Devotional: We look for visions from heaven...



We look for visions from heaven, for earthquakes and thunders of God's power (the fact that we are dejected proves that we do), and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us. If we will do the duty that lies nearest, we shall see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes when we learn that it is in the commonplace things that the Deity of Jesus Christ is realized. ...Oswald Chambers image by kevin rawlings

The Reality of Late-Term Abortion

By Susan W. Enouen, P.E.
posted February 7, 2011

Most abortionists who specialize in doing abortions in the second- or third-trimester go quietly about their killing business without any media fanfare. But in the United States, there are at least 10 late-term abortionists doing abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy who have gotten a fair amount of media attention. Some of them are facing financial, licensing or criminal issues, and most are notorious, unabashed by the headlines they make. But they are just a fraction of the people who kill viable babies for a living. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research organization, indicates that 20% of abortionists will do abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.1 This means that in 2005, over 350 late-term abortionists killed pre-born babies beyond the 5th month of pregnancy.

These abortionists use grisly procedures that the average abortion facility is not necessarily equipped to provide, and the entire process requires 2-4 days. One of these procedures, Partial-Birth Abortion (also known as D&X — Intact Dilation and Extraction), was banned by federal law in 2007, but other techniques are still legal. For most people, it is reasonable to wonder why anyone would get involved in this gruesome business. News stories only provide a piece of the picture, but they suggest that some late-term abortionists live by a warped credo, professing to help women in need, while taking the lives of babies. Others appear to have no scruples whatsoever, and seem to care nothing for the women or the babies. The most notorious of them seem to think that they are above the law, operating with impunity. We have summarized the 10 late-term abortionists who are already well-publicized in news stories. the rest

“Nobody Gets Married Any More, Mister”

Welcome to our urban high schools, where kids have kids and learning dies.
Gerry Garibaldi
posted February 7, 2011

Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure, like a fireman or a police officer. During the last presidential election, much was made of Obama’s mother, who was a single parent. Movie stars and pop singers flaunt their daddy-less babies like fishing trophies.

None of this is lost on my students. In today’s urban high school, there is no shame or social ostracism when girls become pregnant. Other girls in school want to pat their stomachs. Their friends throw baby showers at which meager little gifts are given. After delivery, the girls return to school with baby pictures on their cell phones or slipped into their binders, which they eagerly share with me. Often they sit together in my classes, sharing insights into parenting, discussing the taste of Pedialite or the exhaustion that goes with the job. On my way home at night, I often see my students in the projects that surround our school, pushing their strollers or hanging out on their stoops instead of doing their homework.

Essay here-excellent!

Muslims attack two Christian families in Egypt, 11 killed including children

By Dan Wooding
ASSIST News
Sunday, 6 February 2011

SHARONA, EGYPT -- A Middle East journalist is reporting news of the shocking massacre of two Christian Coptic families by Islamists which has just emerged from Upper Egypt with the return of the Internet connections after a week of Internet blackout by the Egyptian regime.

Mary Abdelmassih, writing for the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org) says that the carnage took place on Sunday, January 30, 2011, at 3 PM in the village of Sharona near Maghagha, Minya province.

“Two Islamists groups, aided by the Muslim neighbors, descended on the roof of houses owned by Copts, killing eleven Copts, including children, and seriously injuring four others,” she said. the rest

Joseph Bottum: Who will defend Mideast Christians?

The Son and the Crescent

Bible translations that avoid the phrase "Son of God" are bearing dramatic fruit among Muslims. But that translation has some missionaries and scholars dismayed.
Collin Hansen
2/04/2011

Last year, representatives from several prominent mission agencies, both national and expatriate, met to compare notes about the progress of their respective ministries in one Muslim-majority country. (The country's name is withheld for security reasons.) The representatives rejoiced that more than 1,000 "fellowships," as they call them, have been established for people from Muslim backgrounds. In fact, many of the fellowships had already planted new fellowships, and those fellowships had planted still more. Many thousands of Muslims in this nation alone, then, had found faith in Jesus.

Several of these fellowships can be traced back to small networks of Muslims who had encountered Christ and in turn began sharing with family and friends what they had discovered. In one case, a middle-aged working mother had inductively studied a new translation of the Bible for a few years. Among other language choices, the translation she used did not refer to Jesus as the "Son of God," due to confused and angry reactions from Muslims who mistakenly believe this phrase means that the Father engaged in sexual relations with Mary. To avoid this misunderstanding, the new translation called Jesus "the Beloved Son who comes (or originates) from God." the rest

Go Packers!

PB to Join President’s Advisory Council

The Living Church
February 4, 2011

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is among 12 religious leaders that President Obama intends to appoint to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The White House announced the list of leaders Feb. 4.

The advisory council, the White House announcement said, “brings together religious and secular leaders as well as scholars and experts in fields related to the work of faith-based and neighborhood organizations in order to make recommendations to the government on how to improve partnerships.” the rest

ACI: Dublin Post-Mortem

Written by: The Anglican Communion Institute, Inc.
Friday, February 4th, 2011
By:
The Reverend Canon Professor Christopher Seitz
The Reverend Dr. Philip Turner
The Reverend Dr. Ephraim Radner
Mark McCall, Esq.

Much has already been written about the Primates’ Meeting that concluded last Sunday. From our perspective, the most important evaluation of this gathering is one that assesses its place in the ecclesiology of the Anglican Communion that has been developed with considerable effort, thought and consensus over the last century. That ecclesiology can be summarized as defining the Anglican Communion as a communion of autonomous churches bound together by a common faith—in the words of TEC’s constitution, the “historic faith and order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer”—and linked institutionally by four “Instruments of Communion” that, in the words of the Covenant, “assist in the discernment, articulation and exercise of our shared faith and common life and mission.” Sadly, the Dublin meeting constituted a repudiation of this well developed Communion ecclesiology.

