Category: In The News!

KIEV (Reuters) – A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal’s enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

“The man shouted ‘God will save me, if he exists’, lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions,” the official said.

“A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.”

The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an “animal island” protected by thick concrete blocks.

Analysis

This news account is rather peculiar, as it does not indicate whether the man in question was one who had faith in God, or who had taken drastic means to prove to himself whether or not God exists.  If a man doubts the existence of God, it seems rather extreme to place himself in mortal danger to find out!  Continue reading “In the News: Lioness In Zoo Kills Man Who Invoked God” →

ROME (Reuters) – An Italian priest is resorting to some innovative theology to rid his church of young women’s bare midriffs.

“God knew what your navel looked like even before you were born, so there is no need to expose it in church,” commands a sign at the entrance to the church in Cinisello Balsamo.

Guards at major churches in Italy routinely keep out people wearing skimpy attire. But Father Felice says he resorted to the signs because his parish cannot afford guards to keep out the low-cut jeans and high-cut tops, newspapers reported Monday.

Monday, 6/5/2006 Reuters

Analysis:

It is summer, and clothes are coming off… all over the world. It is to the point that people are not only willing to dress immodestly, but they are not hesitant to do so in places where it is offensive to others.

Continue reading “In The News: No More Navel Gazing in Church” →

WASHINGTON – President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue – all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives.

“Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.”

Continue reading “Gay Marriage Ban Destined To Fail” →

Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child pornography and sex with animals.

The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party said on its Web site it would be officially registered Wednesday, proclaiming: “We are going to shake The Hague awake!”

The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.

“A ban just makes children curious,” Ad van den Berg, one of the party’s founders, told the Algemeen Dagblad (AD) newspaper.

“We want to make pedophilia the subject of discussion,” he said, adding that the subject had been a taboo since the 1996 Marc Dutroux child abuse scandal in neighboring Belgium. “We have been hushed up. The only way is through parliament.”

The Netherlands already has liberal policies on soft drugs, prostitution, and gay marriage, but the NVD is unlikely to win much support, the AD quoted experts as saying.

“They make out as if they want more rights for children. But their position that children should be allowed sexual contact from age 12 is of course just in their own interest,” anti-pedophile campaigner Ireen van Engelen told the daily.

The party said private possession of child pornography should be allowed although it favors banning the trade of such materials. The broadcast of pornography should be allowed on daytime television, with only violent pornography limited to the late evening, according to the party.

Toddlers should be given sex education and youths aged 16 and up should be allowed to appear in pornographic films and prostitute themselves. Sex with animals should be allowed although abuse of animals should remain illegal, the NVD said.

The party also said everybody should be allowed to go naked in public.

The party’s program also includes ideas for other areas of public policy including legalizing all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters)

Analysis:

It is a bit difficult to be shocked anymore when presented with examples of ungodliness and immorality in our world. I must confess, however, to being especially appalled at the reading of the preceding article. Pedophilia (sexual activity with children) has long had adherents (from ancient Greece until our day. But it seems pedophiles are becoming more vocal in the pressing of their peculiar agenda to be accepted by society.

One reason why such perverts are emboldened in their agenda to legalize such abominations is that a secular society has no sound foundation upon which to exclude any immoral activity. If God is not the arbiter in the questions regarding good and evil, who is? If men determine what is immoral and what is not, perhaps men will one day determine that pedophilia is wholesome and harmless. Farfetched? Hardly, as we see this is exactly what has been done with regard to homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia.

In the days of Noah we are told, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). It seems that the world in our day is looking more and more like that ancient world. God destroyed that world by water. One wonders whether God’s longsuffering is nearing its end with us as well! “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

No matter how far you are behind the loop, podcasting is pretty easy to understand. The name is derived from Apple’s ubiquitous iPod series of personal music players, a name that has come to stand for the concept as well as the product, like Kleenex or Xerox, and like Walkman used to be.

The idea is that a podcaster makes a recording, or a show, and distributes it to people to play on their MP3 players. Listeners can fast forward, rewind and replay to their heart’s content. Think of it as TiVo for your iPod.

It’s easier than it sounds. “All you need is a PC and a microphone,” says Maffin. “You can pick up something suitable at an electronics store for $15 and the software is free.”

Producers (or podcasters) create their show on a personal computer, using a microphone for their voice. They can use easily acquired software to edit in music, effects and other recorded sounds as required…

…”There are literally thousands of podcasts on a variety of subjects,” says Willi Powell, strategic development manager for Apple Canada and a confessed podcast fan.

“Of course, it all starts with music, but you can find everything from news to religion to home improvement.”…

Jerry Langdon
Toronto Star Online (thestar.com)

Analysis:

We have started a podcast on the soundteaching.org site, and are offering a new edition of the podcast each Friday afternoon. While much of the material at the site the members have already seen (bulletin articles and sermons), these podcasts are unique to the site itself. So, they will benefit the brethren here.

Continue reading “Podcasting” →

The River Oaks News reported in the Thursday, May 25th edition of the paper, the generosity of the Wal-Mart corporation in giving away $28,500 in grants to various non-profit groups. Among the grants given were donations to various area schools, fire departments and police departments, and city governments.

