...A conservative political pundit says the American public should not believe for a moment that the Democrats are willing to work with Republicans toward bipartisan solutions when they take control of Congress in January. Bill Lauderback, executive vice president of the American Conservative Union, believes the Democrats will not hesitate to launch their radical leftist agenda, and he puts no credence in the words of Senator Harry Reid when he claims the Democrats want to accomplish things on a bipartisan basis. "These folks are true, committed ultra-liberals," Lauderback insists. "They're not going to change their spots in short order." And while Democrats are "making a public-relations effort right now to paint themselves as something other than what they are," he contends, "once they actually take control in January and the process begins, we'll see the leadership of the Democratic Party and their true agenda emerge ... one of defunding the war, engaging in countless investigations, issuing of subpoenas that will not be helpful to the country." What the country is in for is "a long slugfest that will ultimately result in a reemergence of rational thinking on the part of the American people," the ACU spokesman says, "and I think by the time we get in 2008, we'll have a very different election." [Chad Groening]
...A retired U.S. Army officer and Pentagon advisor says he believes future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will block any effort to punish the San Francisco School System for voting to phase out its Junior ROTC program over the next two years. The school board voted 4-2 this week to dump the program because of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexual service in the military. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis says it is the students who are ultimately going to be punished. "It's unfortunate," he says, "that there are people out there who want to attack young, innocent people who are seeking to better themselves because these people tend to disagree with a particular policy of the U.S. government." But Maginnis doubts the government will cut off federal dollars to the school system. "It is unlikely, especially given the political realities of probably something Nancy Pelosi is going to have some say over as the new Speaker of the House," the military advisor observes. In previous cases, he points out, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that ROTC programs must have the same access as any other groups. Nevertheless, Maginnis says the San Francisco school officials' response to the JROTC program is typical of the Bay Area and other homosexual enclaves around the U.S., in that "they want to hold hostage the education and the prosperity of young people to their own political whims." [Chad Groening]
... USA Today reports that the present-day market for homosexual consumers is hitting the mainstream in a big way. As recently as a decade or two ago, companies shunned the homosexual market -- but not so today. With 16 million homosexual consumers age 18 and older boasting a buying power of $641 billion, corporations, local governments and businesses country-wide are very much aware of, and catering to, this burgeoning market. U.S. Census data shows that homosexuals are no longer segregated into "gay ghettos" in cities like San Francisco and New York. Instead, they live in virtually every county in the U.S. Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing, a homosexual market research firm, says, "We have more discretionary income, and we love to spend our money on travel and shopping." As a result, travel-related businesses of all kinds are courting the homosexual market in a big way. United and American Airlines, Travelocity, restaurant chains, and city and tourism bureaus nationwide have jumped on the bandwagon. Wal-Mart offers seminars to its employees called "Why Market to Gay America." But companies that cater to homosexuals still risk a backlash from fundamentalist religious groups, adds USA Today. American Family Association and others have gone after companies such as Ford Motor, Walt Disney, and Procter & Gamble in recent years. [Pat Centner]
...Southern Baptists in Alabama have passed a resolution criticizing Wal-Mart for joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Wal-Mart also has agreed to hold workshops to help homosexuals join its ranks of suppliers. Delegates to the Alabama Baptist State Convention's annual meeting called the retailer's actions "contrary to the biblical beliefs of many of its customers." They stopped short of calling for a boycott, but urged the state's Southern Baptists to pray for the leaders of Wal-Mart and other businesses. [AP]
...The Center for Law & Policy (CLP), legal arm of the American Family Association, has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to hear a case involving the City of New York's official condemnation of the Bible as "bigoted," "intolerant," and "unwelcome." The case arose when Pastor Kristopher Okwedy rented two billboards and put up a Bible quotation referring to homosexuality as a sin. City officials immediately condemned the message, and the owner of the billboards promptly breached its contract with Okwedy and covered up the quotes with a public service announcement. In addition to the harsh criticism the minister got from the City of New York as a result of his effort to share his scriptural message on homosexuality, he also received death threats and a bomb threat. However, according to a CLP statement, rather than try to protect Okwedy after the threats were reported, the City sent two Hate Crimes Unit detectives to the pastor's church to "ask insulting questions and apparently try to intimidate him from posting similar messages in the future." Stephen Crampton, chief counsel for the CLP, says this case "raises the question of whether a city may officially condemn a religious belief in the name of protecting against discrimination." While numerous Supreme Court cases "routinely strike down the slightest government act in favor of religion," Crampton explains, "not one has yet found government action against religion inappropriate." This case, Okwedy v. Molinari, asks the Supreme Court to do just that, the attorney adds; and if the petition is granted, the ruling would be historic. [Jenni Parker]
