CentrePoint News News That Matters

By Lillian Kwon

Former Episcopalians who have been ordered by an El Paso County judge to leave their historic property will begin anew on Palm Sunday as St. George’s Anglican Church.

The new church is formed by the majority of congregants from Grace Church & St. Stephen’s in Colorado Springs who split from the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. St. George’s is the fourth breakaway Anglican parish to be established in the county.

“We are moving to a beautiful location situated among rocks not unlike where Jesus’ tomb was located, and like him we will be resurrected to new life as a congregation, with a new name, and a new future,” commented the Rev. Donald Armstrong, rector of the new parish. “This biblical similarity is not lost on us.”

Last week, District Judge Larry Schwartz ruled that the $17 million property of Grace Church & St. Stephen’s belongs to the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and not the breakaway parish.

The ruling came after a two-year long dispute over property ownership since Grace Church & St. Stephen’s – one of the oldest Anglican churches in Colorado – voted to secede from the Episcopal diocese in May 2007.

The parish has cited “theological revisions and controversial sexual ethics” for leaving The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of the global Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church heightened controversy in 2003 when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop.

For more, click here…

http://www.christianpost.com/church/Denomination/2009/03/                                          breakaway-anglican-parish-finds-new-church-home-31/index.html

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By CNN

(CNN) – Dueling theories of how the universe was created got a split decision Friday night from the Texas Board of Education, which required examination of “all sides of scientific evidence” in new science standards, but rejected language requiring teachers to teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories.

The debate pitted proponents of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution against supporters of religion-based theories of intelligent design, or creationism.

“Science loses. Texas loses, and the kids lose because of this,” board chairman Don McLeroy, a creationist, told the Dallas Morning News.

A final 13-2 vote approved language that will be printed in textbooks beginning in 2011 and remain there for 10 years, CNN affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston reported:

“In all fields of science, analyze, evaluate, and critique scientific explanations by using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and experimental observation and testing, including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those explanations so as to encourage critical thinking by the students.”

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/27/texas.education.evolution/

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By Geraldine Fagan

A rehabilitation programme for alcoholics and drug addicts run by a Belarusian Christian social organisation, Cliff House, has become the target of an ideology official in the eastern city of Mogilev [Mahilyow], Forum 18 News Service has learnt. “Some people got afraid after the first police visit and stopped coming,” the programme’s co-ordinator, Lyudmila Batyuk, told Forum 18 from Mogilev on 23 March.

Belarus tries to enforce strict segregation of religious and social activity. Religious believers have complained to Forum 18 that they are barred from speaking publicly on general social issues (see F18News 3 March 2006http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=736). One Polish Catholic priest thinks he was expelled from Belarus partly due to his involvement in alcohol rehabilitation programmes (see F18News 12 January 2007http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=899). Another was apparently expelled because he made public comments on Belarusian social problems when in Poland (see F18Newshttp://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1058).

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1275

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By John Markoff

TORONTO — A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded.

In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved.

The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html?_r   =2&scp=2&sq=espionage&st=nyt

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By Lillian Kwon

Over half of Americans say they would visit a church if they receive a personal invitation from a family member, friend or neighbor, a new study shows.

The latest LifeWay Research survey found that people are most willing to hear about a local congregation through a family member (63 percent) and through a friend or neighbor from the church (56 percent). Less than half are open to receive information about a church any other way, such as through an advertisement.

“We want to help Christians discover what approaches work best in today’s culture,” said Ken Weathersby, senior strategist for evangelization at the North American Mission Board, according to LifeWay. “It’s not about changing the Gospel, but determining how best to share it.”

The findings are released as the nation’s largest churches are experiencing membership decline. The Southern Baptist Convention reported a 0.24 percent drop in total membership in 2007, the first dip in years for the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

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http://www.christianpost.com/church/Polls_reports/2009/03/americans-                                  most-likely-to-try-out-church-through-family-friends-26/index.html

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By Andrew White

The Christians of Iraq are some of the oldest and long standing Christians in the world. Here among these wonderful people is still spoken the language of our Lord. Ninety-eight per cent of my people at St George’s, Baghdad originate from “Niniwah” (Nineveh) and are the result of the most miserable evangelist ever, who arrived by submarine transportation 2,700 years ago – Jonah. Another miserable person turned up 700 years later called doubting Thomas. He was on his way to India. He told the people that their Messiah had come. They believed him and, to this day, the Christians in Iraq revere Jonah and Mar Thoma.

Yet I look around our church and most of our members (over 2,000) are women and children because our men have been killed or kidnapped. All of our members apart from me are Iraqis and all have suffered terribly. Last year alone, 93 of my people were killed. This year already, five of my people have been killed. All of my original church leaders were killed in 2005 and all Christians in the country who had the means have left and gone to Jordan, Syria or Sweden so that those left behind tend to be the poorer members of the community.

