THE GOSPEL HINDERED ...
The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the
grandparents of two students, has filed suit in federal court in
Oklahoma City against a man, who for the past 33 years has
traveled to schools in Arkansas and Oklahoma giving lessons from
the Bible. The man, George Harrington, as well as the New Lima
OK school district were named as defendants in the suit.
Harrington does not pray with students or give altar calls or
directly evangelize the students and has the overwhelming
support of the close-knit community as well as the school
Superintendent. (RELIGIOUS RIGHTS WATCH - Feb 92)
THE VERY BUSY ACLU ...
The ACLU is battling to halt all federal funding of
abstinence-based sex education curricula used in public schools
and health programs. The constitutionality of the Family Life
Act of 1981, known as the Chastity Act, is being contested
because it allegedly promotes religion. Administered by the
Department of Health and Human Services, the program is designed
to discourage teen pregnancy and promote adoption as an
alternative to abortion. In a pending lawsuit, the ACLU argues
that counselors who use HHS-funded materials often dispense
religious advice. (THE NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL RELIGION REPORT
- Nov 91)
SIGNS OF THE TIMES:
Shmidt Laboratories will be unveiling a condom packet marketed
directly at teenagers early in 1992. The "Safe Play for Young
Lovers" kit, resembles a cigarette pack with a fliptop and is
sold with a key chain attached to a plastic condom storage
holder. Ads will be appearing on television and in Playboy
magazine this year. (CHRISTIAN WORLD REPORT - Jan 92)
The fall season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", will
feature gay and lesbian characters as ordinary citizens of the
24th century. The characters will be portrayed as ordinary
citizens living in a future century when one's sexual
orientation is a matter of total public indifference.
(CHRISTIAN WORLD REPORT - Jan 92)
A Senate committee voted to end the Bush Administration's ban on
experiments with transplanted fetal tissue. The Senate Labor
and Human Resources Committee voted 13 to 4 for an amendment to
another spending bill that would reverse the Administration's
ban on the use of Federal funds for any experiments in which
tissue is transplanted from an aborted fetus to patients. (NEW
YORK TIMES - 2/6/92)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is following
in the steps of the Presbyterian Church USA by announcing a
study of an ELCA booklet produced by its Task Force on Human
Sexuality which will develop a formal policy statement before
the 1993 Churchwide Assembly in Kansas City. Responses to the
55-page document, "Human Sexuality and the Christian Faith: A
Study for the Church's Reflection and Deliberation" are due by
June 30, 1992. (BOSTON GLOBE - 1/31/92)
Privacy advocates contend that manufacturers of cellular phones
and wireless computers have decided not to adopt maximum levels
of privacy protection in new models of these communication
products due to pressure from the National Security Agency
(NSA). People concerned with privacy are eager to incorporate
more potent scrambling and descrambling codes in the equipment
to prevent eavesdropping. The privacy-rights faction feel that
the NSA oppose such codes that are hard to crack because they
interfere with intelligence gathering methods. According to
Marc Rotenberg, Washington Director for the Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility, "The NSA is trying to
weaken privacy technology ... At stake is nothing less than
future of our privacy in the communications world." (NEW YORK
TIMES - 2/7/92)
INTERNATIONAL NEWS NOTES:
Vyacheslav Rozanov, deputy chief of the thermonuclear department
at Moscow's Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, stated that
Libya has offered high paying jobs to his colleagues at this top
nuclear institute, providing new evidence the Soviet Union's
collapse could spread nuclear technology. According to Rozanov,
at least two fellow scientists had been made offers which were
turned down. He added that due to economic problems in his
country they might say yes to more money next time. (ASSOCIATED
PRESS, MOSCOW 1/19/92)
Commissioner Frans Andriessen of the European Parliament
announced that checks by EC inspectors last November revealed
that 13.7 kilograms of uranium were discovered missing from the
Dounreay nuclear reprocessing plant in the north of Scotland.
MEP Rolf Linkohr demanded to know if enriched uranium was
involved because, if so, it was enough to make a nuclear bomb.
