Dinosaur soft tissue
The 60 minute piece
Friday, September 30, 2011
Pakistani family of a rape victim refuse to kill her in an honor killing
She is fighting to get justice for a gang rape that she insists happened four years ago in Mehar, a small town in Pakistan.
We first met her in the office of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. A colorful traditional Pakistani shawl covered her head. Her father sat next to her as she recounted the 2007 incident.
"I was walking home from my school and I went to the store to buy a toy for my niece," she said, staring at the floor of the office. "While I was looking at things a guy pressed a handkerchief on my nose. I fainted and was kidnapped. Then four men gang raped me."
As she shared details of her days in captivity and multiple rapes, she kept repeating, "I want justice, I will not stop until I get justice." After three days, she was finally able to escape she said. As she spoke, her father gently tapped her head. He said he tried to get Kainat's alleged rapists arrested, but instead he was rebuffed by the police.
According to the Kainat family's account, the tribal elders declared her kari, (which literally means black female), for losing her virginity outside marriage.
In Pakistan, women and men who have illicit relationships or women who lose their virginity before marriage are at risk of paying with their lives.
"These are matters of honor and the leaders call a jirga and they declare that the woman or the couple should be killed," said Abdul Hai, a veteran field officer for the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan. These acts of violence are most commonly labeled as "honor killings."
The most recent report from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan noted that in 2009 roughly 46 percent of all female murders in Pakistan that year were in the name of "honor." The report noted that a total of 647 incidences of "honor killings" were reported by the Pakistani press. However, experts say that actual incidences of "honor killings" in Pakistan are much higher and never get reported to the police because they are passed off by the families as suicides.
Kainat said that despite the pressures her family refused to kill her.
"It is the tradition, but if the family doesn't permit it, then it won't happen. My father, my brother, my mom didn't allow it," she said.
And that defiance has left the family fearing for their lives. The family's new home in Karachi has been attacked a number of times.
But, according to Abdul Hai, Kainat is lucky: "The woman or the girl usually gets killed and the man gets away," he said. "Over 70 percent of the murdered victims are women and only 30 percent of victims of honor killings are male."
In Karachi, Kainat and her family are now sharing one room in a run-down apartment block, and they have to rely on charities to help them pay for food.
"We go hungry many nights," said Kainat's older sister.
But their fight might never pay off. A local judge has already ruled against Kainat in the case. "There is no corroborative evidence available on record. The sole testimony of the alleged rape survivor is not sufficient," the judge said in a written decision.
Another problem is that material evidence is usually not collected in rape cases in Pakistan since the police rarely believe rape victims and therefore don't order rape kits in a timely manner.
Without medical tests to corroborate her story, it remains Kainat's word against the alleged rapists. But even having lost her case at the local court, Kainat insists, "I am not giving up, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court of Pakistan."[The Atlantic]
Saudi woman driver saved from lashing by King Abdullah
A Saudi woman sentenced to be lashed 10 times for defying the country's ban on female drivers has had her punishment overturned by the king.
The woman, named as Shaima Jastaina and believed to be in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission in Jeddah in July. Her case was the first in which a legal punishment was handed down for a violation of the ban in the ultraconservative Muslim nation.
Although there has been no official confirmation of the ruling, Princess Amira al-Taweel, wife of the Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, tweeted: "Thank God, the lashing of [Shaima] is cancelled. Thanks to our beloved king. I am sure all Saudi women will be so happy, I know I am."
She later added that she and her husband had spoken to Shaima, who told them: "The king's orders washed the fears I lived with after this unjust sentence."
Jastaina was sentenced on Monday — a day after King Abdullah promised to protect women's rights and said women would be allowed to participate in municipal elections in 2015. He also promised to appoint women to the all-male Shura council advisory body.
The moves underline the challenge facing Abdullah, known as a reformer, as he pushes gently for change while trying not to antagonise the powerful clergy and a conservative segment of the population.
Although there are no written laws that restrict women from driving, the prohibition is rooted in conservative traditions and religious views that hold that giving freedom of movement to women would make them vulnerable to sins.
Police usually stop female drivers, question them and let them go after they sign a pledge not to drive again. But dozens of women have continued to take to the roads since June in a campaign to break the taboo.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300-$400 (£190-£255) a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them.[Guardian]
RNS: Yankees have the lowest divorce rates :)
By Amy Kuperinsky
Religion News Service
(RNS) Poor New Jersey -- derided for "Jersey Shore," aggressive driving and talking too fast. But when it comes to happily ever after, the Garden State is No. 1.
A recent U.S. Census report shows the Northeast -- and New Jersey in particular -- has the lowest divorce rate in America, trailed closely by New York.
The Bible Belt, meanwhile, home to Southern hospitality, church telethons and country music, has more "shotgun" weddings and the most divorces.
"People assume that people in the Northeast divorce easily because they're less religious, but that's not the case," said Deborah Carr, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University.
