CentrePoint News News That Matters

By Mac Thornberry

In releasing the Justice Department memos from 2002 and 2005 on the enhanced interrogation techniques, the director of national intelligence noted that we look back on these events from a “bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009.” This perspective could have been much different. The successful defense of the homeland over the last 8 1/2 years was not an accident or simply good fortune. It was the result of major organizational change (Department of Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence), a variety of government programs (NSA’s terrorist surveillance program, CIA’s detention and interrogation program, among others), and a host of military and civilian professionals doing an outstanding job every day. Weakening the programs and failing to support those professionals is wrong and undermines the safety of our country.

Liberals, in their zeal to smear the Bush Administration, paint with a broad brush and essentially argue that Americans mistreated everyone we came in contact with in our efforts to fight terrorists. They try to link the misdeeds of 20-year-old MPs at Abu Ghraib with “torture” sanctioned at the highest levels of government.  It is a bridge too far as anyone who has read the countless reports stemming from investigations of Abu Ghraib can attest.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/release-of-interrogation-memos-                                  undermines-us-security/

Posted under News

By Lillian Kwon

A splinter group in Canada has been approved as a diocese in an emerging body of orthodox Anglicans in North America.

The Anglican Network in Canada – a group of Anglican parishes that broke from the Anglican Church of Canada over theological differences – is now one of 28 dioceses in a province that is still in formation.

Last week, Canadian and U.S. Anglican leaders who severed ties with TheEpiscopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – and the Anglican Church of Canada announced the approval of applications for 28 dioceses and dioceses-in-formation as part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

“It is a great encouragement to see the fruit of many years’ work,” said the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, who is expected to head the ACNA, on Saturday. “Today 23 dioceses and five dioceses-in-formation joined together to reconstitute an orthodox, Biblical, missionary and united Church in North America.”

The ACNA is an emerging province uniting around breakaway 700 parishes – representing 100,000 conservative Anglicans – in North America into a single church. The conservative leaders began forming the “separate ecclesiastical structure” in 2007 in an attempt to remain faithful to the global Anglican Communion, citing that the two existing North American bodies have departed from traditional Anglicanism and orthodox teaching.

For more on this story, click here…

http://www.christianpost.com/church/Denomination/2009/04/rival-anglican-                          body-approves-dioceses-finalizes-plans-30/index.html

Posted under News

By Lloyd Mackey

WHEN Calgarians Kevin and Helen Jenkins first committed their lives to Christ, he was a 20-something lawyer with a Harvard MBA and she was a savvy communications specialist.

They like to recall that an early post-commitment fear, on Helen’s part, was that the couple might end up in Africa as missionaries, “serving porridge.”

On October 1, Kevin Jenkins will take over as president and chief executive officer of World Vision International (WVI), arguably the largest evangelically-based relief, development and humanitarian agency in the world. That might not mean serving porridge, he suggests, but it will involve meeting human needs in many and diverse places on the globe.

Since those days early days of their Christian experience, Kevin has served in several high-energy executive positions, including a stint during a particularly difficult period in the airline industry, as president of Canadian Airlines International. He gained a fair amount of ink, at the time, for his seeming ability to work with a 16,000-strong labour force led by people who were prepared to provide management some — but not too much — wiggle room at employee expense.

And his success at employee relations may be due to the fact that he “served porridge”, at least figuratively speaking, along with the company’s other employees.

For more, click here…

http://www.christianity.ca/frame.asp?http://www.canadianchristianity.com/nationalupdates/090423canadian.html

Posted under News

By The Editor-in-Chief

It is the heartfelt desire of the staff of CentrePoint News to be a part in bringing revival to the United States.  To be a part of this great work, occasionally, we take a breather from the news of the day to bring you some excellent material that relates to revival.