First, as we and others have already noted, the Dublin meeting represented only a small fraction of the Communion’s active members. Thus, from the very outset it lacked one of the defining criteria of a Communion Instrument, the ability to function as a body that “interprets and articulates the common faith of the Church’s members (consensus fidelium)”. (Covenant 3.1.4.) Last week, the consensus fidelium was to be found elsewhere with those who did not attend. the rest

We are left with a grouping—one can no longer say “communion”—of three dozen or so autonomous churches, many of whom are not in communion with others, without any effective Instruments of Communion to bind them together. This is made no less heartbreaking by being the Communion’s obvious trajectory for several years.

Tim Fountain+: Radical attendance drop shows Anglican Primates Mtg. in "disunity"
...So, a small, affluent, socially homogeneous inner circle of a very small denomination indulges its fancies at the cost of a diverse, global Christian fellowship - a fellowship whose leaders hung in with misrepresentations and broken commitments while trying to maintain bonds of affection. That is, until this 2011 Anglican Primates Meeting in Dublin.

Church Times: Impressions of ‘gracefulness’

‘Braveheart’ Screenwriter Randall Wallace at National Prayer Breakfast

'Braveheart' screenwriter and 'Secretariat' director Randall Wallace with a beautifully delivered address on the power and importance of prayer. Found here-take time to listen!

Presiding Bishop Mouneer Anis Describes the Situation in Cairo

(The Presiding Bishop of Jersualem and the Middle East, Mouneer Anis, spoke with Robert Lundy of the American Anglican Council on Friday, February 4 and described the current situtation in Egypt and how his Church is dealing with it.)

American Anglican Council
February 4, 2011
By Robert Lundy, AAC Communications

AAC Question: What is the situation like in Cairo right now?

++Anis:Right now we have big demonstrations in Tahrir square, which is very close to us here. There are many groups in this square with very different requests and very different backgrounds. There is a big group who are in fact Muslim Brotherhood. On the other hand there is another square about half an hour from us and this square is also full of demonstrators who are pro President Mubarak. The pro Mubarak demonstrations started after his speech in which he announced that he would step down after the end of this term in September. He also appointed a new Vice President and said he has no desire to pass the presidency to his son. Many people were moved by his words and by his response. In what he said there is actually a positive response to about 85% of what the demonstrators were asking. They wanted a gracious transfer of authority and he promised to do this. They asked for interrogation and bringing to judgment all those responsible for the violence and looting and sad incidents and he promised to do this. They asked for alteration in the constitution and he promised to do this. They asked for a dialogue with the opposition and he promised to do this and in fact it started. So, many people felt that most of what they requested was positively accepted and that they are now working on it. But when he did that, many of the Pro-Mubarak supporters came and clashed. There was violence among those who are pro Mubarak and those who want him to step down now. And because of these clashes, demonstrations continue. I personally think that if these clashes didn't happen things would be quite calm now in Cairo. But because of these clashes, things are continuing. Today, demonstrations have been peaceful and we pray and hope these demonstrators will go back home and give an opportunity for the new government and new vice president to continue to work on the fulfillment of all these promises they have made. the rest

Dublin primates meeting marks an ‘end to the communion as we know it’

February 3, 2011
by George Conger

A meeting of the leaders of 23 of the Communion’s 38 provinces has produced a draft agreement diminishing the primates’ role as an instrument of unity for the Anglican Communion. The primates meeting is to be restructured into a pan-Anglican fellowship for conversation, with a goal of “acknowledging diversity and giving space for difference” within the church, according to a ‘working document’ released at the close of the Jan 24-30 meeting in Dublin.

The reforms put forward by Dr. Williams and the Dublin primates have abandoned the calls for discipline and good order made by the primates since the 1997 Jerusalem meeting, conceding there is not political will to take action against the Episcopal Church. It also follows upon the revamping of the Lambeth Conference as a teaching instrument for bishops in 2008, the controversial 2009 ACC meeting that torpedoed the Anglican Covenant process, and the creation in questionable circumstances of an all powerful Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion last year.

Dr. Williams has now effectively gathered the authority once held by other instruments of the communion into his own hands, and into those of a London-based bureaucracy. the rest

Adult Skin Stem Cell “Gun” Huge Breakthrough in Burn Therapy

Thursday, February 3, 2011
Wesley J. Smith

Remember those bad old days when we were told embryonic stem cell research offered the “only hope?” Check this National Geographic video out! Healing within days with the patient’s own stem cells.

Story here

'Spray-on skin' developed for burns victims
The spray-gun which fires stem cells on to the damaged skin has already been used successfully on a dozen patients.

Where Have All the Presbyterians Gone?

Nondenominational churches are the fastest growing in the country
By RUSSELL D. MOORE
FEBRUARY 4, 2011

Are we witnessing the death of America's Christian denominations? Studies conducted by secular and Christian organizations indicate that we are. Fewer and fewer American Christians, especially Protestants, strongly identify with a particular religious communion—Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. According to the Baylor Survey on Religion, nondenominational churches now represent the second largest group of Protestant churches in America, and they are also the fastest growing.

More and more Christians choose a church not on the basis of its denomination, but on the basis of more practical matters. Is the nursery easy to find? Do I like the music? Are there support groups for those grappling with addiction?

This trend is a natural extension of the American evangelical experiment. After all, evangelicalism is about the fundamental message of Christianity—the evangel, the gospel, literally the "good news" of God's kingdom arriving in Jesus Christ—not about denomination building.

The post-World War II generation of evangelicals was responding to congregations filled with what they considered spiritual deadness. People belonged to a church, but they seemed to have no emotional experience of Christianity inside the building. Revivalists watched as denominational bureaucracies grew larger, and churches shifted from sending missionaries to preach around the world to producing white papers on issues like energy policy. the rest

Third phase of Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue to commence in May

ENS
February 04, 2011

The third phase of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) will commence in May when its new members will meet for the first time at the Monastery of Bose in northern Italy.
The eighteen members, including four women and four lay people, appointed to the commission will grapple with questions regarding the church as communion, local and universal, and how the church comes to discern right ethical teaching.