On the back page of the paper there is a picture of Dr. Bob Mullen, an evangelist for the Westworth Village church of Christ, receiving one of the big cardboard checks from Wal-Mart representatives in the amount of $1,000.

We have three questions:

1. As the freewill offering of the saints is the only means by which the church has been authorized to raise funds (cf. 1 Cor. 16), where is the authority for the Westworth Village church of Christ to accept such a donation? (Answer: No such authority exists).
2. As Paul indicated that the transfer of funds from the church in Philippi constituted a fellowship in the gospel of Christ (cf. Phil. 1:3-6), where is the authority for the Westworth Village church of Christ to have spiritual fellowship with a corporation like Wal-Mart? (Answer: Again, no such authority exists).
3. Does the Westworth Village church of Christ care that what they are doing is without authority? (Answer: Apparently not, as it is the continuation of an unscriptural emphasis on the social gospel concept that has characterized that church for many years).

Polls have shown that one in five adults in the United States has read “The Da Vinci Code,” and many more are familiar with its themes. George Barna, a pollster in California, says 25 percent of those who had read the book said it helped them achieve personal growth or understanding. “Few people said that reading the book had actually changed any of their beliefs,” he said. “That was only 5 percent. Most people said that it essentially reinforced what they believed coming into the book.”

What they believe is what Mr. Barna calls “pick and choose theology.” It’s a trend that Christian conservatives find scary and maddening, but that liberals tend to embrace as “big tent” inclusiveness.

“Americans by and large consider themselves to be Christian, but when you try to drill down to figure out what they believe, you find that among those who call themselves Christian, 59 percent don’t believe in Satan, 42 percent believe Jesus sinned during his time on Earth, and only 11 percent believe the Bible is the source of absolute moral truth,” said Mr. Barna, a conservative evangelical who regards these as troubling indicators.

Da Vinci Christianity is not so disturbing to Gregory Robbins, an Episcopalian who directs the Anglican Studies program at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

“When I talk to groups, they say, tell us about the Dead Sea Scrolls, the discovery of the Gnostic gospels, what went on with Constantine, was there a massive book burning by the church in the fourth century” – all elements woven into the Da Vinci plot, Mr. Robbins said.

He said he emphasizes in his talks that in its first few centuries, Christianity was not monolithic. There were Palestinian Christians, Jewish Christians, Pauline Christians who appealed to gentiles, Gnostic Christians, and Ebionite Christians who saw Jesus as merely a prophet.

Among Christians today, he said: “I have found a willingness to entertain the idea that early Christianity was very diverse. Then they’re able to talk about the diversity that characterizes Christianity in the 20th century.”

Laurie Goodstein
The New York Times
(Partial transcript, edited for space).

Analysis:

The DaVinci Code, a novel which takes potshots at the Catholic church, and also makes outlandish claims about Jesus Christ, has been made into a movie. Many protests are being raised about the movie, as Catholics and Protestants alike take issue with the plot and characters in the movie.

What is interesting is that so much of this controversy revolves around whose lie is the truth! While The Davinci Code certainly attacks the Christian faith, it is mostly attacking a distortion of that faith, as it claims the Catholic church to be the “bad guy” in hiding what “really happened.”

And some people are being taken in by it all. The article above gives the main reason why this is so. People seem to think that you can pick and choose what part of the Christian faith you want to believe, and reject the rest! One man in the article asks, “All these people – the famous Luke, Mark and John – how did they know so much about Jesus’ life?”

Of course, “these people” are the inspired writers of the gospels of our Lord. As Peter said, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:16).

All scripture is given by God’s inspiration (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17). The attempts of some heretics 2,000 years after the fact nothwithstanding, the inspiration and veracity of the New Testament scriptures is beyond dispute.

Thousands of people fled the fertile slopes of Indonesia’s most dangerous volcano Saturday as glowing lava oozed down the side and ash and rock spewed from the mountaintop, leading authorities to warn that an eruption could come soon.

Villages on Mount Merapi were left virtually empty, although some residents returned to its slopes Sunday to tend their animals and crops…

Continue reading “Thousands Flee Dangerous Volcano” →

In the first 1,000 years of Christianity, only monks and priests knew how to read and write. Every one else was illiterate and ignorant and was totally dependent on the monks and priests for information on and explanation of the world around them.

The opening of universities in Europe starting in the 12th century, the invention of movable-type printing in Germany in the 15th, the spread of universal education starting in the 19th… democratized to some extent the portals of knowledge.

Continue reading “Cafeteria Catholicism” →

A majority of Canadians celebrated Easter over the weekend but not all of them went to church.

While 73 per cent of Canadians responding to a poll by Ipsos-Reid believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and was resurrected to eternal life and 62 per cent agreed that through his life, death and resurrection, God provided the way for the forgiveness of sins, just 17 per cent said they attend church regularly.

Continue reading “Religion Without the Pews” →

Our young, spoiled, narcissistic, shallow Olympians better not be the best we’ve got.

