, if you have a big church you’re supposed to not talk about certain things that are controversial [or] divisive,” said Driscoll. Driscoll says that many “big” churches avoid preaching the crucifixion of Jesus because it’s “divine child abuse” or because “God is love and people won’t see the love of God at the cross”. He says that many pastors spend their time preaching on ‘seven steps to this’ or ‘four steps to that’ and at the end of the day they’re not learning about who Jesus is and what He’s done.

While I’m still not sure how much I agree with Mr. Driscoll, I agree with him on this. A large percentage of pastors in America spend their time preaching topical sermons to their congregations. Most of these are on things like God’s love, how God wants you to be blessed and prosperous, how to live victoriously, or how to improve your relationships. While these things are touched on in the Bible, they aren’t the main focus. The main focus of all of scripture is Jesus. Jesus agreed to die for the sins of man before the world was ever created. The focus of the Bible is the sinfulness of man and how God made a way for us to be forgiven of our sin and reconciled to God. Preaching has changed so much over the last 100-150 years. Back in the time of men like Spurgeon and Wesley, the preaching was expository. They would go verse by verse through a passage of scripture and explain what it meant, how it related to Christ and His sacrifice, and what the congregation needed to do to apply it to their lives. That doesn’t happen now. Today’s preaching seems to be entirely focused on making the congregants feel good where they are and tell them that they can come to Christ how they want when they’re ready. This is a tragedy of the highest order. There are thousands of people daily who are dying and going to hell. If you’re a pastor, it’s your obligation to make sure that all of the people you come into contact with are ready to meet God, knowing that they will enter heaven by showing them that they’re sinners in need of a Savior. I don’t care how popular you are or how well you can present something, if you’re not doing that, then you aren’t a pastor and you are working with the devil to lead people away from Christ.

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http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200805/CUL20080523a.html

Israel, Jewish Groups Condemn Burning of New Testaments

A group of Jewish seminary students burned hundreds of New Testaments in the town of Or Yehuda in Israel at the request of the deputy mayor. The mayor first said that this was a “purging of evil” but later apologized and said that he never meant for the books to be burned. Messianic Jews distributed the books to Jews recently arriving from Ethiopia. Messianic Jews are a small group of Jews that believe that Jesus is the Messiah. There have been a number of recent incidents that took place in Israel involving Messianic Jews. Israel’s religious leaders called for a boycott of an International Bible Quiz when they found out that one of the contestants was a Messianic Jew. Another, more serious, incident involved a bomb disguised as a holiday gift package. The bomb was opened by the teenage son of a prominent Messianic Jewish pastor in Israel. No one has been charged with the attack and the court is not releasing details at this time. Many of the leaders in Israel condemn the book burning as a “despicable act” including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, reminding the Jewish people that it wasn’t all that long ago that a number of Torahs and Talmuds were burned.

I applaud those Jewish authorities that have spoken out over this. I understand the pride that the Jewish people have, but I pray that it doesn’t blind them to the truth. I know that the Jews that hold to traditional beliefs would see Messianic Jews as “traitors”, but I don’t believe that this is the way to handle things. There should be no problem between Christians and Jews having dialogue about the differences between our beliefs. Compared to all other religious belief systems, Christianity and Judaism are the closest. While there are some who see the Christian church as a replacement for Israel, most Christians understand the scriptures and see that that isn’t the case. They have supported Israel and continue to support Israel in a time when the country needs it the most. I hope that ties between Christians and Jews will continue to grow and deepen. __________________________________________________________

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200805/CUL20080529a.html

Obama Praised Wright, Criticized Traditional Black Churches on Homosexuality

In an interview in April, Barack Obama stated that he believes that homophobic messages are coming from “black” churches because “most African-American churches are still fairly traditional in their interpretations of Scripture”. He also voiced support for his former pastor and spiritual guide Jeremiah Wright saying, “He is on the right side of the homosexual debate”. The interview was conducted by The Advocate, a homosexual publication. Obama said that while he didn’t think that it was any worse than in “white” communities, the “black” communities were more churched and pastors were the most prominent figures in those communities. He believes that because of this and the fact that they hold to traditional views of scripture, the “homophobic” attitudes get magnified. Obama said that even though his former pastor brought much controversy, he’s still “very good on gay and lesbian issues”. Black leaders and clergy said that Obama’s remarks contradict the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Reverend Ken Hutchison of Antioch Church in Redmond Washington says the new definition of homophobic is “anyone that see homosexuality as a sin”. He goes on to say, “This leaves two choices to African-American pastors. They can either be Scriptural and demand righteousness from their flock, or they can drop Scripture and righteousness and support homosexuality”. Bishop Coucil Nedd says that Wright’s thinking on homosexuality isn’t completely wrong. The Bishop says, “homosexuality is a sin just like murder, fornication, or gluttony; one is no worse than the other”. He also added that God is the final judge of people and how they live their lives.