The dialogue commences amid differences between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches concerning the ordination of women and human sexuality issues.

In a recent controversial move, the Vatican developed provisions that enable former and disaffected Anglicans to enter full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving elements of Anglican spirituality and liturgy. the rest

Catholic Church querying US Anglicans for possible ordinariate

By Kevin J. Jones
Washington D.C.,
Feb 4, 2011

(CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl said in an interview that the Catholic Church has sent out questionnaires to learn more about U.S. Anglicans who have expressed an interest in becoming Catholic. A sufficiently large response would mean the creation of an Anglican ordinariate in the U.S.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has named Cardinal Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, as its delegate to assist Anglican groups who want to become Catholic through the ordinariate, a special church structure similar to a diocese.

“We’re hearing from those Anglican communities and those Anglicans who wish to explore more fully what the ordinariate will mean and who wish to be a part of it,” the cardinal told CNA in a Jan. 31 interview. the rest

Devotional: The life of the believer...

The life of the believer and that of the unbeliever show great similarity in their beginning, but when their end comes, they are as diverse as the snake and the silkworm. The snake, however many times he casts his skin, remains a snake and nothing else, but the silkworm, when it casts off its unsightly cocoon, becomes a new creature, and as a dainty pretty moth flies about in the air. So the believer, casting aside this body, enters into a state of spiritual glory and flies about for ever in heaven, while the sinner after death is but a sinner still. ...Sadhu Sundar Singh image

Diocese of Central Florida Challenges Title IV

Bishop Howe's Address from True View LLC on Vimeo.
February 3, 2011
The Living Church

The Diocese of Central Florida’s annual convention voted to challenge the new Title IV canons, and heard Bishop John W. Howe announce his plan to retire. The convention met Jan. 28-29 at La Hacienda Center in The Villages.

Central Florida joins three other dioceses — Dallas, South Carolina and Western Louisiana — in expressing concerns about the new canons on discipline, which become effective July 1.

The diocese asks General Convention “to modify New Title IV, as it applies to the Diocese of Central Florida, so as to comply with the Constitution.” The resolution expresses two concerns about the new Title IV: that it “empowers the Presiding Bishop to take certain actions within the Diocese of Central Florida in violation of Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution,” and “creates a charging and trial system applicable to Presbyters and Deacons in violation of Article IX of the Constitution which provides that presbyters and deacons shall be tried by a court instituted by the convention of the Diocese.”

Bishop Howe endorsed the resolution. “I will tell you plainly: I do not want to have this enhanced authority given to me in my dealings with our clergy,” the bishop said in his annual address. “Nor do I welcome this intrusion into the life of our sovereign diocese of the unprecedented authority of the Presiding Bishop. And I have told her so. It is a radical revision of the polity of the Episcopal Church from its inception.”
the rest

(Go to the 18:00 min. mark on the video to hear Bp. Howe's remarks on the Title IV canons)

Drug Shortages Distress Hospitals .

FEBRUARY 1, 2011
By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN

A shortage of injectable generic drugs for cancer and other serious diseases is putting pressure on hospitals, which are sometimes having to scramble to locate the medicines or search for alternative treatments.

The supply of these drugs has tightened in recent years as the generic-drug industry has consolidated, with many of the drugs now made by just one or two companies. In many cases patents have long expired and the original brand-name drug is no longer being produced.

Federal regulators have also stepped up enforcement of quality standards, limiting the ability of large manufacturers to ramp up production.

The drugs—typically used in hospitals and outpatient clinics—often require complex manufacturing processes with long lead times. Because factories produce many kinds of medicines, companies say they can't easily make more of one without creating a shortage in another. the rest

Sharia Brutality on a Raped Girl in Bangladesh

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
February 2, 2011

A girl named Hena, age 14, was murdered by local Sharia Committee at Shariatpur in the southern part of Bangladesh. The daughter of poor farmer named Darbesh Kha, Hena was forcefully abducted and raped on January 30, 2011 during late at night by Mahbub, age 40. During this abuse, villagers arrived in response to the cries of Hena. At the same time, the imam of the local mosque, a man named Mofiz Uddin, and a few teachers of Madrassa [Koranic School] led by Saiful Islam, also arrived; instead of taking any action against the rapist, the Muslim clergymen took Hena inside the Madrassa and locked her in a room. The following day, the same imam and some of members of the Sharia Committee in the village sat for a trial of Hena on charges of "immoral sexuality" before marriage. Later the committee decided to punish Hena with 200 lashes, and took financial penalty of only TK. 10,000 [US$ 150] from the rapist.

During the lashing, Hena became unconscious; when she was rushed to the nearby village hospital, the attending doctors declared her dead. the rest

On average, in Bangladesh, several hundred rural females fall victim to such rulings and lashings, as well to other forms of "Islamic Penalties," as Shariah Law Committees become increasingly prevalent.

Muslim Pedophile Gangs Stalk British Girls
Britain’s culture of political correctness has shut the mouths of police and government institutions to an ugly social trend...

Top British Imam Convicted of Raping 12-Year-Old Boy in Mosque…

'Chrislam' in Protestant churches

Chad Groening
OneNewsNow
2/3/2011

A Protestant renewal organization is concerned about the recent efforts of some mainline Protestant churches to produce an ecumenical reconciliation between Christianity and Islam.

According to a recent blog post from The Last Crusade, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, along with other congregations in Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit, preached sermons and held Sunday school lessons on the founder of Islam, Mohammad, whom Muslims consider a prophet. Qurans were also placed in the pews next to Bibles.

Proponents of the movement, which has been dubbed "Chrislam," claim that Christians cannot love their neighbors without having a relationship with them. the rest image

1,500-year-old church found in Israel

By MATTI FRIEDMAN
Associated Press
 Wed Feb 2, 2011

HIRBET MADRAS, Israel – Israeli archaeologists presented a newly uncovered 1,500-year-old church in the Judean hills on Wednesday, including an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor with images of lions, foxes, fish and peacocks.