For the rest of the article, click here…

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/andrew_white/blog/2009/03/27/iraq_the_most_dangerous_place_in_the_world_for_christians

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By Jeremy Reynalds

PAKISTAN (ANS) – Just over a month since Pakistan’s fertile Swat Valley turned into a Taliban stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules, the fate of the remaining Christians in the area is uncertain.

Compass Direct News reported that last month, in an effort to end a bloody two-year battle, the Islamabad administration struck a deal with Taliban forces surrendering all governance of Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Sources told Compass that after the violence that has killed and displaced hundreds, an estimated 500 Christians remain in the area. Traditionally these have been low-skilled workers, but younger, more educated Christians work as nurses, teachers and in various other professions.

Compass said the sole Church of Pakistan congregation in Swat, consisting of 40 families, has been renting space for nearly 100 years. The government has never given them permission to buy land in order to build a church building.

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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09030163.htm

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By Felix Corley

Tajikistan’s President, Emomali Rahmon, signed the controversial new Religion Law on 25 March, the presidential website reported the same day. Officials at the Presidential Administration refused to tell Forum 18 News Service why the president signed a Law that violates the Tajik Constitution’s guarantees of religious freedom as well as Tajikistan’s international human rights obligations. Condemning the move is Akbar Turajonzoda, an independent member of Parliament’s Upper House and a former Chief Mufti. “I regret very much that the President signed this Law, which will severely restrict the rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims,” he told Forum 18 from the capital Dushanbe on 26 March. He said he is already drafting amendments to the Law which he hopes to submit to the Lower House of Parliament within the next month.

Equally critical is Hikmatullo Saifullozoda of the opposition Islamic Revival Party (IRP), which has two deputies in Parliament’s lower house. He expressed surprise that the new Law was adopted so quickly. He said there were various views on the new Law in society, “mostly negative”. “I believed the President would have paid attention to these concerns and would have returned the Law to Parliament,” he told Forum 18 from Dushanbe on 26 March. “But he didn’t. The influence on him of other circles was greater.”

Saifullozoda attributed the adoption of such a restrictive Law on secularists with a heritage in the Soviet-era atheist establishment “who don’t particularly like religion, especially Islam”.

But defending the new Law is Mavlon Mukhtarov, the Deputy Culture Minister who oversees religious affairs in the government. “There are no restrictions on religious activity in the new Law,” he claimed to Forum 18 from Dushanbe on 26 March. Asked why the new Law imposes limitations on where and how many mosques may be opened, imposes state censorship of religious literature, and enforces state restrictions and control on religious education, he denied that these restrict religious activity.

For more, click here…

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1274

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By Sara Carter

Mexican Marine stands near Tijuana border wall. Guillermo Arias/AP photo.

Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into theUnited States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security, current and former U.S. law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism officials say.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South 

America’s tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S.

Hezbollah relies on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels,” said Michael Braun, who just retired as assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

“They work together,” said Mr. Braun. “They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected.

“They’ll leverage those relationships to their benefit, to smuggle contraband and humans into the U.S.; in fact, they already are [smuggling].”

For the rest of this story, click here…

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/27/                                                       hezbollah-uses-mexican-drug-routes-into-us/

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By Rev. Dallas Henry

In 1871, an American named Heinrich Schliemann began excavating an ancient city in Turkey.  To the amazement of many, this retired businessman had discovered the lost city of Troy.  Today, you can still see the ruins of its towers and its walls, which were 16 feet thick.  According to Homer’s Illiad, the Greeks besieged Troy for ten years without success.  After the death of the warrior Achilles, many wanted to give up the fight.  But the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, came up with a plan to get the Greek army into Troy. 

Odysseus built an immense wooden horse.  He and his warriors hid inside it.  After leaving the horse at the gates of Troy, the Greek army sailed away.  The Trojans, thinking the Greeks had given up and had left the horse as a gift, brought it inside the gates. 

That night, while the Trojans were sleeping, the Greek ships quietly returned. The soldiers in the horse slipped out and opened the city gates.  The Greek army quietly entered Troy and started fires all over the city.  The Trojans awoke to find their city in flames.  As they tried to flee, they were killed by the waiting Greeks.

The story of the Trojan Horse and the fall of Troy have come to represent the subversion of anything from within.  That is what was happening to the church at Pergamos.  Whereas Satan was trying to crush the Smyrnan church by persecution from without, He was trying to collapse the Pergamos congregation through corruption from within. 

That is the way our enemy operates.  He either tries to crush us with hardship and hostility or corrupt us with compromise.  And we need to take heed to the fact that what ten years of outward assault on Troy was unable to accomplish, was  acomplished in one night when the enemy was brought within the city. 

The Trojan Horse at Pergamos was what Jesus called the doctrine of Balaam.  It became a stumbling block to the believers, leading them to accept idolatry and immorality while trying to maintain their distinctiveness as Christians.

For the rest of this commentary, click here…

http://mainefamilypolicycouncil.com/artman/publish/Pastor_s_Update_24/ Worldliness_in_the_Church.shtml

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