First, can we drop the “white” and “black” monikers for churches? Yes, I know many of them have different worship styles. I also know that there are churches that have majorities of one or the other, but does it really matter? If I go to a “black” church, does that somehow change the type of Christian I am? We need to stop attaching “race” to our beliefs and start being Christians. Second, when Obama says a church holds to the traditional view of scripture, he makes it sound like that’s a bad thing. I don’t think that it is. I think that the plain reading of scripture is the only way to read it. If it’s written as history, read it that way. If it’s written as poetry, read it that way. If it says that something is wrong, then something is wrong. For Barack Obama to say that Jeremiah Wright is “on the right side of the homosexual debate” begs the question. Which is the right side? Who determines this? Is it the right side because it happens to agree with Obama’s preconceived ideas? What about the fact that those ideas go directly against scripture? If that’s still the “right” side, then doesn’t that mean that God is a liar? I have to agree with pastor Hutchison. Those who view homosexuality as a sin are the only people considered “homophobic”. The fact that we hold to the truth of the scripture in light of our ever-changing society makes us “traditional” and “homophobic”? I thought it made us sound and solid. I also think that pastor Hutchison made a good point. This debate isn’t just about a group of people wanting to live their sinful lifestyle the way they want, it’s about righteousness. The scriptures call anyone who follows Christ to be righteous. This means that we do the right thing, not in our eyes, but in God’s eyes. It means that we believe God and are obedient to Him. While I agree with Bishop Nedd that homosexuality is a sin and is no better or worse than murder, it is still a sin. What should we do next, condone murder? Oh wait; we already do that through abortion… Bishop Nedd is right, God is the ultimate judge of all of us, and there are some things that He’s already made a judgment on. One of those things is homosexuality. He said it’s an abomination (Lev. 18:22). What more do we need?

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http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052311.html

Quest to Have Chimps Declared Persons Rejected by Austrian Supreme Court

Austrian animal rights activists have taken their case to the European High Court. For a little over a year, the activists have been trying to get Matthew Hiasl Pan the rights that humans have. But “Matthew” is a chimpanzee. The chimp is part of an animal sanctuary in Vienna, which may go bankrupt. To protect the chimp, the activists are trying to get him the right to a guardian. To do this, the chimp would have to be given human rights. The lower court ruled that the chimp was neither mentally impaired or in any danger, the criteria for appointing a guardian. The activists appealed to the High Court in France, which agreed to a preliminary hearing on whether or not chimpanzees should be afforded human rights. Paula Stibbe, a British schoolteacher, said that she wasn’t trying to get the chimp declared a human, just a person. She said that “Matthew” would have relatives to take care of him if he were in Africa. She would like to be appointed the chimp’s guardian, because she’s the person “closest to him”. If this legal action succeeds, it could provide rights, protections, and medical, social and health benefits to animals.

Is this really an issue? This isn’t some sort of extremely late April Fool’s joke is it? Are there people who are honestly trying to get a chimpanzee human rights? This is evolutionary thinking at it’s best. If we’re all just evolved monkeys, then shouldn’t they have rights too? I can’t help but ask a couple questions. How far down the “evolutionary tree” should we go? Should starfish get rights too or does it stop with bipedal creatures? If so, doesn’t that discriminate against horses? This is ludicrous. There are a number of humans in the world who don’t have the rights that these activists are trying to get for the monkey. Shouldn’t that raise an alarm? I can’t help but laugh at the statement made by Miss Stebbe, a schoolteacher. She said that she’s the closest to the chimp. Ok. This statement could be taken a few different ways. One, she’s the closest geographically. This obviously isn’t the case because she’s in Britain and he’s in Vienna. Two, she’s the closest to him emotionally. I don’t see how this could be for the same reasons as above. Three, she’s the closest to him evolutionally. This would seem like a serious put down for Miss Stebbe, but if it’s true, we may have just found a missing link. Honestly, I hate the idea that the animal sanctuary may be going under, but trying to get a chimp endowed with human rights is the biggest waste of time that I’ve ever heard of! This is going to the European High Court, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they’ve actually agreed to hear the case! Don’t they have more important issues across all of Europe? There are a number of people who have exotic animals as pets. Why don’t they just let Miss Stebbe buy the chimp as a pet and let it end there? I am ashamed that people are actually trying to take this issue as far as it has gone…

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http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052305.html

South Carolina Principal Resigns Due to High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance Club