The Byzantine church located southwest of Jerusalem, excavated over the last two months, will be visible only for another week before archaeologists cover it again with soil for its own protection.

The small basilica with an exquisitely decorated floor was active between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D., said the dig's leader, Amir Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He said the floor was "one of the most beautiful mosaics to be uncovered in Israel in recent years."

"It is unique in its craftsmanship and level of preservation," he said.
 the rest

Slideshow

Albert Mohler: Moral Collapse at Ms. Magazine — Sex-Selection Abortion as a ‘Problem’

How can Ms. muster any genuine outrage about sex-selection abortions in India when it has demanded unfettered abortion access in our own country? It cannot, and it does not.
Thursday, February 3, 2011

For almost forty years, Ms. magazine has been the most famous voice of the feminist movement in print. Co-founded by Gloria Steinem in 1972, the magazine is stalwartly feminist, retaining the language and spirit of the feminism of the 1970s. In other words, Ms. is the voice of feminist ideological orthodoxy. And the demand for unrestricted abortion rights is at the center of that ideology.

That’s what makes the Winter 2011 edition of the magazine so interesting — and so disturbing. The issue features an article by Madeline Wheeler entitled “Saving the Girl Child,” which offers a report on “India’s epidemic of female infanticide and sex-selection abortion.”

The appearance of that article does come as something of a surprise. After all, Ms., and the feminist movement it represents, insist that a woman must have the right to abort a pregnancy for any reason or for no reason. This claim, they have long insisted, is central to the very idea of reproductive freedom. So, what about sex-selection abortions — when it is female babies who are most commonly aborted?
the rest image by Dan Harrelson

Matt Kennedy+: After Dublin: A Happier Future for Everybody

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Excerpt:
Here’s the future as I see it. The ACO will continue, for many years hence, to organize splendid get-togethers for the Primates. Liberals and moderates will attend and have a very nice time sharing and caring and issuing various gaseous statements about climate change and world peace.

Lambeth will go forward as scheduled in 2016 with even fewer global south participants as will the various ACC gatherings.

The Covenant will remain as unacceptable to conservatives as it is now and probably get worse. If it is ever actually successful at joining provinces together, it will be a motley crew bound by watery promises.

At the same time the conservative primates will also continue to meet. And there may be a gathering of orthodox bishops and Primates somewhere at some point in the future and if so, it will mark the beginning of new initiatives and missions and ministries.

The two sides will go about their own business without much engagement across theological lines.

Since the conservatives will not go to many Communion meetings, the official face and voice of the Communion will become more and more bizarre and will be increasingly ignored by serious people…in much the same fashion serious people ignore the Episcopal Church in the United States. But that will bother the conservative primates and bishops less and less as they, like everyone else, go about their business paying little heed to the circus music wafting from Canterbury.

This will not be “the end of the Anglican Communion.” It will not even be the beginning of the end. Don’t expect any dramatic provincial breaks with Canterbury or any calls for a new official Communion center. Do expect the theological and relational ditch presently separating the conservative provinces from Canterbury, the Communion Instruments, and the liberal/moderate provinces to steadily widen to a chasm, a gulf, a deep dark ravine of healthy differentiation. But think of it as a separation rather than a divorce. the rest

Episcopal diocese wins a legal round

$20 million in assets at stake in court case
Thursday, February 03, 2011
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has won round two in a fight with the rival Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh over $20 million in assets.

An appeals court Wednesday upheld a decision that took the money from the Anglican diocese, led by Archbishop Robert Duncan. The two split in 2008 over theological issues.

The ruling covers assets held by the central diocese. Parish property is to be negotiated.

Episcopal Bishop Kenneth Price Jr. welcomed the decision, which arrived the day his diocese reached the first settlement with an Anglican parish. It required that parish to cut ties with the Anglican diocese for five years.  the rest

Bishop W. Andrew Waldo calls Canon to the Ordinary

posted February 2, 2011

The Rt. Rev. W. Andrew Waldo has called the Rev. Tommy H. Tipton, rector of Holy Cross Faith Memorial Church on Pawley’s Island, to serve the diocese as Canon to the Ordinary.

Tipton has served Holy Cross as rector since 1999.

"During his years at Holy Cross, Pawley’s Island, Tommy Tipton has demonstrated his ample gifts and competence in congregational and leadership development and his substantive managerial and teaching skills,” said Bishop Waldo. “His love of the church and of people is rooted in his deep faith in Jesus Christ.” the rest

Sarah Hey commentary at Stand Firm

Boy rushes past tight security to meet pope

VATICAN CITY
Wednesday, February 02, 2011

 (KABC) -- A young boy stole the show at Pope Benedict's weekly audience.

The boy somehow sneaked past tight security at the Vatican and ran up as Brazilian pilgrims were being introduced to the pope. the rest

Anglican Perspective: Praying for Egypt

A letter from the Bishop of Egypt Mouneer Anis

February 2, 2011
ACNS

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

My Dear Friends,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

First, I would like to thank you so much for your prayers, phone calls, and messages from around the world that you have sent in the last few days. I want you to know that these meant a lot to me personally and to your brothers and sisters in the church here.

In the midst of the turmoil which Egypt is going through, we have felt that the Lord is very near to us. We have experienced his peace, and we were assured of his protection. In most of our churches and homes, there have been prayer meetings for the situation and for our beloved country Egypt. All our churches are safe, although they have not been guarded by the security since Friday when all the security were withdrawn. This assured us that the one who protects the churches is the Lord of the Church.

I was touched to see young adults, Muslims and Christians, guarding the streets, homes, and our churches. They did not allow any thieves or looters to come near the area. They also arrested some of those and handed them over to the Army. I applaud our local Egyptian clergy and people who joined the youth in the streets in guarding homes and churches.  the rest

Midwest buckles under major winter storm

Combined NASA images from Terra satellite-more images of the snowstorm here

Midwest buckles under major winter storm

(So far here in Syracuse, we've received a mere 4 inches!)



Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring

Malkin: Stop the hate campaign against law-abiding American businesses



By Michelle Malkin
February 2, 2011

Here's a modest proposal for liberals who say they support job creation: Stop smearing successful, law-abiding private companies whose values don't comport with yours. I'm looking at you, New York Times.

Chick-fil-A is an American success story. Founded by Georgian entrepreneur Truett Cathy in 1946, the family-owned chicken-sandwich chain is one of the country's largest fast-food businesses. It employs some 50,000 workers across the country at 1,500 outlets in nearly 40 states and the District of Columbia. The company generates more than $2 billion in revenue and serves millions of happy customers with trademark Southern hospitality.

So, what's the problem? Well, Chick-fil-A is run by devout Christians who believe in strong marriages, devoted families and the highest standards of character for their workers. The restaurant chain's official corporate mission is to "glorify God" and "enrich the lives of everyone we touch." The company's community service initiatives, funded through its WinShape Foundation, support foster care, scholarship, summer camp and marriage enrichment programs. On Sunday, all Chick-fil-A stores close so workers can spend the day at worship and rest.
the rest image by Hector Alejandro

The glory of the LORD entered the temple...

The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. Ezekiel 43: 4-5

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. Malachi 3: 1-4

To Live and Die in Philadelphia

The abortionist’s house of horrors.
Feb 7, 2011
By JOSEPH BOTTUM

Excerpt:
Pennsylvania may not be a third-world country, but its abortion mills—like those in most other states—really are reminiscent of one: free and independent entities, uniquely exempt from supervision and regulation, carved out from the rest of medicine. Every other kind of doctor is weighed down by record-keeping and inspection requirements. Abortionists alone are free. “Pennsylvania’s Department of Health has deliberately chosen not to enforce laws that should afford patients at abortion clinics the same safeguards and assurances of quality health care as patients of other medical service providers,” the Gosnell grand jury explained. “Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety.”

The reason, of course, is what such medical practices involve. Ever since the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, ending states’ power to outlaw abortion and making it instead an individual right, abortion has distorted American law and snarled American politics. Why should it be any surprise that it has soiled American medicine as well? People like Dr. Gosnell are allowed to exist by the pro-abortion lobbying groups that insist ordinary medical supervision will lead to a curtailing of access to abortion in this country.

As it happens, they’re right. Partly that’s because laws concerning medical licensing genuinely do offer a chance for pro-life state legislatures to hurt the abortion business by burdening its practitioners with extensive paperwork and expensive equipment. The activists at NARAL and Planned Parenthood are not exactly wrong to worry about what they call TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers). And yet, there’s a more serious reason that medical supervision threatens the abortion license in this country. It’s what ordinary medical regulation and supervision would reveal: the fact that the abortion business is the gutter of American medicine.

Make no mistake: Abortion genuinely is a business in the United States, and a big one. The grand jury estimated that Gosnell was bringing in nearly $1.8 million a year, mostly in cash, by performing ordinary (or “just a little illegal”) first- and second-trimester abortions with his untrained staff every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday night. No one knows how much more he made from the operations he apparently performed most Sundays: the abortions so late in the third trimester that he allowed only his wife to help with them. Add what he made by writing prescriptions for narcotics—he was one of the top three Oxycontin prescribers in the state—and the man was running his own little mint on the streets of Philadelphia. the rest

Pro- and anti-government supporters clash in Cairo

February 02, 2011

CAIRO – Hundreds of pro-government supporters attacked protesters Wednesday in Cairo's central square, where thousands were pushing ahead with demonstrations demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak supporters were out in the streets for the first time Wednesday in large numbers, with thousands demanding an end to the anti-government movement a day after the president went on national television and rejected demands for him to step down.

Those calling for Mubarak to go have been out in Cairo and many other cities for more than a week, and they drew by far their largest crowd on Tuesday when at least a quarter million packed the central Tahrir Square and the downtown area around it. Hundreds of thousands more have turned out in other cities across this nation of 80 million. the rest

Colson: Information and Freedom-The Two Go Hand in Hand
...If there’s an object lesson about what we’re seeing in the Middle East, it is that every Christian should be working diligently to preserve the right to free speech, to preserve the free flow of information. Aquinas noted eloquently that civilization advances on well-reasoned discourse—on conversation, which is the heart of democracy...

Obama’s Brotherhood Moment
Game over: Barack Obama has endorsed a role for the Muslim Brotherhood in a new, post-Mubarak government for Egypt.

This should come as no surprise. Obama has behaved consistently all along, from his refusal to back the protesters in Iran, who were demonstrating against an Islamic Republic, to his backing of these protesters in Egypt, to whom he has just given a green light to establish a government that, given numerous historical precedents, will likely be the precursor to an Islamic Republic...

Planned Parenthood Sex Trafficking Coverup May Prompt Christie Veto

by Steven Ertelt
Trenton, NJ
LifeNews.com
2/1/11

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may be much more likely to veto again a bill that compels state residents to fund Planned Parenthood centers now that a new expose’ has gone public showing the abortion business covering up sexual trafficking.

A new undercover video shows Planned Parenthood officials, in New Jersey, telling a pimp and his prostitute assistant how they can get abortions for young teenage girls who Planned Parenthood officials are informed are Asians in the country illegally and forced into the sex trade.

The Perth Amboy abortion center where the video is filmed is the second-largest Planned Parenthood center operated by Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey and the abortion business plans to double its number of abortion centers in the state. the rest

Planned Parenthood Aids Pimp’s Underage Sex Ring

1 out of 8 biology teachers reject evolution

By Julia Duin
February 1, 2011

Can you maintain a traditional Judeo-Christian view of how the Earth was created and still remain a science teacher in public schools?