In the Northeast, 7.2 per 1,000 men and 7.5 per 1,000 women got divorced. In the South, the rates were 10.2 for men and 11.1 for women. New Jersey's rates were 6.1 for men and 6 for women, according to the 2009 American Community Survey, which released the data in August.
Even though Jean Grossman is from New Jersey, her story mirrors those statistics. When she first moved to Texas, it was a classic case of culture shock.
"I thought I had landed on the moon," said Grossman, 59, a native of Oradell, N.J. After getting married, she moved in 1984 with her husband to Dallas, where he was pursuing a business opportunity. "I thought we were going into 'happily ever after,"' she said.
"Nobody in my family had ever gotten divorced," said Grossman, who now works as a divorce coach. "It just wasn't done."
Almost a decade later, in 1993, she asked her husband to move out, and they divorced three years later. Still living in the South, Grossman started a relationship with the man who would become her second husband, before returning to New Jersey in 2006.
The South sees more divorce for several reasons, Carr said:
First, Southerners tend to marry young, partly due to a lower rate of college attendance.
Second, couples don't usually move in together while unwed, a trend tied to religious beliefs. They often frown upon birth control, and are "more likely to have nonmarital pregnancies, which... then trigger 'shotgun' marriages."
Third, there are simply more marriages in the South. New Jersey had the second-lowest marriage rates, just above Maine. The Census survey reported while New Jersey's marriage rate is 14.8 for men and 13.3 for women, Georgia's is 22.1 and 20.4, respectively.
Though the South's marriage rate is 20.3, the West is highest, at 20.7. Wyoming was the single state with the highest marriage rates for both men (30.7) and women (28.7). And though it's not a Southern state, Alaska ranks like one, with the highest divorce rate for women, at 16.2. (For men, it's Arkansas at 13.5.)
While the national median age for a woman's first marriage is 26.5 and 28.4 for men, in New Jersey, people tend to get married at an older age; the median age for women is 28, and 30.2 for men.
Matt Eventoff, 38, recently celebrated his fifth wedding anniversary with his wife Nicole, 31. His parents, who are still together, got married in their early 20s, but he appreciates the fact that he waited until he was 33.
"The benefit to me was that I was more mature," said Eventoff, of Lawrenceville, N.J. "I was more established in my career. I felt that I was in a position where I could give more of myself."
New Jerseyans may also stick together because, well, it's just too expensive to break up.
Rick Verbanas, 40, belongs to the Central New Jersey Successful Divorce Support Group, which has more than 800 members. Verbanas and his family lived in Atlanta for several years before his wife, who grew up in Bridgewater, N.J., filed for divorce.
He moved to Somerville months later to be near his two children and won joint custody. Now an organizer for the Central Jersey Single Parents Meetup Group, Verbanas pays $500 more a month to rent half a house than he paid for a mortgage on a four-bedroom in Atlanta.
"When you really think about it, the thousands of dollars a month that are going into having two separate locations versus one certainly has to play into peoples' decisions," he said.
Choosing where to file for divorce can directly relate to the cost of living in that state, according to family law attorneys.
"When there's more money to fight about in New Jersey," said Randall Kessler, a family law attorney in Atlanta, "people take longer to get a divorce."[RNS]
Religion News Service
(RNS) Poor New Jersey -- derided for "Jersey Shore," aggressive driving and talking too fast. But when it comes to happily ever after, the Garden State is No. 1.
A recent U.S. Census report shows the Northeast -- and New Jersey in particular -- has the lowest divorce rate in America, trailed closely by New York.
The Bible Belt, meanwhile, home to Southern hospitality, church telethons and country music, has more "shotgun" weddings and the most divorces.
"People assume that people in the Northeast divorce easily because they're less religious, but that's not the case," said Deborah Carr, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University.
In the Northeast, 7.2 per 1,000 men and 7.5 per 1,000 women got divorced. In the South, the rates were 10.2 for men and 11.1 for women. New Jersey's rates were 6.1 for men and 6 for women, according to the 2009 American Community Survey, which released the data in August.
Even though Jean Grossman is from New Jersey, her story mirrors those statistics. When she first moved to Texas, it was a classic case of culture shock.
"I thought I had landed on the moon," said Grossman, 59, a native of Oradell, N.J. After getting married, she moved in 1984 with her husband to Dallas, where he was pursuing a business opportunity. "I thought we were going into 'happily ever after,"' she said.
"Nobody in my family had ever gotten divorced," said Grossman, who now works as a divorce coach. "It just wasn't done."
Almost a decade later, in 1993, she asked her husband to move out, and they divorced three years later. Still living in the South, Grossman started a relationship with the man who would become her second husband, before returning to New Jersey in 2006.
The South sees more divorce for several reasons, Carr said:
First, Southerners tend to marry young, partly due to a lower rate of college attendance.
Second, couples don't usually move in together while unwed, a trend tied to religious beliefs. They often frown upon birth control, and are "more likely to have nonmarital pregnancies, which... then trigger 'shotgun' marriages."