Further investigations are presently being conducted. (EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT EP NEWS - 1/17/92)
Syria is negotiating a $2 billion arms deal with Russia, the
London Arabic-language daily Al Hayat reported. Quoting unnamed
Russian sources in the British capital, the paper said that the
deal covered sophisticated MIG-29 and Sukhoi 24 jets, and SAM-10
and SAM-11 air defense missiles. (JERUSALEM POST INTERNATIONAL
- 2/8/92)
The European Parliament failed to secure enough votes to approve
financial aid to Syria worth some 316 million ECU (211 million
pounds) in loans and guarantees after concern was expressed
about its human rights record. The vote was 206 in favor with
121 against and 24 abstentions, but failed to meet the necessary
260 votes required for it to pass.
An aid package worth 82 million ECU (57 million pounds) in bank
loans for Israel barely passed 260 to 84, with 23 abstentions.
The European Commission was instructed however to delay
implementation of the protocol until the human rights situation
and the UN Security Council resolutions on the occupied
territories are respected. (EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT EP NEWS -
1/17/92)
As Islam rapidly grows in the former Soviet Republics of Central
Asia, recent events are signalling that this region may be close
to an Islamic political revolution, according to recent reports.
"The Economist" magazine reports that two years ago there were
160 working mosques in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Today there
are over 5,000. With the collapse of the Communist Party, the
area is fertile ground for Islamic Fundamentalism. Evidence
that this is a real possibility came on September 9th, when, for
the first time in the region, a party overtly calling for the
creation of an Islamic state received official recognition.
This is the Islamic Renaissance Party. This party has grown
from 10,000 to 70,000 members in 1991 according to one of its
officials. (CHRISTIAN WORLD REPORT - Jan 92)
The following letter recently appeared in the JERUSALEM POST
INTERNATIONAL:
Sir, - At a press conference during the Madrid peace talks,
Hanan Ashwari, when asked by a Christian journalist, obviously
sympathetic to Zionism, about her attitude to the Jewish
communities in Judea and Samaria, took umbrage and proclaimed:
"I am a Christian Arab from Palestine. There is no Judea and
Samaria. Jesus was born in my country."
In a vein of black humor, I might respond that Madame Ashwari
has finally lifted from the Jewish people the guilt for Jesus'
crucifixion. But of one turns to the Book of Acts in the New
Testament, Chapter 1, Verse 8, we read that Jesus appeals to his
apostles to be his "witnesses in Jerusalem, as well as in Judea
and Samaria, throughout the land."
If Judea and Samaria as place names were acceptable to Jesus,
what problems does Madame Ashwari have with those same names now?
Yisral Medad - Shiloh
FOR YOUR INFO ...
50-Day Spiritual Adventure
Once again churches across America will be participating in the
Chapel of the Air's 50-Day Spiritual Adventure. This years
program is called "The Family God Wants Us To Be - Your
Prescription For Healthier Church Relationships."
The program is a comprehensive activity for the church family.
Material is provided to be used as the basis for Sunday Sermons,
Sunday School lessons, and family times during the week.
The purpose of the program is to create community within the
church, with a single focus in all areas during the 50 day
period of the program. The radio program of Chapel of the Air
will also be covering the same subject during this period.
The hope of the program is to identify negative characteristics
that affect relationships within the church. Having identified
the problems, solutions can be found to encourage healing within
the local congregation. The result should be greater unity
within the body, and therefore a more effective church, both
within internal relationships and outside with efforts to
advance Christ's kingdom into the community.
For information contact The Chapel of the Air, Inc. - (708)
668-7292
To order material for your personal use including:
Healing the Dysfunctional Church Family (see the Book Review
Column in this issue of MORNING STAR)
Adult, Youth, or Children's Journals
Broadcast Tapes
Call 1-800-827-2682 (for U.S. Visa and MasterCard orders ONLY,
or 1-800-461-4114 for Canada Visa orders ONLY).