About one in eight high school biology teachers do, according to a new article in the magazine Science.
The study, which came out last week, says 13 percent of 900 high school biology teachers polled by two Pennsylvania State University professors believe Earth was created by God instead of evolving over a 3.7-billion-year time span. Then there is the 28 percent who take the opposite tack in their classrooms; teaching that evolution is a given. The rest - roughly 60 percent - don't take a position at all for fear of starting controversy; a stance that Scientific American thought was cowardly at best.

Other science publications seemed surprised to find that 13 percent of the respondents defy the evolution mandate, in that these teachers consider evolution a belief system similar to creationism. the rest

Albert Mohler: Creation vs. Evolution – The New Shape of the Debate
...If evolution is true, then the entire narrative of the Bible has to be revised and reinterpreted. The evolutionary account is not only incompatible with any historical affirmation of Genesis, but it is also incompatible with the claim that all humanity is descended from Adam and the claim that in Adam all humanity fell into sin and guilt. The Bible’s account of the Fall and its consequences is utterly incompatible with evolutionary theory. The third chapter of Genesis is as problematic for evolutionary theory as the first two...

Dublin and the Art of Dishonest Conversation

Charles Raven
1 February 2011

Excerpt:
So if the official Lambeth institutions are no longer worth fighting for, should orthodox Anglicans now simply let history take its course, get on with evangelism where they can and hope for the best? I believe not, because the Dublin meeting makes explicit a theological shift which is even more significant than the predictable institutional changes made to enhance Lambeth’s control, such as the establishment of a Primates’ Standing Committee. The essential common interest of Rowan Williams and ECUSA/TEC becomes clear, whatever their differences over the pace of change, in the closing paragraph of the Dublin Primates’ statement where they affirm that ‘In our common life in Christ we are passionately committed to journeying together in honest conversation’.

We might well ask ourselves what sort of Communion we are in when the chief passion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and those still willing to work with him is for ‘conversation’. Why this preoccupation with interminable and inward looking dialogue? What about a passion for reaching the lost, for faithful teaching and preaching, for the glory and honour of Jesus Christ? However sincere or even passionate the Primates may feel themselves to be, this is actually ‘dishonest conversation’ which displaces the gospel and is spiritually dangerous. Fundamentally, this is because ‘conversing’ has come to replace ‘confessing’. In my book ‘Shadow Gospel’ I demonstrate how Rowan Williams’ methodology amounts to a sophisticated redefinition of orthodoxy as a process of dialogue rather than faithfulness to a deposit of faith with its associated church order and morality. As long ago as 1983, Dr Williams’ wrote:

We may need to develop an understanding of ‘orthodoxy’ as a tool rather than as an end in itself, a tool for discovery rather than control. Like any language it is unintelligible without some idea of grammar – necessary rules and regularities. But it is there essentially as something both functional to the life of the community, and necessarily bound up with – grounding perhaps – the identity of a community. (What is Catholic Orthodoxy?’ in ‘Essays Catholic and Radical’ ed. K. Leech and R .Williams p13)

In retrospect this can be seen as something of a programmatic statement and it is very clever – too clever – because it allows Western liberals to use the same terminology as their orthodox colleagues from the Global South, but in such a way that the ‘new truths’ so beloved by revisionists can gain a foothold. The cumulative effect of immersion in such a church culture is a gradual increase in the ability to tolerate the spiritually toxic – as the careers of number of formerly evangelical bishops in the Church of England sadly demonstrates. the rest

Despite the inexorable process of separation that is taking place, this ‘dishonest conversation’ must be challenged. It matters very much that as many as possible end up on the right side of the emerging divide and it matters that the faithful majority of the Communion are not portrayed as ‘schismatic’ while the real schismatics get to keep the Anglican brand.

Interview with Archbishop Fred Hiltz

As he waited at London’s Heathrow International Airport to fly back to Toronto, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, spoke to Anglican Journal staff writer Marites N. Sison about the primates’ meeting, held Jan. 25 to 30 in Dublin. A total of 13 of 38 primates were absent. This included seven who boycotted the meeting to protest issues around the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of a lesbian bishop by The Episcopal Church in the U.S. last August. What follows is an excerpt of Sison’s interview with Archbishop Hiltz.

Interview here

Breakaway church to keep property, cut ties

By Bobby Kerlik
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh agreed to drop legal action against a Moon church that split from the national organization over issues such as abortion and gay clergy.

Part of the agreement allowing St. Philip's church to keep its building and property stipulates it must cut ties with the newly formed Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh for at least five years.

The St. Philip's congregation voted Tuesday night on the settlement.

"The amendment to the bylaws passed by a voice vote, which means they will be withdrawing from the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh," diocesan spokesman David Trautman said after the meeting.

"Our focus is on the ministry we do with the kids and families in Moon Township. The other denomination stuff takes a back seat," said the Rev. Eric Taylor, senior pastor at St. Philip's. "I make no apology for the terms. We prefer a negotiated settlement as opposed to litigation."

St. Philip's was among several dozen parishes that split in 2008 from the national Episcopal Church of America over issues ranging from abortion to the consecration of a noncelibate gay bishop. The breakaway parishes formed the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh with Robert Duncan as archbishop. the rest

A stark contrast with this.

God Will Take Care of You

A two year old sings "God Will Take Care Of You" with his parents.

Anglican Church in North America Calls Proposed Pa. Church Property Settlement “Heartbreaking”

Settlement Requires Church to Separate from Anglican Family for Five Years
PITTSBURGH, Pa.
February 1, 2011
(via email)

The Anglican Church in North America expressed sadness over a proposed church property settlement involving St. Philip’s Church in Moon Township, Pa. In addition to paying a substantial fee to the local Episcopal Church diocese to remain in their worship space, the proposed settlement requires St. Philip’s to sever ties for at least five years with the Anglican Church in North America, the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh and Archbishop Robert Duncan.