Third, there are simply more marriages in the South. New Jersey had the second-lowest marriage rates, just above Maine. The Census survey reported while New Jersey's marriage rate is 14.8 for men and 13.3 for women, Georgia's is 22.1 and 20.4, respectively.
Though the South's marriage rate is 20.3, the West is highest, at 20.7. Wyoming was the single state with the highest marriage rates for both men (30.7) and women (28.7). And though it's not a Southern state, Alaska ranks like one, with the highest divorce rate for women, at 16.2. (For men, it's Arkansas at 13.5.)
While the national median age for a woman's first marriage is 26.5 and 28.4 for men, in New Jersey, people tend to get married at an older age; the median age for women is 28, and 30.2 for men.
Matt Eventoff, 38, recently celebrated his fifth wedding anniversary with his wife Nicole, 31. His parents, who are still together, got married in their early 20s, but he appreciates the fact that he waited until he was 33.
"The benefit to me was that I was more mature," said Eventoff, of Lawrenceville, N.J. "I was more established in my career. I felt that I was in a position where I could give more of myself."
New Jerseyans may also stick together because, well, it's just too expensive to break up.
Rick Verbanas, 40, belongs to the Central New Jersey Successful Divorce Support Group, which has more than 800 members. Verbanas and his family lived in Atlanta for several years before his wife, who grew up in Bridgewater, N.J., filed for divorce.
He moved to Somerville months later to be near his two children and won joint custody. Now an organizer for the Central Jersey Single Parents Meetup Group, Verbanas pays $500 more a month to rent half a house than he paid for a mortgage on a four-bedroom in Atlanta.
"When you really think about it, the thousands of dollars a month that are going into having two separate locations versus one certainly has to play into peoples' decisions," he said.
Choosing where to file for divorce can directly relate to the cost of living in that state, according to family law attorneys.
"When there's more money to fight about in New Jersey," said Randall Kessler, a family law attorney in Atlanta, "people take longer to get a divorce."[RNS]
Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric was killed today in Yemen
Despite calls by Chuck Norris that al-Awlaki be taken alive, he was killed today by a missile strike for his involvement in the Fort Hood Shootings and Underwear Bombing.
SANAA, Yemen — Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure in al-Qaida's most active branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks in the United States, was killed Friday in the mountains of Yemen, American and Yemeni officials said.
The Yemeni government and Defense Ministry announced al-Awlaki's death, but gave no details. A senior U.S. official said American intelligence supports the claim that he had been killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
Yemeni security officials and local tribal leaders said the was killed in an airstrike on his convoy that they believed was carried out by the Americans. They said pilotless drones had been seen over the area in previous days.
Al-Awlaki would be the most prominent al-Qaida figure to be killed since Osama bin Laden's death in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in May. In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Yemeni-American was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader.
The 40-year-old al-Awlaki had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Barack Obama in April 2010 – making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed.
Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, was believed to be key in turning al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen into what American officials have called the most significant and immediate threat to the Untied States. The branch, led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi, plotted several failed attacks on U.S. soil – the botched Christmas 2009 attempt to blow up an American airliner heading to Detroit and a foiled 2010 attempt to main explosives to Chicago.
Known as an eloquent preacher who spread English-language sermons on the internet calling for "holy war" against the United States, al-Awlaki's role was to inspire and – it is believed – even directly recruit militants to carry out attacks.
U.S. officials believe he went beyond just being an inspiring spiritual leader to become involved in operational planning for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen branch is called. Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other al-Qaida leaders, in al-Qaida strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.
In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.
Al-Awlaki also exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.
Al-Awlaki has said he didn't tell Hasan to carry out the shootings, but he later praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site for killing American soldiers who would be heading for Afghanistan or Iraq to fight Muslims. The cleric similarly said Abdulmutallab was his "student" but said he never told him to carry out the airline attack.
In a statement, the Yemeni government said al-Awlaki was "targeted and killed" 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the town of Khashef in the Province of al-Jawf. The town is located 87 miles (140 kilometers) east of the capital Sanaa.
The statement says the operation was launched on Friday around 9:55 a.m. It gave no other details[AP]
Martin Luther's thoughts on disease
On sickness, and of the causes thereof
DCCXXXIV
When young children cry lustily, they grow well and rapidly, for through crying, the members and veins are stretched out, which have no other exercise.
DCCXXXV
A question was put to Luther: How these two sentences in Scripture might be reconciled together; first, concerning the sick of the palsy, where Christ says: “Son be of good cheer, they sins be forgiven thee.” Where Christ intimates that sin was the cause of palsy, and of every sickness. Second, touching him that was born blind, where John says: “That neither he nor his parents had sinned.” Luther answered: In these words Christ testifies that the blind had not sinned, and sin is not the cause of blindness, for only active sins, which one commits personally, are the cause of sicknesses and plagues, not original sin; therefore the sins which the sick of the palsy himself committed were the cause of the palsy, whereas original sin was not the cause of the blindness of him that was born blind, or all people must be born blind, or be sick of palsy.
