World News for Sept. 24, 2008

September 24, 2008

Reading: World News for Sept. 24, 2008
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  • It isn’t until a crisis hits that many people think of prayer, and the recent economic crisis on Wall Street bears it out, as a spiritual response among Christians is reminiscent to the response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. One executive told Christianity Today concerning the current crisis, “Our response will answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus on Wall Street?’” Last Monday, Sept. 15, Christians on Wall Street set up special prayer meetings for the week, with pastors gathering for sidewalk prayer outside of the stock exchange. Some New York City Christians are hoping that God can use the crisis for good. Mac Pier of the New York Leadership Center said, “God can use this situation as he did in the 1857 Layman’s Prayer Revival that started on Wall Street to draw people to a fresh recognition of our absolute dependence on his grace and love.” One executive summarized what many believers would consider to be the right response to the crisis: “Even if the worst happens, we will still be together as a family and have Christ who loves and cares for us.”
  • Larry Burkett, popular Christian writer and counselor on finances, who is now with the Lord, could be saying, “I told you so” from his grave. Burkett often spoke and wrote to warn people of an impending financial calamity due to material excess and indebtedness among the government and among the public in general. In 1991 Burkett wrote The Coming Economic Earthquake, which warned that the U.S. government deficit was out of control, with the government spending significantly more money that it was taking in. This, warned Burkett, would eventually bring the economy to its knees, “creating an economic collapse of historic proportions.”
  • A college student in Colorado has called attention to the extreme bias on secular college and university campuses. Janna Barber, a freshman at Metropolitan State College in Denver, was offended when her English professor assigned classmates to write an anti-Palin essay. He also asked students how many of them were Republican. Five students raised their hands. When one of the students used the F-word to those students, the professor laughed over it. Following an exchange, the professor allowed the students to debate the assignment, but not until the media had gotten wind of the story. Barber and two of her friends plan to take action concerning the college.
  • Senator Biden, the Democratic vice presidential hopeful, says he is honored to take part as speaker at the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-homosexual group, on Oct. 4. Conservative activist Peter LaBarbera charged that the Democrats “are now fully in bed with the homosexual activist lobby.” LaBarbera also pointed out that Senator Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) is the “most pro-abortion and pro-homosexual candidate ever to receive a major party’s presidential nomination.”
  • Senator Sam Brownback (R.-Kans.) is urging Congress to consider his “Pre-natally and Post-natally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act,” due to the fact that 90 percent of children prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. The proposed legislation is part of Brownback’s “pro-life, whole life” philosophy. Brownback noted that people want to adopt these children. He added that though the bill has broad bipartisan support, chances are slim that the legislation will be voted on by the full Senate this year.
  • The Christian Institute has welcomed a decision by Google to allow religious groups to place ads on the abortion issue after legal proceedings against the world’s largest search engine were settled amicably. The group took legal action against Google after it rejected a March ad.
  • Christianity is reportedly growing rapidly in Mongolia. Since Communist rule ended in 1990, about 60,000 Mongolians have turned to Christ. “As Mongolia enters a new era of freedom and democracy, people are looking for something different,” said a 53-year-old father of six, whose family includes three adopted Mongolian children. Buddhists, however, are alarmed over the trend. “[Christian] missionaries have money to build schools and educate young people. They entice them by various means,” lamented one monk, who has “sent a letter to the government to change the law on religion.” Currently 50 percent of Mongolians are Buddhists, 6 percent are Shamanist and Christian, and 4 percent are Muslim; 40 percent say they practice no religion.
  • In England, the Royal Society’s embattled director of education, Michael Reiss, resigned just days after causing an uproar among scientists by appearing to endorse creationist teaching. The Royal Society initially stood by Reiss, but pressures from other scientists were too much to withstand.
  • Southern Baptist LifeWay Christian Bookstores has pulled from its shelves this month’s Gospel Today magazine, which featured on its front cover female Southern Baptist preachers, dressed in black as women of the cloth. Nationally, Southern Baptists have adopted statements that discourage women from being pastors, but their 42,000 churches are autonomous and some have selected women to lead their congregations. Gospel Today publisher Teresa Hairston said the bookstores “treated it like pornography and put it behind the counter.” But Chris Turner, spokesman for LifeWay Resources, said that the cover wasn’t the reason for pulling the magazines but rather the contents: “The statements that were in it took positions that were contrary to what we would say.”
  • Six minors are in custody in Arkansas after a raid on the compound of Evangelist Tony Alamo, 74. The raid was part of an investigation concerning child porn. Alamo was convicted of tax evasion a number of years ago and spent four years in prison. He and his wife, Susan, were street preachers along Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in 1966 before forming a commune in Saugus, Calif. Susan died in 1982. Alamo claimed she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months while their followers prayed.
  • An Amish farmer in Michigan is in a lawsuit seeking to stop the government from tagging the ears of cattle with computer chips. Glen Mast says the chips violate his and others’ freedom of religion and may represent “the mark of the beast” of Revelation. Chips are being used to track movement of livestock in an attempt to ensure the safety of the food chain from mad cow disease and other afflictions. Some Amish are fleeing states with this regulation and moving to other states where enforcement is not as rigorous. “It’s like we’re being sucked into the modern world,” complained another Amish. The Amish population has doubled since 1992, and the farming traditions are increasingly coming into conflict with other farming practices.
    Meanwhile, more and more non-Amish are hiring Amish as builders of homes and other structures. Customers say that they erect buildings faster and for less money. The downside is communicating with the Amish, since they don’t own phones, drive automobiles, or carry insurance. But the work ethic, family involvement, and quality are “refreshing.”
  • A 700-year-old painting from the collection of Paris’s Louvre museum has come to the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery and will be on display until Dec. 7. The painting is by Italian Gothic painter Tommaso del Mazza, who was identified by the art world 17 years ago. The museum and gallery already has three of del Mazza’s works in its permanent collection, more than any other museum in the world.