The 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie yelped “Kids! What’s the matter with kids today?” Back then not much, as a matter of fact. A lot, evidence suggests, nowadays. Torino’s Winter Olympics showed what’s the matter with kids: Many are rude, narcissistic, and spoiled to the gills.

The Olympics once represented the best of America’s best man- and maidenhood. Bob Richards: reverend and decatholoner. Rafer Johnson: sprinter and pioneer. Peggy Flemming: girl next door. Each etched deference, teamwork, and stoic heroism – we, not me…

…How did we plunge from then [sportsmanship in earlier Olympics] to this?

Begin with culture, as toxic as Love Canal. Self-esteem trumps the Golden Rule. Obscenity floods film. Most network television is a horror house. The Wall Street Journal reports: “New network [MY Network TV] Will Showcase Greed, Lust, Sex.” Spineless parents accept this trend; courageous parents don’t.

The National Survey of Families and Households finds children from traditional families less prone to fail in school, use drugs, or become coarse and profane (like today’s Olympians). A University of California at Berkeley survey of middle-class children from age 5 to their early 20s says that discipline helps manners and mores. Raised right, you act right.
If not – well, visit any mall to see the contrast. Teenagers jostle the elderly. Few boys open a door for girls. And girls are too busy dressing like an MTV Video “ho” to notice. Dialogue is a contact sport; English superfluous to profanity. What’s the matter with kids? Gaucherie is their DNA. Recently I called the wife of a national pollster “ma’am”; she reacted like Dracula at the sign of the cross.

Priorities have consequences. Americans in 2006 shout that money rules; ethics are situational; beauty is skin-deep; and humility is for squares. Diogenes sought honesty; we seek designer garb, an iPod, the latest DVD. “Style matters” – depth does not.

Many children are as honest, kind, and moral as children were a decade ago. Many more, I suspect, are not. Tom Brokaw deemed the adults of World War II “the greatest generation.” What if the Winter Olympics reveal a showboating, trash-talking, striving-pathetically-to-be-hip “worst generation” of kids?

Curt Smith
National Review Online

Analysis:

No analysis is really needed here. Just an “attaboy.” The writer rightly points out that children who are raised right, act right. In a society where most parents have abdicated their responsibility to bestow decent values upon their kids, Christian parents must raise their children to be faithful Christians, and honest citizens. Manners, humility, civility… all of these matter.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Colossians 4:6).

It’s a shame that in America, too often people follow the lead of such jerk athletes as Bode Miller or Terrell Owens rather than the Apostle Paul.

I am experiencing the computer equivalent of an out-of-body experience. In front of me is Apple’s sleek new MacBook Pro laptop computer. And on the screen is a familiar sight in an unfamiliar setting: the rolling green hill and the blue sky spotted with clouds (and dotted with icons) that is the unmistakable Windows XP desktop. It’s like Pepsi in a Coke bottle, DeLay as a Democrat, Johnny Damon in a Yankee uniform (oops, forget that last one). Though it had previously been possible to run Windows on a Macintosh via pokey simulation software, this time Windows runs “native” (i.e., directly, just like with Dell and the rest) on the Intel chips that Apple has been switching to this year. Depending on how I start it up, this MacBook can retain the identity of a Mac running the Tiger OS, or become a Windows box in Mac clothing. It’s making me dizzy.

Steven Levy
The Technologist, Newsweek

Analysis:

Many know that I am a bit of a computer nut. And, I have always used computers that have Windows operating systems. Continue reading “Win on Mac: A Sign of the Apocalypse?” →

In the aftermath of the Gary Winkler murder, pundits are filling the airwaves with speculation regarding motive, and seeking to fill in the gaps of knowledge regarding the relationship between the deceased and his wife, Mary Winkler. Also, there is interest in knowing more about the church of Christ. Unfortunately, in a recent (March 27th) edition of Nancy Grace’s show on CNN, Ms. Grace asked, not a member of the Lord’s church, but a Baptist Minister, about the church. A partial transcript of the show is below:

Continue reading “Church Maligned on CNN” →

The wife of a slain Tennessee pastor confessed to killing him and has been charged with first-degree murder, officials said today, after she was questioned overnight by state, federal and local officials.

The woman, Mary Winkler, is in the process of being extradited from Alabama, where she was found Thursday night, and will probably return to Tennessee this weekend, said Roger Rickman, a police investigator in Selmer, Tenn., where the Winkler family lives.

The charge of first degree murder, indicates that she planned the killing in advance, authorities said. “First degree is premeditated,” Officer Rickman said.

Continue reading “Gospel Preacher Killed” →

The way Wade Hodges sees it, a cappella churches of Christ and instrumental Christian Churches share too much in common not to treat each other like family.

But in Truitt Adair’s view, any attempt at unity that does not include an “honest discussion of the things that divide us” risks creating more division than reconciliation.

Such are the disparate views among church leaders 100 years after a 1906 federal religious census first reported the a cappella and instrumental churches as separate bodies…

Continue reading ““Unity Events”” →