DCCXXXVI
Experience has proved the toad to be endowed with valuable qualities. If you run a stick through three toads, and, after having dried them in the sun, apply them to all pestilent tumor, they draw out all the poison, and the malady will disappear.
DCCXXXVII
The cramp is the lightest sickness, and I believe the falling sickness a piece of the cramp, the one in the head, the other in the feet and legs; when the person feeling either moves quickly, or runs, it vanishes.
DCCXXXVIII
Sleep is a most useful and most salutary operation of nature. Scarcely any minor annoyance angers me more than the being suddenly awakened out of a pleasant slumber. I understand that in Italy they torture poor people by depriving them of sleep. ‘Tis a torture that cannot long be endured.
DCCXXXIX
The physicians in sickness consider only of what natural causes the malady preceeds, and this they cure, or not, with their physic. But they see not that often the devil casts a sickness upon one without any natural causes. A higher physic must be required to resist the devil’s diseases; namely, faith and prayer, which physic may be fetched out of God’s Word. The 31st Psalm is good thereunto, where David says: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” This passage I learned, in my sickness, to correct; in first translation, I applied it only to the hour of death; but it should be said: My health, my happiness, my life, misfortune, sickness, death, etc., stand all in thy hands. Experience testifies this; for when we think, now we will be joyful and merry, easy and healthy, God soon sends what makes us quite the contrary.
When I was ill at Schmalcalden, the physicians made me take as much medicine as though I had been a great bull. Alack for him that depends upon the aid of physic. I do not deny that medicine is a gift of God, nor do I refuse to acknowledge science in the skill of many physicians; but, take the best of them, how far are they from perfection? A sound regimen produces excellent effects. When I feel indisposed, by observing a strict diet and going to bed early, I generally manage to get round again, that is, if I can keep my mind tolerably at rest. I have no objection to the doctors acting upon certain theories, but, at the same time, they must not expect us to be the slaves of their fancies. We find Avicenna and Galen, living in other times and in other countries, prescribing wholly different remedies for the same disorders. I won’t pin my faith to any of them, ancient or modern. On the other hand, nothing can well be more deplorable than the proceeding of those fellows, ignorant as they are complaisant, who let their patients follow exactly their own fancies; ‘tis these wretches who more especially people the graveyards. Able, cautious, and experienced physicians, are gifts of God. They are the ministers of nature, to whom human life is confided; but a moment’s negligence may ruin every thing. No physician should take a single step, but in humility and the fear of God; they who are without the fear of God are mere homicides. I expect that exercise and change of air do more good than all their purgings and bleedings; but when we do employ medical remedies, we should be careful to do so under the advice of a judicious physician. See what happened to Peter Lupinus, who died from taking internally a mixture designed for external application. I remember hearing of a great lawsuit, arising out of a dose of appium being given instead of a dose of opium.
‘Tis a curious thing that certain remedies, which, applied by princes and great lords, are efficacious and curative, are wholly powerless when administered by a physician. I have heard that the electors of Saxony, John and Frederick, have a water, which cures diseases of the eye, when they themselves apply it, whether the disorder arise from heat or from cold; but ‘tis quite useless when administered by a physician. So in spiritual matters, a preacher has more unction, and produces more effect upon the conscience than can a layman.[1]
Thursday, September 29, 2011
White House Condemns Possible Execution of Iranian Pastor
"Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people," the statement released by the White House read. "That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran's own international obligations. A decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian authorities' utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran's continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens. We call upon the Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion."
Attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told The Associated Press on Thursday that his client has appeared before the appeals court over the past four days and expects a ruling by the end of next week. Dadkhah said he believes there's a "95 percent chance" of acquittal for Nadarkhani.
Dadkhah said neither Iranian law nor clerics have ever stipulated the death penalty as punishment for converting from Islam to Christianity.[FOXNews]
Langworthy indicted
I will continue to post updates on the case. My summary and updates can be found here [1] [2] & [3]
Former Clinton High choir teacher John Langworthy has been indicted on eight felony counts of gratification of lust in Hinds County, prosecutors say.
The Clinton resident was served with the indictment Wednesday, said Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride.
Langworthy, 49, the married father of two girls, is accused of befriending boys at two Jackson Baptist churches more than two decades ago, then sexually abusing them.
Police and prosecutors say the alleged abuses occurred in Jackson and Clinton, involve a total five boys ages 10-13 at the time, and occurred between 1980 and 1984.[4]
My Oldest Son is Five
I wrote the following, 9/30/06, the day after my first son was born.
Elijah Nathaniel Autry was born yesterday 7lb 10oz 20 inches. My wife is a trooper. She went through 20 hours of labor and a c-section. C-sections are not all bad. They gave me my boy, whom I love dearly and granted him the ablity to kill a Shakespearean villain.
Elijah Nathaniel Autry was born yesterday 7lb 10oz 20 inches. My wife is a trooper. She went through 20 hours of labor and a c-section. C-sections are not all bad. They gave me my boy, whom I love dearly and granted him the ablity to kill a Shakespearean villain.
