World News: Dec. 16, 2009

December 16, 2009

Reading: World News: Dec. 16, 2009
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  • A Canadian pastor who was charged in 2008 with sending a letter in 2002 to a local newspaper criticizing homosexuality has been acquitted, according to Christian Post. Stephen Boissoin had been ordered in 2008 to stop all public criticisms of homosexuality and was fined $5,000 in damages. However, Judge E. C. Wilson overturned the ruling last Friday, saying the letter was not a hate crime but is permissible under freedom of speech. “The decision of Justice Earl Wilson of the Court of the Queen’s Bench in Boissoin v. Lund will have a significant long term positive impact on religious freedom in Canada,” wrote Gerald Chipeur, Boissoin’s attorney. Conservative Christian leaders in the U.S. have cited the Boissoin case as an example of what can happen if hate crimes legislation becomes law, and these leaders have vowed to keep a close watch on whether recently passed legislation respects free speech and religious liberty.
  • Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has issued results of a new poll that finds large numbers of Americans engage in multiple religious practices, mixing elements of diverse traditions. Many say they attend worship services of more than one faith or denomination, even when they are not traveling or going to special events such as weddings and funerals. Many try to blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs such as reincarnation, astrology, and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects. Sizable minorities of all major U.S. religious groups say they have experienced supernatural phenomena, such as being in touch with the dead or with ghosts.
  • The past week was seen by Christianity Today as “the worst week for conservatives.” One reason included the U.S. Senate’s rejection of a pro-life amendment to the health care bill that would have barred any direct or indirect funding of abortion. “Conservatives are licking their wounds from fights over abortion funding, health care reform, a gay-rights nominee, embryonic stem cell research, and Uganda’s anti-gay law,” noted the report.
  • The Illinois Family Institute in its E-Alert has criticized a state lottery push that airs radio and TV ads using the Christian carol “Joy to the World.” Said IFI, “The song’s deep meaning celebrating the birth of the Savior as it proclaims ‘Joy to the world, the Lord is come!’ is being perverted to sell a false hope of a different kind of ’savior’—money and the love of it.”
  • The Duggers of Arkansas, known for their many children, strong Christian testimony and child-rearing, books, and TV program, welcomed Josie Brooklyn, their 19th baby last week—four months early, reported the Dish Rag. The mother, Michelle, checked into the hospital for a gallstone problem. Doctors decided to perform an emergency C-section. Josie weighed only 1 lb., 6 oz. but is in stable condition.
  • Scott T. Brown, director of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches, has come out asserting that modern youth ministries are “indisputably unbiblical,” reported Christian Post. “Age-segregated youth ministry, trained youth ministers, and programs to draw and entertain youth are a new invention in the history of the church,” said Brown. Brown wants to replace modern youth ministry with “God’s beautiful plan for youth ministry.” “I hope that we are now at the end of this 50-year failed experiment,” said Brown. “We now have almost three generations of children who had no father who walked beside them but a youth group instead. It is obvious that half a decade of youth group does not produce young people who are passionate about the church.” Research and estimates by youth workers were cited that suggest a majority of youth group seniors drop out of church after graduating. Brown insisted, though, that while he rejects youth groups, he is not rejecting ministry to youth. Rather, he says he supports and promotes “generous investments in teaching Scripture to youth.” “We must do it God’s way,” stressed Brown.
  • ChristianNewsWire reports that Dianne Irving and Ward Kischer, two leading PhDs in medical science have stepped forward to correct the “absurd and scientifically erroneous” information presented during two counseling sessions at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Appleton, Wis. The right-to-life advocacy group Live Action released undercover footage last week showing clinic staff, including the abortion doctor, lying to two young women about fetal development and encouraging the one who was reportedly pregnant to obtain abortion because “women die having babies.” Lila Rose, president of Live Action, says the video underscores the contradictions between Planned Parenthood and the mainstream medical and scientific communities. “Every day Planned Parenthood violates the most basic medical, ethical, and legal codes in order to sell more abortions to vulnerable women. Planned Parenthood confuses medical terms and lies outright about medical facts to hide the humanity of the woman’s unborn child and make ‘the pregnancy’ more abortable.’ “
  • CNSNews.com reports that Sen. James Inhofe (R.-Okla.), ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, says he believes some of his Senate colleagues share the view expressed by White House science adviser John P. Holdren in a 1973 book that human fetuses do not become human beings until sometime after they are born. Holdren coauthored Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions with Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich. The book calls for a “massive campaign” to “de-develop the United States” and concludes that redistribution of wealth “both within and among nations is absolutely essential.” On page 235, in a chapter titled “Population Limitation,” Holdren and his coauthors wrote, “The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being. Where any of these essential elements is lacking, the resultant individual will be deficient in some respect.”
  • Operation Rescue has launched a new drive known as Project Daniel 5:25, a reference to handwriting on the wall, reports onenewsnow.com. Operation Rescue has done extensive research to determine how many abortion clinics have closed in the last two decades. The number is 1,500. Just 713 abortion clinics are open for business now. Project Daniel 5:25 is raising an army of new volunteers to pray at abortion clinics and monitor those clinics’ activities and to lodge reports with the pro-life group.
  • Onenewsnow.com reports that a constitutional scholar has come out saying the President Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize may be a violation of the U.S. Constitution because he received the award without the consent of Congress. Cited was Article I, Section 9, which states, “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office or Trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign state.” Matthew Spalding of The Heritage Foundation said that the Nobel Prize is from a commission appointed by the Parliament of Norway, a foreign state. Spalding believes the Nobel Prize Commission intended to give the award to a president who “had not yet accomplished anything, in hopes of encouraging him to do certain things in the future.” Walter Williams, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University remarked, “Typically the Nobel Prize is awarded to someone, or an organization, that has actually done something even if that something is controversial or unwise.” Meanwhile, Oslo police chased Norwegian and American Christians from the area while Obama was in town to receive the prize, according to WorldNetDaily. The believers were trying to present a gospel witness to people. “It seems that Oslo is not interested in permitting Christian speech in public areas during any outdoor event,” remarked Joel Thornton, of the International Human Rights Group.
  • In Britain a proposal in the Parliament is calling for mandatory criminal background checks for parents who want to homeschool their children, said a report in WorldNetDaily. A U.S. advocacy group is saying it is the most “overbearing law in the English-speaking world.” “This bill is breathtaking in its scope and reflects a perverse level of suspicion towards parents who home-educate their children,” noted Michael Donnelly, staff attorney and director of international relations for the Home School Legal Defense Association. Meanwhile, WorldNetDaily reports that the International Human Rights Group has announced that it will pursue a civil lawsuit on behalf of parents who want to control their children’s education and withhold them from from explicit sex education and play-acting classes required by the German government in which children are essentially shown how to engage in sex. Several fathers have been fined and put in jail for refusing to let the children participate. Unlike most American schools, German schools offer no choice when it comes to opting out of activities such as these.
  • The first openly homosexual person to be elected mayor of Houston, Texas, said she hopes her victory will change how the world views her city, reported AP and other sources. Lesbian Annise Parker beat an African-American man, Gene Locke, with 53.6 percent of the vote in a hotly contested election.
  • Some fast-growing churches have been crushed in China, reports the AP. One church has served nearly 50,000 worshipers in China’s coal country. But hundreds of police and thugs they hired reportedly smashed doors and windows, seized Bibles, and sent dozens of worshipers to hospitals with serious injuries. The church’s copastors are in jail. The church is locked, and a police-armored vehicle sits outside.
  • Swiss voters have overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets, barring construction of the mosque towers, reported USA Today. The vote was seen as putting Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.