...School officials in an Illinois community are defending their decision to expose young children to a book promoting homosexuality. The book, called And Tango Makes Three, is the story of two male penguins raising a baby penguin. Its defenders say it is simply recounting a true story of a similar incident that happened at New York's Central Park Zoo; however, some parents of kids at Shilo Elementary School are worried about the book's homosexual undertones and have asked, at the very least, for it to be moved to a restricted area of the school library -- and perhaps for parental permission to be required for its release. But according to Associated Press, school officials at Shilo have refused these requests. District Superintendent Jennifer Filyaw even rejected a recommendation from a panel she appointed, which supported the parents demand. Parent Lilly Del Pinto says her five-year-old daughter brought the book home, but she immediately stopped reading it to her little girl when she got to the part in the book in which a zookeeper says "the penguins must be in love." [Fred Jackson]
...A suburb of Dallas has become the first city in the state of Texas to pass stiff ordinances aimed at reducing the illegal immigration problem in the community. The Farmers Branch (Texas) City Council unanimously voted to approve three new measures based on similar statutes adopted in other communities across the United States: one of these makes English the city's official language; another imposes a fine on landlords who rent to illegal aliens; and another provides for selected members of the police force to be trained to serve in the capacity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. City Councilman Tim O'Hare believes the new laws will be effective. "The goal of passing these measures was to keep illegal aliens out of our city and to cease making our city attractive to illegal aliens," he notes, "and I think the three things that we did are going to accomplish that goal." In addition to passing the official language resolution and the measures to hold landlord's accountable, the city councilman says Farmers Branch authorized its city manager to "enter into an agreement with ICE to get as many as four of our police officers trained to essentially act as ICE agents." O'Hare says the city officials passed the new ordinances fully expecting lawsuits; but he says the Council and the City are united in this effort to rein in illegal immigration in their community. [Chad Groening]
...A radio broadcast ministry that shares the Good News of Jesus Christ with hundreds of millions of people in Asia now has the opportunity to reach an additional 6 million listeners since it added 11 new languages to its programming. With these additions, Gospel for Asia, based in Carrollton, Texas, serves new people groups in India, Nepal, Tibet, and China. According to a news release from Gospel for Asia, the new groups hearing God's message of hope are of various religious affiliations, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. "We were praying for native speakers of these languages, and God has graciously answered our prayers," says the ministry's founder and president, Dr. K.P. Yohannan. "All of the Gospel for Asia missionaries producing the new programs are native speakers and are excited about the opportunity to use the radio to share the Gospel with their own people who have never heard it." Gospel for Asia has been ministering in southern Asia since the mid-1980s, when Dr. Yohannan was asked to speak on the radio. Since the doctor's fluency in the higher vernacular of his native tongue had diminished, he spoke the language of the common people. The response was huge, and Gospel for Asia grew out of that "one-time" broadcast. Today the ministry broadcasts in 103 languages in 10 countries. [Pat Centner]
...In his new book, There is No I in Church: Moving Beyond Individual Spirituality to Experience God's Power in the Church, author and Indiana Wesleyan University professor Keith Drury posits that modern Christianity's preoccupation with personal religion produces a shallow spirituality. The author says believers need to stop focusing on individualism and return to the roots of the early Church. Instead of pursuing an individualistic faith, Christians in America must embrace corporate worship, prayer, Bible study, and other shared activities, Drury contends. Although he acknowledges that Christians are personally saved and must come to Christ individually, he asserts that "we probably have gone too far and need a kind of correction." The pendulum has swung too far, the author says, till some people are even claiming they do not need to go to church and can just worship God on their own. "And that's alien to Saint Paul and Jesus Christ and what we find in the Bible, Old and New Testament," the professor insists. "When the church together does service, or when the church bands together to do evangelism, that becomes a witness to the world of the church," he says. "We, as a church, do evangelism together, not only personally," Drury argues, "and those are things that change us when we do it." Corporate worship, prayer, outreach and other activities pursued jointly by the body of Christ are not "like a good deed that we're doing, kind of like a boy scout," the author of There is No I in Church (Wesleyan Publishing House, 2006) asserts. As individuals and church members, Drury says, Christians actually "become closer to God when we band together and do things." [Allie Martin]
...Hundreds of Southern Baptist volunteers have spent weeks helping residents of Buffalo, New York, clear trees and limbs that were snapped by last month's two-foot snowfall. The group's leader says they will leave town by this weekend after answering more than 700 calls for help, handing out hundreds of Bibles and eliciting 15 "professions of faith." They slept in churches, showered in trailers and gathered at sunup each day before heading out with chainsaws, Bibles and sack lunches. The Baptist volunteers, who pay their own way, respond to disasters around the country. One volunteer admits that many people expect Southern Baptists to be wild-eyed fundamentalists. He says, "We may be fundamentalists but we're not wild-eyed." [AP]
|AgapePress 