MACBETH
Thou losest labour: (5.8.8)As easy mayst thou the intrenchant airWith thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, (5.8.12)To one of woman born.
MACDUFF
Despair thy charm; (5.8.13)And let the angel whom thou still hast servedTell thee, Macduff was from his mother's wombUntimely ripp'd. (5.8.16)
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Most Unmarried Evangelicals are not Virgins
While the study’s primary report did not explore religion, some additional analysis focusing on sexual activity and religious identification yielded this result: 80 percent of unmarried evangelical young adults (18 to 29) said that they have had sex - slightly less than 88 percent of unmarried adults, according to the teen pregnancy prevention organization.It is a little more difficult today to remain sexually non-active. People are getting married at later ages.
Scot McKnight, author of “The Jesus Creed,” and "One.Faith: Jesus Calls, We Follow," acknowledges that young, single Christians face temptations that their counterparts in the biblical age didn’t face.
He tells Relevant:
Sociologically speaking, the one big difference – and it’s monstrous – between the biblical teaching and our culture is the arranged marriages of very young people. If you get married when you’re 13, you don’t have 15 years of temptation.
So what should a Christian parent or youth pastor do? How do they convince more young Christians to wait until marriage, or should they stop even trying?[CNN]
Abstinence Only Education is neutrally effective except in one study
Abstinence Only Education is as effective as Sex Ed, but it costs extra money.
Researchers found no evidence that these abstinence-only programs increased rates of sexual abstinence.
The study also showed that the students participating in these abstinence-only programs had a similar number of sexual partners as their peers not in the programs, and that the age of first sex was similar for both groups too.
"The basic takeaway message is that there are no differences between the two groups on any behavioral outcomes," says lead study author Christopher Trenholm, a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research.[1]One program however was significantly effective, but it did not mention marriage as the goal of abstinence.
This study in particular is looking at one particular intervention. You can't take this study and say, see, abstinence until marriage works because this is not an abstinence-until-marriage program.[2]
FLULAVAL has been tested and does work
This indication is based on immune response elicited by FLULAVAL, and there have been no controlled trials adequately demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination with FLULAVAL. (1, 14)[1]What this means is that the vaccine will generally give you the proper antibodies against the flu, but they have been unable to prove that it will decrease your risk of getting the flu. One should equal the other, but in medicine they have a greater burden of proof. In a trial, more people contracted the flu with the placebo than with the vaccine. Still they have not run the experiment to prove that you are less likely to get the flu or at least they have not put the experiment on the fold out.
Iranian Pastor Faces Execution for Refusing to Recant Christian Faith
An Iranian pastor who has refused to renounce his Christian faith faces execution as early as Wednesday after his sentence was upheld by an Iranian court.
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who maintains he has never been a Muslim as an adult, has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ, the 11th branch of Iran's Gilan Provincial Court ruled. Iran's Supreme Court had ordered the trial court to determine whether Nadarkhani had been a Muslim prior to converting toChristianity.
The judges, according to the American Center for Law & Justice, demanded that Nadarkhani, 34, recant his Christian faith before submission of evidence. Though the judgment runs against current Iranian and international laws and is not codified in Iranian penal code, the judge stated that the court must uphold the decision of the 27th Branch of the Supreme Court in Qom.
When asked to repent, Nadarkhani stated: "Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?"
"To the religion of your ancestors, Islam," the judge replied, according to the American Center for Law & Justice.
"I cannot," Nadarkhani said.
Nadarkhani is the latest Christian cleric to be imprisoned in Iran for his religious beliefs. According to Elam Ministries, a United Kingdom-based organization that serves Christian churches in Iran, there was a significant increase in the number of Christians arrested solely for practicing their faith between June 2010 and January 2011. A total of 202 arrests occurred during that six-month period, including 33 people who remained in prison as of January, Elam reported.
An Assyrian evangelical pastor, Rev. Wilson Issavi, was imprisoned for 54 days for allegedly converting Muslims prior to his release in March 2010, Elam officials told FoxNews.com.
Nadarkhani, a pastor in the 400-member Church of Iran, has been held in that country's Gilan Province since October 2009, after he protested to local education authorities that his son was forced to read from the Koran at school. His wife, Fatemeh Pasandideh, was also arrested in June 2010 in an apparent attempt to pressure him to renounce his faith. She was released in October 2010, according to Amnesty International.
Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for apostasy last September based on religious writings by Iranian clerics, including Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite the fact that there is no offense of "apostasy" in the nation's penal code, Amnesty International reports.
In June, the Supreme Court of Iran ruled that a lower court should re-examine procedural flaws in the case, giving local judges the power to decide whether to release, execute or retry Nadarkhani. The verdict, according to Amnesty International, includes a provision for the sentence to be overturned should Nadarkhani renounce his faith.
Elise Auerbach, an Iranian analyst for Amnesty International USA, told FoxNews.com that an execution for apostasy has not been carried out in Iran since 1990. Nadarkhani's sentence is a "clear violation of international law," she said.