The staff of Revival School compiles lists of quotes from great Christian leaders and this is their latest offering…

More GREAT QUOTES
-Sermonindex.net

“Get rid of this bunkum about the ‘carnal Christian’. Forget it! If
you’re carnal, you’re not saved.” – Leonard Ravenhill

“A person repents when he comes to the place where he discovers 
that the  will of God is the government of his life and the glory of 
God is the reason for his life. He only has repented who has 
changed his mind about his reason for being.” – Paris Reidhead

“You can draw near to God even though you cannot say a word. 
A prayer may be crystallised in a tear. A tear is enough water to 
float a desire to God.” – Charles H. Spurgeon

“We are not going to organize something for God to bless.”
- Leonard Ravenhill

“Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the
hands of the Lord.” – A. W. Pink (1886-1952)

“A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the
believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of
the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the
watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

“Prayer is so simple. It is like quietly opening a door and slipping
into the very presence of God. There, in the stillness, to listen to
His voice, perhaps in petition or only to listen. It matters not. Just
to be there in His presence is prayer.”
- Author unknown

“The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights.”
- Oswald Chambers

“I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer
is this: that I may die to self, and live wholly to him.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

“Ministers often preach about the Gospel instead of preaching the
Gospel. They often preach about sinners instead of preaching to them.”
- Charles Finney

“No man is conquered until his heart is conquered.”
- George Barlow

“If Jesus ever commanded us to do something that He was unable to
equip us to accomplish, He would be a liar. And if we make our own
inability a stumbling block or an excuse not to be obedient, it means
that we are telling God that there is something which He has not yet
taken into account.” – Oswald Chambers

For more on revival, visit…

http://www.revivalschool.com/

Posted under News

By Jeremy Reynalds

ISTANBUL (ANS) – As Taliban control hits pockets of Pakistan and threatens the nation’s stability, Christians worry their province could be the next to fall under Islamic law.

Compass Direct News reported that violence on April 21-22 near the port city of Karachi –nearly 700 miles from the Swat Valley, where the government officially allowed the Taliban to establish Islamic law this month – heightened fears.

Christians in Taiser town, near Karachi, noticed on the walls of their church graffiti that read, “Long Live the Taliban.” There were also calls for Christians to either convert to Islam or pay the jizye, a poll tax under sharia (Islamic law) paid by non-Muslims for protection if they decline to convert.

Compass said that as members of the congregation erased the graffiti, armed men intervened to stop them. Soon 30-40 others arrived as support and began to fire indiscriminately at the crowd, leaving several injured. Among those seriously injured were three Christians, including a child, according to a report by advocacy group Minorities Concern of Pakistan.

Policemen and military forces arrested seven suspects at the scene and recovered an arms cache of semi-automatic pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

For more, click here…

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09040151.htm

Posted under News

By Jenna Lyle

The worst economic crisis to hit the UK in decades has not prevented Christians from giving to good causes, according to new figures from Stewardship.

The Christian financial services ministry found that in the last six months, giving increased by 3 per cent on the same period last year.

Since October last year, some 30,000 Sovereign Account holders with the ministry have donated more than £24 million in support to charities, churches and mission workers.

Stewardship Chief Executive, David Jones, said: “Our clients tend to have a planned approach to their giving. As such, they are less likely to see giving as a discretionary expenditure and cut back in difficult times.”

The ministry is warning, however, that overseas mission workers who are supported from the UK are feeling the pinch as the falling value of the pound has resulted in cuts to their support income by up to 30 per cent in some countries.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.donors.giving.      more.despite.recession/23203.htm

Posted under News

By Jerry Mazza

A doctor in the Midwest wrote to me again this past Friday about how the economic mess is destroying people.

He wrote, “One of my patients is a . . . 40ish CPA and she was in for an eye problem yesterday . . . She was distraught over the state of the economy and its effect on her clients. She has had many this year who have lost their homes to foreclosure. To her — and her clients’ — dismay, the bank orlending institution is issuing 1099 forms for re-po’d property to the victims. Apparently, since the hapless former homeowners are effectively ‘forgiven’ the remaining amounts on their loans, that is imputed as earned income and they are turned into the IRS for large tax liabilities!!! How’s that for justice? She said that she had actually had people speak seriously about killing themselves!”

