Tuesday, May 16, 2006

ROUNDUP: Headlines that are worth knowing about

HEADLINE NEWS
Violence robs Iraq of Christian heritage - Aljazeera

Talk about irony; a Christian nation goes to the rescue of a persecuted people and ends up causing serious harm to the very people most responsible for its own success and strength.

Isn't this called the Butterfly Effect or something like that? Chaos theory and unintended consequences seem to fit as well!
The flight of religious minorities escaping violence in post-war Iraq is threatening to rob the country of its once diverse Christian heritage.

In the early 1980s, Iraq's Christian population numbered 1.4 million but economic strife brought on by the war with Iran and UN sanctions after the 1991 Gulf War pushed some in the ancient community to emigrate.

Nevertheless, the Christian community continued to enjoy religious freedoms in the majority Muslim country until the US-led invasion of 2003, says Adli Juwaidah, a former director of cultural relations in Iraq's ministry of higher education.

CATHOLICISM
"Up yours," Beijing to Rome; "state approved" trumps "church approved," in China.

China Defies Rome Over Bishop's Post - WaPo
China's state-approved Catholic Church welcomed the installation Sunday of another bishop who was not approved by the pope, exacerbating the strain in Beijing's relations with the Vatican.
In some ways the Church is the winner. History has confirmed many times over that when the state imposses or inserts itself into the affairs of the church, the church responds by growing ... not moderately either.


CHURCH DECAY
Abuse Scandal Has Changed View of Priests - Yahoo News
... the sex abuse scandal that has since swept through the Roman Catholic Church has changed the way people view clergy.
You think?


POLITICS
Conservative Christians Criticize Republicans - New York Times
Some of President Bush's most influential conservative Christian allies are becoming openly critical of the White House and Republicans in Congress, warning that they will withhold their support in the midterm elections unless Congress does more to oppose same-sex marriage, obscenity and abortion.
I've been seeing this myself.

I have friends and neighbors who really supported Bus and the GOP during some tough moments the past few years but they aren now openly criticizing the party of the Elephant ... not threatening to remove their support but literally REMOVING it ... both financially and verbally.

Based on my early assessment of conservatives her in San Carlos, I'd have to say the sentiment is deeply rooted here as well.

I know we can't see or know the entire picture but I think this ship is in a permanent calm ... only the blind and deaf don't know it.

When you sell your soul to the values of the world, you can't expect godly values to succeed ... they never have. Conservative evangelicals have been fools for buying into it; myself included. Don't expect a republican victory during the upcoming midterms ... like father, like son; all words and no action.


RELIGIOUS SCAMS

Recipients Of Jesus Rug Warned To Keep Eyes Open
The envelope comes addressed "To a Friend" and with the promise that "the letter you write today could change your tomorrow." And it could soon make its way to a mailbox near you.

Inside the envelope, said to be from St. Matthew's Churches in Oklahoma, is an oversized sheet of paper bearing a lavender image of an eyes-closed Jesus. Identified as a prayer rug, it asks the recipient to kneel on the paper, meditate on a blessing - and then notice whether Jesus' eyes appear to have opened. (This seems less a matter of divine intervention than a skillfully rendered optical illusion.)
This is a religious scam perpetrated by non-other than James Eugene Ewing, a former collaborator with Robert Tilton, the former, and still active,Texas scammer.
Still, the mailing seems harmless. No blatant pleas for money. It asks only that recipients return the rugs with their names, addresses and prayer requests so the church can pass the rug's good fortune on to the next needy soul.

Not so fast, cautions Ole Anthony, founder of the Trinity Foundation, a Dallas nonprofit watchdog working to expose religious scams.

[...]

Anthony's Trinity Foundation reports that of the 1 million mailings sent per month, about 8.6 percent are filled out and returned. And that's when the flurry of mailings begins and residents get "constantly pounded for money," says Anthony.
P.T. Barnum was certainly right; and if they happen to be religious, there's two born every minute.


HT: Christian Headlines

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