"The key is to keep up the pressure and to publicize the story because it obviously outrages most people," Auerbach said. "It's part of the pattern of persecution based on religion in Iran."
Kiri Kankhwende, a spokeswoman for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization that specializes in religious freedom, told FoxNews.com that Nadarkhani was asked for the fourth time to renounce his faith during a hearing early Wednesday and he denied that request.
"We're waiting to hear the final outcome," she told FoxNews.com. "We're still waiting to hear what they've decided."
Kankhwende said Nadarkhani could be executed Wednesday or Thursday.
"Iran is unpredictable," she said. "We can't say when it might happen. It's a very real threat, but we can't say when exactly."
Officials at the U.S. State Department declined to comment when reached on Wednesday.Attempts to reach his attorney, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, were not successful.
House Speaker John Boehner said Nadarkhani's case is "distressing for people of every country and creed," according to a statement released on Wednesday.
"While Iran's government claims to promote tolerance, it continues to imprison many of its people because of their faith," the statement read. "This goes beyond the law to an issue of fundamental respect for human dignity. I urge Iran's leaders to abandon this dark path, spare [Nadarkhani's] life, and grant him a full and unconditional release."
Father Jonathan Morris, a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of New York and an analyst for Fox News Channel, said Nadarkhani's case is "unmistakable evidence" that Iran is executing Christians simply because they refuse to become Muslims.
Morris continued: "Will President Obama, and the free world, allow the United Nations to continue in its cowardly silence on this matter?"
Read more: [FOXNews]
Iranian pastor refuses to recant, could be executed
TEHRAN (BP) -- A Christian pastor in Iran has twice refused to recant his faith in court and could be executed within days, which would make him the first since 1990 to be put to death by the government for apostasy.
Yousef Nadarkhani, who leads a 400-person house church movement, refused in court on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 to recant Christianity and was scheduled to get two more chances on Sept. 27 and Sept. 28, according to the British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which monitors religious freedom.
If he refuses the next two times to recant, he will be executed, CSW reported.
Unlike the case of the two American hikers who were freed, Nadarkhani's case has yet to receive widespread worldwide attention, although the Christian community has followed it since his arrest in 2009.
"The American interfaith delegation ... who made headlines when they traveled to Tehran and secured the release of the two American hikers last week should pack their bags again," Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center on Religious Freedom and a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, wrote Sept. 26. "They need to make a return trip. And they better hurry."
Nadarkhani seemed to have a sliver of hope earlier this year when the Iranian Supreme Court ordered a lower court to examine whether he was ever a Muslim -- a fact essential to determine whether he left Islam for Christianity. But that lower court in Rasht, Iran, found that although Nadarkhani was never a practicing Muslim "he remains guilty of apostasy because he has Muslim ancestry," CSW reported.
Advocates familiar with Nadarkhani's case said conditions of his imprisonment have varied from solitary confinement to being allowed visits from family members and his attorney. Jason DeMars, president of Present Truth Ministries, a group that works with Christians in Iran, said officials have repeatedly used pressure tactics to force Nadarkhani to become a Muslim, including threats to seize his children and arresting his wife on apostasy charges. During June 2010, officials found his wife, Fatemah Pasindedih, guilty of the charges, but her conviction was stricken on appeal, and she was released in October.
Nadarkhani has had run-ins with Iranian officials before. In December 2006, he was arrested on other apostasy-related charges and held for two weeks. Officials have targeted Nadarkhani, DeMars said, because he leads a house church movement.
There is no Iranian criminal statute requiring the execution of those who abandon Islam.
According to DeMars, the judges who issued the ruling appear to be relying on at least one fatwa, or religious edict, by the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and on edicts issued by Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, a current religious leader in Iran. The edicts are based upon Shiite interpretations of the Quran and Hadith, a written record of the sayings and actions of Muhammad.
The last person to be executed for "apostasy" in Iran was Hossein Soodmand, who was hanged on Dec. 3, 1990. Soodmand's case has parallels with Nadarkhani's. Soodmand also was a pastor, and he also became a Christian as a teenager. Soodmand however, believed in the Islamic religion as a child.
[Baptist Press]
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The English Longbow
But I still wish, with you, that pikes could be introduced, and I would add bows and arrows. These were good weapons, not wisely laid aside;
1st. Because a man may shoot as truly with a bow as with a common musket.
2dly. He can discharge four arrows in the time of charging and discharging one bullet.
3dly. His object is not taken from his view by the suioke of his own side.
4thly. A flight of arrows, seen coming upon them, terrifies and disturbs the enemies' attention to their business.
5thly. An arrow striking in any part ol a man puts him hors du combat till it is extracted.
6thly. Bows and arrows are more easily provided everywhere than muskets and ammunition.
Polydore Virgil, speaking of one of our battles agamst the French in Edward the Third's reign, mentions the great confusion the enemy was thrown into, sagittarurn nube, from the English; and concludes, Est res profecto dictu mirabilis, ut lantus ac potens exercitus a solis fere Anglicis sagittariis victus fuerit; adeo Anglus est sagittipotens, el id genus armornm valet. If so much execution was done by arrows when men wore some defensive armour, how much more might be done now that it is out of use.