Eddie Walker, the principal of Irmo High School in Columbia, SC, has decided to resign after the next school year. The principal’s reason for resigning is the school’s decision to allow a Gay/Straight Alliance Club (GSAC) to form. GSACs make every effort to portray homosexuality in a healthy, moral, and positive light. In a letter to district officials, Walker wrote, “Allowing the formation of this club on our campus conflicts with my professional beliefs and religious convictions”. He also said that allowing the club to form would conflict with the school’s abstinence education program. Walker said that the school has no other clubs that are based on sexual orientation, preference or activity and that allowing this club to exist would imply that “students joining the club have chosen to or would choose to engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, opposite sexes, or both sexes”. Brent Childers, executive director of the pro-homosexual group Faith in America, said, “We truly believe it is unfortunate that this principal cannot see the immense harm that is caused when a social climate of rejection, condemnation and violence is justified with misguided religious belief”. Another group, South Caorlina Equality has called for Walker’s immediate termination saying that if a gay student were harmed, the school could be responsible because they created a “hostile environment”. They also said that every day that Mr. Walker is principal at this school “students will continue to live in fear for their safety”. In his letter, Walker discouraged verbal or physical abuse to members of the club. Walker said that he holds no malice toward anyone, knowing that if the district had not allowed the club, it would have faced legal action from “gay-rights” groups and, according to current legal precedents, would have likely lost. Walker agreed to remain principle for the 2008-9 school year because he felt that not doing so would have been a breach of trust with the district, students, and faculty. Walker’s letter has prompted school officials to look at how they relate to extra-curricular clubs and activities.

Read the full resignation letter:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357208,00.html

This is sad to me, but I continue to notice that anytime a “gay rights” group feels like they are losing ground, they threaten legal action. Look at the Elaine Hugenin brouhaha. She owns her own photography business and decided not to take a job as the photographer of a homosexual “ceremony”. Because of this, she’s been sued. The principal stated his knowledge that if the district hadn’t allowed the club, it would have faced legal action. Why is this? Is it because that is the only way that homosexuals can make their lifestyle “right”? They claim that their actions are “natural” and “healthy” and “moral”, but are they really? According to scripture they’re not. I’ve not seen anyone right handling scripture show that God is ok with homosexuality. Sure, there are plenty of pro-homosexual “Christians” who twist scripture to make it support their view. Pro-homosexual groups compare their “plight” to that of the African-Americans in the days of slavery and segregation. I’m not “black” but if I were, that would seriously offend me. The truth is, our schools and our country in general need more people like Mr. Walker. We need good, solid, Christian men and women that understand what the Bible says and are willing to live by it even in the face of losing their job or worse. Sadly, I believe the number of people that fit this description is a lot lower than what statistics may say…

Related Articles:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/may/00050201.html

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http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080526/32530.htm

Church of England Advised Against Withholding Christ from MuslimsPaul Eddy has made a statement that has angered senior church leaders, as well as some Muslims. Eddy, who is studying to be a priest in the Church of England, said that the Anglican Church “must make it clear that it believes in what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to salvation”. The Anglican Church remains divided on whether or not to proclaim Jesus as the only way to salvation. Eddy not only believes this to be true, but says that the Church of England needs to make this clear. He says that the Muslims that he’s talked to express the desire for Christians to “stop watering down they’re faith”. He said, “until we start really saying what we believe in our faith, there will be no respect” and that “Muslims expect us to believe that Jesus is the only way to be saved”. Eddy says that the church has “lost it’s nerve” in an effort to be inclusive and not offend anyone.

Kudos to Paul Eddy for standing up and being true to the gospel instead of the “Church”. I think that it’s a sad indication of where Christianity has fallen when people of other faiths are more concrete on Christianity than those who call themselves followers of Christ. How ashamed should we be when Muslims, who don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God, are telling us to not water down our faith!!! I can’t understand how the Anglican Church has such a hard time making the decision to say that Jesus is the only way to salvation!?!? Jesus Himself said the very same thing! In John 14:6, Jesus says,

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http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052607.html

South African Teachers Union: “We Won’t Give Condoms to Kids”The teachers union in South Africa has made it very clear that they won’t be coerced into distributing condoms to their school age children. The spokesman for the union said that condom distribution is the work of social services and other organizations. He said that the union would focus on teaching abstinence in their curriculum. The country has been swamped with condoms from the UN AIDS program. South Africa has much support in their position. Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan AIDS activist, said, “UNAIDS has no success story. You cannot look at a country that has taken the advice of UNAIDS and see a decrease in AIDS”. Recently published reports also support this, showing that an increase in condom distribution directly coincided with the increase of AIDS in the population. Uganda, another country ravaged by AIDS, has had much success in their fight against the disease, seeing a decrease in AIDS as high as 18%. This comes, not from condoms, but from abstinence programs.

In a time when public schools in America are being pressured to promote homosexuality as “healthy” and “moral”, I can’t help but wonder where the next generations will be if we allow that. AIDS is still a problem in this nation too and the only way to combat it effectively is to promote abstinence. To do that seems like a pipe dream because abstinence is often tied to religion in many peoples’ minds. Many organizations have promoted condom use as a form of protection but to no avail. If our country, and other nations, want to see a change for the best then they need Christian values. Not the values of many of the fornicating, adulterous, sexually immoral people posing as Christians but values taken directly from the Christian scriptures.