“What a screwed up country . . . Yesterday, I finally bit the bullet and cashed in part of my IRA (already down near 50%) to pay off office credit cards (we have depended on these credit lines for office expenses for some time) because they all raised their rates to 30%!!! Of course, O[bama] has nothing to say about usury . . .

“On top of this, I ran across this today . . .” What followed was an article by Eric Ruder, Guilty of Being Poor from dissidentvoice.org. I will highlight some of its points but this is a must-read. It picks up the theme that the good doctor and his patient experienced firsthand, that of debtor’s prison, or jail time for nonpayment of debt.

As Ruder points out, “19th century jailers, even pre-Civil war, largely abandoned this odious practice of putting people in jail for falling into debt . . . In fact, in the 1970s and 80s, the US Supreme Court affirmed that incarcerating people who can’t pay fines because of poverty violates the US Constitution.” As he states, “some states and county jails never got the memo. Welcome to the debtor’s prisons of the 21st century.” He then detailed a number of real-life, often tragic cases.

For more, click here…

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4634.shtml

Posted under News

By Canadian Press

NATO has imposed tough new restrictions on foreign journalists covering the war in southern Afghanistan, changes that could affect how much Canadians see and hear from war-torn Kandahar.

The new measures, imposed in early March, mirror the way the U.S. military manages reporters in Iraq.

The restrictions make it virtually impossible for Canadian journalists to leave Kandahar Airfield on their own to interview local Afghans and return unimpeded to the safety of NATO’s principal base.

Last month, Canadian soldiers were required to escort newly arrived journalists everywhere on the airfield, including to the dining hall and showers. A photographer from the Reuters news agency and a handful of Canadian journalists were escorted between buildings and confined to their sleeping quarters when not working.

For more, click here…

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2009/04/29/afghanistan-media-                       restrictions.html

Posted under News

By Michelle Vu

According to a letter from a Christian in North Korea to Open Doors USA, the current living conditions in the reclusive country are “very bad.”

“The price of rice continues to increase,” the person (who was not identified) wrote in the letter recently received by the Christian ministry. “Recently five women from our neighborhood were publicly executed; the youngest only age 28… Their crime? Trying to survive by looking for food. After their execution, we were no longer allowed to trade at the market.”

North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world with about 9 million citizens needing urgent food assistance, according to the World Food Program. The country has depended on food aid since the 1990s when a devastating famine resulted in the death of as many as 2 million people.

But despite widespread hunger, the North Korean government recently refused to accept future U.S. food aid and expelled all five relief groups that distribute American aid in the country.

For more, click here…

http://www.christianpost.com/Intl/Persecution/2009/03/n-korean-                                     christian-situation-inside-is-very-bad-30/index.html

Posted under News

By AINA

Baghdad, IRAQ — What many Chaldeans have feared in the U.S. Presidential debate has come true. “We know if America leaves they will come and kill us. They think we have something to do with them and they think we have money. The Iraqi government is happy if all Christians leave. They say they want us to stay, but they don’t mean it. If they mean it, then they would protect us more,” says Masoud Gallozi.

In the past few days Iraq Christians have been targeted for slaughter. The murder of four Christians across Iraq in just two days is raising concern among churches there that another round of religious cleansing has begun.

Chaldean Monsignor Sako warns that US troop pullout is likely to plunge the country in a “civil war.” Between 31 March and 4 April five Christians are murdered in Kirkuk, Baghdad and Mosul. The prelate calls on the faithful to pray during Holy Week so “that the blood of our martyrs may restore peace.”

Chaldeans in America are frustrated over President Obama’s handling of the Middle East issues. “There were many Chaldeans fooled into believing the new administration would pressure the Iraqi government to get serious about properly protecting Chaldeans. These Chaldeans sent an e-mail of a letter by Obama and his people showing he was concerned. It was just another lie from this man. A lie that is leaving our people vulnerable. Those who supported him are partly to blame,” a frustrated James Selmu declares.

For more on this story, click here…

http://www.aina.org/news/20090427183433.htm

Posted under News