~ Benjamin Franklin to Charles Lee, February 11, 1776[1]
JIM: I was particularly taken with the Archer series and the quality of the long bow as like this early strategic weapon, practically, and the cottage industry of providing arrows for the archers and weaving it in. I believe that's a series that you weave in with the "Grail Quest," as well.
Mr. CORNWELL: That's right. Yeah. Well - and the long bow is absolutely extraordinary. Its another appeal of the "Agincourt" book. I mean, if you think that the guys at "Agincourt" - there were probably 5,000 English archers. They probably took something like a million arrows on that expedition. When the French were actually advancing, when the first French line was advancing - and they probably took about seven to eight minutes to actually cross that muddy field - they were being hit by a thousand arrows a second.
CONAN: These were the (unintelligible)...
Mr. CORNWELL: Ben Franklin...
CONAN: ...after the crossbowmen?
Mr. CORNWELL: Yeah. Well, the cross - the English didn't use the crossbow, and the French never deployed their crossbowmen, which was another reason they lost. I mean, Ben Franklin - who was absolutely no idiot - said that if only the American rebels could be armed with a long bow, they would have won the revolution in one year. And the duke of Wellington actually enquired of London whether it was possible to raise a corps of longbowmen to fight against Napoleon.
Well, the truth was they couldn't, because it took about 10 years to make an archer to become as strong as you needed to be to pull that weapon, and also to learn how to aim it, which is very, very difficult. So it was an extraordinarily difficult weapon to master. And curiously, the only place that seems to have mastered it ever was in the British Isles. The French tried to, and they just never got to it.
CONAN: Jim, thanks for the call.
JIM: I remember as a - early watching movies years ago, I saw Thomas Gustain's(ph) "The Name of the Rose," and there's a famous scene in there where a longbowman takes on a Mongol archer with a composite bow...
CONAN: Composite bow, yes.
JIM: ...and it's an amazing series of, you know, scenes as he competes and he just keeps putting the target farther and farther away, and had an incredible range. Well, thank you very much.[NPR]
Longbow: Accuracy:
For its day the longbow possessed both long range and accuracy, though seldom both at once. Scholars estimate the longbow's range at between 180 to 270 yards. It is unlikely however, that accuracy could be ensured beyond 75-80 yards. At longer ranges, the preferred tactic to unleash volleys of arrows at masses of enemy troops. During the 14th and 15th centuries, English archers were expected to shoot ten "aimed" shots per minute during battle. A skilled archer would be capable of around twenty shots. As the typical archer was provided with 60-72 arrows, this permitted three to six minutes of continuous fire.
Longbow: Tactics:
Though deadly from a distance, archers were vulnerable, particularly to cavalry, at close range as they lacked the armor and weapons of the infantry. As such, longbow equipped archers were frequently positioned behind field fortifications or physical barriers, such as swamps, which could afford protection against attack. On the battlefield, longbowmen were frequently found in an enfilade formation on the flanks of English armies. By massing their archers, the English would unleash a "cloud of arrows" on the enemy as they advanced which would strike down soldiers and unhorse armored knights.
To make the weapon more effective, several specialized arrows were developed. These included arrows with heavy bodkin (chisel) heads which were designed to penetrate chain mail and other light armor. While less effective against plate armor, they generally were able to pierce the lighter armor on knight's mount, unhorsing him and forcing him to fight on foot. To speed up their rate of fire in battle, archers would remove their arrows from their quiver and stick them in the ground at their feet. This permitted a smoother motion to reload after each arrow.
Longbow: Training:
Though an effective weapon, the longbow required extensive training to use effectively. To make sure that deep pool of archers always existed in England, the population, both rich and poor, were encouraged to hone their skills. This was furthered by the government through edicts such King Edward I's ban on sports on Sunday which was designed to ensure that his people practiced archery. As the draw force on the longbow was a hefty 160–180 lbf, archers in training worked their way up to the weapon. The level of training required to be an effective archer discouraged other nations from adopting the weapon.
Longbow: Usage:
Rising to prominence during the reign of King Edward I (r. 1272–1307), the longbow became a defining feature of English armies for the next three centuries. During this period, the weapon aided in winning victories on the Continent and in Scotland, such as Falkirk(1298). It was during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) that the longbow became legend after it played a key role in securing the great English victories at Crécy (1346),Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415). It was, however, the weakness of the archers, which cost the English when they were defeated at Patay in (1429).
Beginning in the 1350s, England began to suffer a shortage of yew from which to make bow staves. After expanding the harvest, the Statute of Westminster was passed in 1470, which required each ship trading in English ports to pay four bow staves for each ton of goods imported. This was later expanded to ten bow staves per ton. During the 16th century, bows began to be replaced by firearms. While their rate of fire was slower, firearms required much less training and permitted leaders to quickly raise effective armies.