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http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052608.html

California Mayor “Outraged” at Proposal to Exempt Civil Servants from Gay Marriage for Conscience Reasons

San Francisco mayor Gain Newsom is “shocked and outraged” by the idea that county clerks may have the ability to refuse to perform “gay marriages” based on conscience. He believes that “This is a civil marriage that civil servants have a responsibility to provide, for civil servants on religious grounds to start passing judgments, they, I think, are breaking the core tenet of what civil service is all about” and that clerks who refuse to provide the “marriages” should lose their jobs immediately. “If you don’t want to provide a marriage certificate and you’ve got a job that does that, then you should think twice about why you got the job in the first place and maybe you should get a new job,” he added. Newsom seems to conveniently forget that that he violated California law by declaring that clerks could perform “marriages” for homosexual couples. The California Supreme Court ruling allowing homosexual couples to get “married” goes into effect June 16^th.

This is a perfect picture of the homosexual agenda at work. If even one thing goes against them they are “outraged” and “shocked”. Newsom’s claim that all civil service clerks should be forced to perform the “marriages” is grossly unfair. First, if there is even one clerk that will perform the “marriages”, there should be no complaint. The option is available and there is no reason to make it mandatory that all the clerks give the licenses. Second, they are civil service clerks. They serve all of the populace of San Francisco, and are part of that populace. Because of that, they should have the right to refuse. If the entire population of San Francisco was homosexual, then it might be different. Seeing as it’s not, to make all the clerks serve just a part of the populace is ridiculous. I hope to see this overturned before June 16^th, but I don’t know if the US Supreme Court will step in or not.

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http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052610.html

 Deaths Exceed Births in Increasing Number of Major US CitiesIn his blog last Friday, Albert Mohler discussed the alarming statistics coming out about cities across the country. Many more cities are seeing a death rate that is exceeding the rate of births. Pittsburgh is used as an example. In the 1990’s, Pittsburgh saw 11,500 more births than deaths. In this decade, the city has already seen 25,000 more deaths and there are still two and a half years left before the decade ends. Mr. Mohler says that immigrants coming into the country are sustaining the base replacement rate. In many Pittsburgh hospitals, the obstetrics areas are being converted to acute care wards. This is coupled with a severe drop in public school enrollment (70,000 to 30,000 in the last two decades). “The collapse of birthrates is a sign of huge social and moral transformations. Schools are called into question, but so are churches and other institutions,” stated Mohler. “Pittsburgh is becoming a parable of population loss for the rest of the nation. Will anyone take notice?”

As soon as I saw the headline I couldn’t help but think of the millions of children that have died from abortion. I wonder where the population of Pittsburgh and other cities would be if we weren’t killing off so many unborn children. I also can’t help but wonder where the church has been in all of this? What exactly are we doing if we’re not fulfilling our role as the moral standard? We are to be giving the answers to problems like this. We are to be showing people alternatives to killing children. Sadly, to many “Christians”, the environment seems to be more important than the unborn. If the rates continue for the rest of the decade, Pittsburgh will have lost a full third of its population in ten years! This is still another example of the tragedy that is becoming the United States of America. We are no longer the nation that stands for freedom and unity. We are no longer the nation that stands for the rights of others. We are the floundering, filthy, sin-filled nation of greed, lust, and self. We are the bloated, gluttonous, prideful nation that is too busy with trivial things to see the danger that we’re in. I pray that our nation will open its eyes or I fear that we will end up like so many nations before us who have turned away from God…

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http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080522/32486.htm

 Are Small Groups Enough for Disciple-Making?At a conference for church leaders in the Purpose Driven Network, pastors agreed that some form of small groups should be used to deepen discipleship but they were varied on the structure of those groups. Steve Stroop, one of the speakers at the conference, said that he believes that the family is the main small group of the church and feared that many of his congregants were “outsourcing” the discipling of their children to Sunday school teachers. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill church, said that his church uses a digital network to help people keep in touch, offer prayers and prayer requests, and have small groups. Daniel S. Kim said that he believes that there needs to be a distinction between small groups for fellowship and those for discipleship. To Kim, discipling is a “totally different type of small group”. The members of his church have small group fellowships, but they are also expected to go through discipleship training for a year and a half. This starts with Bible study one-on-one or one-one-two, continues with church pastors guiding groups of twelve through an 8 month session, and ends with Kim himself teaching the groups and 8 month course on leadership. Those who pass the leadership course are then able to go on and lead their own groups.

Christian Ministry ‘Habitat for Humanity’ Agrees to Work with Abortion Giant Planned Parenthood