In addition, the Episcopal Church diocese has insisted that St. Philip’s agree that if it starts any new churches over the next five years they cannot be Anglican. The congregation is scheduled to vote on the settlement this evening, Tuesday, February 1. The settlement will then go before the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas.

“It is heartbreaking that even if they agree to pay a substantial settlement fee to keep their buildings, members of St. Philip’s are also being forced to separate from their Anglican family as a condition of the property settlement. Freedom of religion is at the heart of this matter and no congregation should have to stipulate that it will separate from its current body as part of a monetary property settlement,” said the Most Rev. Robert Duncan, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in North America and Bishop of Pittsburgh.

“Sadly, the separation mandate seems to be specifically designed to hurt both the local diocese and the North American province. If the settlement is approved by St. Philip’s, we urge the Court to strike any provisions of the settlement that abridge First Amendment rights.

“We support the people and clergy of St. Philip’s as they face into this painful decision. It is our sincere hope that The Episcopal Church will stop these abusive and unconstitutional practices so that St. Philip’s can move forward with its mission and ministry. The desire of the Anglican Church in North America is simply to hold fast to the teachings of Scripture, reach North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ, and serve those in need,” Archbishop Duncan concluded.

The rot in values that is causing America’s decline

Thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, a love of adventure, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, a belief in spreading freedom and democracy – where did that all go?
By SHMULEY BOTEACH
02/01/2011

Science and math. Science and math. President Barack Obama’s new mantra is science and math. If only America’s students focused on science and math, he told us in his State of the Union address, then we’ll be as innovative as China and will no longer have to farm out the building of wondrous handheld gadgets. The gods of science and math will make our economy blossom.

But missing from the president’s new, post-midterm vision for America is any mention of the rot in values that is causing our decline. The reason we don’t excel in education is not because our schools focus on philosophy and the humanities to the exclusion of science and math, but rather because we are becoming a pack of ignoramuses watching inane TV shows, following the lives of mostly decadent celebrities, and engaging in an endless orgy of consumption. Our problem is not that we read too much Nietzsche and too little astrophysics, but rather that our character is becoming corrupt.

The solution for America is not to raise an army of sterile drones, engineered into productive obedience by a government that emphasizes equations. I have no interest in living in China; communist totalitarianism dare not be our model. Rather, our solution is to reembrace the values that made America great: thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, entrepreneurship, a love of adventure, fearlessness, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, and a belief in spreading freedom and democracy. the rest

New Study: Morning-after pill causes rise in teenage STDs

by Thaddeus Baklinski
Mon Jan 31, 2011
NOTTINGHAM, UK

(LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study on the impact of the UK government’s scheme to hand out free emergency contraception to teenagers as young as sixteen has found that the plan not only has not reduced teen pregnancy rates, but has led to a rise in sexually transmitted diseases.

The study of the government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, titled “The Impact of Emergency Birth Control on Teen Pregnancy and STIs,” compared areas of England where the morning-after pill was available to teens free of charge at pharmacies, with areas where the plan had not yet been introduced.

The researchers found that pregnancy rates for girls under 16 remained the same in both areas, while the rates of sexually transmitted diseases increased by 12 percent in those areas where the pill was made freely available. the rest

Professor Paton told the Telegraph, “We find that offering the morning-after pill free of charge didn’t have the intended effect of cutting teenage pregnancies but did have the unfortunate side of effect of increasing sexually transmitted infections.

Gosnell Headlines? Gone, Baby, Gone!

Feb 1, 2011
Elizabeth Scalia

The story of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who ran what a Grand Jury report referred to as “a baby charnel house,” where viable babies—“big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus,” as Gosnell joked—were delivered and then outright killed with a “snip” to the spinal cord, their feet sometimes severed for souvenirs, is one the press quickly consigned to the memory hole. It is not being talked about by the “strong feminist” voices on daytime TV, or on night time cable news. There are no headlines, no feature articles in leading magazines.

The mainstream media, confronted with a house of horrors that was gestated and born of a single-minded mania for “protecting choice for women” had no choice but to report on Gosnell being charged for the murder of one woman who died while under his dubious “care” (another woman’s death had been “settled” for a financial consideration), and they mush-mouthed their way through his killing of at least seven living, viable babies, but they did not like this story. the rest-don't miss this!

In the wake of Kermit Gosnell, however, in the wake of Andrew Rutland, Stephen Brigham, and Abu Hayat, there is no following-up, no digging through records; there is no curiosity about filthy, women-maiming, spine-snipping facilities existing in other cities; there are no big names to go to for quotes. These crimes—when they are covered at all—are treated like “local” aberrations. No one peers in at authority or examines the pro-abortion leadership. There is no one in government, apparently, to ask about criminal-neglect, lack of scrutiny; no one to accuse of mismanagement or of looking-away.

The mainstream press, made uncomfortable by a 261-page grand jury report detailing what might well be called a decades-long and heinous crime against humanity, abetted by the spectacularly willful looking-away of those in authority, itself turns away from the story and neglects its duty to the public trust.

Verdict stands, firefighters win...message sent

Charlie Butts
OneNewsNow
2/1/2011

It's been a long legal battle, but San Diego firefighters are rejoicing in the final outcome of their complaint about being ordered by their city to participate in a "gay pride" parade.

An appeals court had earlier ruled in favor of firefighters who sued after they were forced to participate in San Diego's annual homosexual "pride parade" in 2007. Alliance Defense Fund attorney Joseph Infranco tells OneNewsNow what the firefighters endured.

"These firefighters were subjected to hours of just graphic, lewd exhibits and gestures and catcalls and all that sort of thing," says the attorney. The original complaint filed in the case stated "you could not even look at the crowd without getting some type of sexual gesture." the rest

Last-Minute IRS Changes to Affect All Churches

CAROL STREAM, Ill.
 Jan. 31, 2011

Christian Newswire/ -- The 2011 Church & Clergy Tax Guide by nonprofit tax expert, Richard Hammar, J.D., LL.M., CPA, releases today. Included in this annually updated, exhaustive tax guide are all of the last-minute changes that will affect churches throughout the United States. Here are some of the developments Hammar highlights in this book.

