The Gospel Hindered ACLU
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
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Healing the Dysfunctional Church Family (see the Book Review Column in this issue of MORNING STAR)
Adult, Youth, or Children’s Journals
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