A few of the changes you'll want to find out more about are:

• Beginning in 2010, the new Healthcare Reform Legislation will grant small employers, including nonprofits, a refundable tax credit as inducement to obtain health insurance for their employees. After 2012, legislation changes will put a limitation on employee health flex spending arrangements.

• Congress passed the Creating Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which, among other things, removes cell phones from the definition of listed property, and imposes penalties of up to $50 per return for not issuing forms W-2 or 1099-MISC on time with the IRS. This legislation also increases the maximum amount a taxpayer may expense under section 179 to $500,000. the rest

Anglican Head: Nobody Denies Division

Mon, Jan. 31 2011
By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter

Nobody would deny that there is division and "a critical situation" in the Anglican Communion, the spiritual leader of the global body said Sunday.

"Clearly the division is very real. Nobody is denying that. The question is how we cope with it, how we argue with one another," the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, said at the conclusion of a biennial meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

Williams was joined by about two dozen Anglican primates – senior bishops or archbishops – for a nearly weeklong meeting. At least seven primates did not show up in protest of the presence of U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. the rest

"Of course there is a critical situation in the Communion; nobody would deny that," the Anglican spiritual leader stated. "But that critical situation has not ended the relationships – often very cordial and very constructive – between churches within the communion.

"So there's no suggestion that this is somehow closing the door on those who are not with us."

Why Coptic Christians Fear a Revolution

by Robert Spencer Feb 1st, 2011

Forgotten in all the excitement over the revolution in Egypt has been the precarious situation of Coptic Christians there. Yet just weeks ago, Copts in Egypt experienced an unprecedented reign of terror. An Islamic jihad-martyrdom suicide bomber murdered twenty-two people and wounded eighty more at the Coptic Christian Church of the Saints in Alexandria, Egypt on New Year’s Eve. Just days later, as Christmas (which Copts celebrate on January 7) 2011 approached, an Islamic website carried this ominous exhortation: “Blow up the churches while they are celebrating Christmas or any other time when the churches are packed.” And if the Muslim Brotherhood takes power in Egypt, the treatment of the Copts is likely only to get worse.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton recently injected a note of realism into the mainstream media euphoria over the heroic “pro-democracy” demonstrators in Egypt. “The overthrow of the Mubarak regime,” Bolton warned, “will not by any sense of the imagination lead to the advent of Jeffersonian democracy. The greater likelihood is a radical, tightly knit organization like the Muslim Brotherhood will take advantage of the chaos and seize power.” And that will be bad news for Egyptian Christians: “It is really legitimate for the Copts to be worried that instability follow Mubarak’s fall and his replacement with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Apparently aware of this, the head of the Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, has forbidden Copts from participating in the demonstrations. It has been widely reported in the West that many Copts are defying this ban; on the other hand, however, a source on the ground in Egypt tells me that the news reports are wrong, and that Copts are not participating. Whatever may be the truth of the matter, it is certain that a Muslim Brotherhood state in Egypt would make their situation even worse than it is already. the rest

Coptic Christians have suffered discrimination and harassment for centuries. A law dating from 1856 and strongly influenced by classic Islamic restrictions on subjugated non-Muslim dhimmi communities remains on the books to this day, and severely restricts the construction of new churches. That law is part of a pervasive tendency toward discrimination: Human Right Watch reported in January 2011 that “despite the fact that the Egyptian Constitution guarantees the equality of rights, there have been reported cases of widespread discrimination against Egyptian Christians.”

New DC Late-Term Abortion Biz Injects Babies, Abandons Women

by Steven Ertelt
Washington, DC
LifeNews.com
1/31/11

James Pendergraft, a Florida-based abortion business owner has had his medical licenses suspended four times for violations, has reportedly opened up a new late-term abortion business in the Washington, D.C. area.

Pendergraft, who runs the Orlando Women’s Center abortion business, has had his medical license repeatedly revoked for botched abortions, illegal late-term abortions, and dispensing drugs without a license. Now, the pro-life group Operation Rescue, says he has set up shop in a secret late-term abortion business somewhere in or near the nation’s capital where late-term abortions are being only partially completed.

He also opened a new web site, LateTermAbortion.net, that describes in detail how his new office is soliciting women nationwide and from other countries for “intracardiac injection of medication into the fetal heart,” which kills the unborn child. Pendergraft describes how his new abortion center uses long spinal needs to pierce the pregnant abdomen and inject the hearts of late-term unborn babies in the womb with poison or air. the rest


Pa. Abortion Doctor's Delaware Office Being Probed
...Gosnell was arrested last month after a raid of his West Pennsylvania turned up horrible abuses of medical regulations. Grand Jury documents described his clinic as full of cats, blood stained furniture and bags and bottles of dismembered baby parts...

How to Tax the Rich

Try giving them perks and privileges (an extra vote?) in return, says 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams.
JANUARY 30, 2011
By SCOTT ADAMS

The president was too polite to mention it during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, but here's a quick summary of the problem: The U.S. is broke. The hole is too big to plug with cost cutting or economic growth alone. Rich people have money. No one else does. Rich people have enough clout to block higher taxes on themselves, and they will.

Likely outcome: Your next home will be the box that your laser printer came in. I hope that you kept it.

Whenever I feel as if I'm on a path toward certain doom, which happens every time I pay attention to the news, I like to imagine that some lonely genius will come up with a clever solution to save the world. Imagination is a wonderful thing. I don't have much control over the big realities, such as the economy, but I'm an expert at programming my own delusions. I make no apology for that. A well-crafted delusion can be a delicious guilty pleasure. And best of all, it's totally free. As a public service, today I will teach you how to wrap yourself in a warm blanket of imagined solutions for the government's fiscal dilemma. the rest