Though the longbow was being phased out, it remained in service through the 1640s and was used by Royalist armies during the English Civil War. Its last use in battle is believed to have been at Bridgnorth in October 1642. While England was the only nation to employ the weapon in large numbers, longbow-equipped mercenary companies were used throughout Europe and saw extensive service in Italy.[About.com]
The Death of Edward II
According to accepted belief, Edward was murdered in a bestial manner on the orders of Mortimer and Isabella on around 11th October, 1327. A red hot poker was inserted into his entrails by means of a horn, to leave no outward marks on his body. The people of Berkeley were said to have heard the agonised screams of the dying king outside the castle. This acount of how Edward met his death is not however, corroborated by any contemporary source and none of the directly contemporary chroniclers recorded with certainty how Edward II met his end, often citing suffocation or strangulation as the likely cause. The accepted version of Edward's horrific murder was first made public in the mid 1330's.[1]
Solomon's undeserved favor
“Now, my son, may the Lord be with you! May you succeed and build a temple for the Lord your God, just as he announced you would. Only may the Lord give you insight and understanding when he places you in charge of Israel, so you may obey the law of the Lord your God. Then you will succeed, if you carefully obey the rules and regulations which the Lord ordered Moses to give to Israel. Be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! ~ 1 Chronicles 22:11-13David instructs his son that if he obeys the Old Testament Law, he will succeed. God gives him the same instruction.
You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently, just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’Well, Solomon does not obey God's rules and regulations. However, he still continued to prosper.
“But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, and decide to serve and worship other gods, then I will remove Israel from the land I have given them, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, and Israel will be mocked and ridiculed among all the nations. This temple will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’ Others will then answer, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their ancestors out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. That is why the Lord has brought all this disaster down on them.’” ~ 1 Kings 9:4-9
Solomon did evil in theLord’s sight; he did not remain loyal to the Lord, like his father David had. Furthermore, on the hill east of Jerusalem Solomon built a high place for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. He built high places for all his foreign wives so they could burn incense and make sacrifices to their gods.
TheLord was angry with Solomon because he had shifted his allegiance away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him on two occasions and had warned him about this very thing, so that he would not follow other gods. But he did not obey the Lord’s command. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you insist on doing these things and have not kept the covenantal rules I gave you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. However, for your father David’s sake I will not do this while you are alive. I will tear it away from your son’s hand instead. But I will not tear away the entire kingdom; I will leave your son one tribe for my servant David’s sake and for the sake of my chosen city Jerusalem.” ~ 1 Kings 11:6-13
Saudi woman to receive ten lashes for driving?
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers.
The woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July.
Women2drive, which campaigns for women to be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, says she has already lodged an appeal.
In recent months, scores of women have driven vehicles in Saudi cities in an effort to put pressure on the monarchy to change the law.
The sentence comes two days after the Saudi leader King Abdullah announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015.
Two other women are due to appear in court later this year on similar charges, correspondents say.[BBC]
Henry II's Penance
On the death of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry II decided to appoint Thomas Beckett to the position. He assumed that Thomas would make an amenable Archbishop through whom he could gain control of the churches legal system. Beckett, however, was unwilling to oblige and on his appointment resigned the Chancellorship. Henry flew into a furious rage. Beckett, undeterred, then entered into disagreement with the king regarding the rights of church and state when he prevented a cleric found guilty of rape and murder from recieving punishment in the lay court....
....Disputes again arose between them over similar issues and Henry, exasperated and enraged at Beckett's intransigence, (which matched his own ) uttered those final, fatal words "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?". Four knights, taking him at his word, proceeded to England. They rode to Canterbury where they confronted the Archbishop in the Cathedral calling him a traitor, they attempted to drag him out of the building. Thomas refused to leave and inviting martyrdom, declared himself as "No traitor but a priest of God." When one of the knights struck him on the head with his sword the others joined in and Thomas fell to the Cathedral floor having suffered fatal head injuries.
Europe was a-buzz with the scandal, Henry's fury subsided into grief. England fell under threat of excommunication. In order to weather the storm, the King did public penance for his part in the affair, walking barefoot into Canterbury Cathedral, where he allowed the monks to scourge him as a sign of contrite penance.[1]
Europe was a-buzz with the scandal, Henry's fury subsided into grief. England fell under threat of excommunication. In order to weather the storm, the King did public penance for his part in the affair, walking barefoot into Canterbury Cathedral, where he allowed the monks to scourge him as a sign of contrite penance.[1]
Oh that King John...
In 1205 he [King John] disputed the pope's choice of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, and Pope Innocent III placed England under an interdict, suspending all religious services, including baptisms, marriages, and burials. John retaliated by seizing church revenues, and was excommunicated. Eventually, John submitted, accepting the papal nominee, and agreed to hold the kingdom as a fief of the papacy; an annual monetary tribute was paid to the popes for the next 150 years by successive English monarchs. In 1215 he John meets the English barons at Runnymede, and seals the Magna Carta.[1]In 1215, John appealed to the Pope and the Pope annulled the Magna Carta. In 1216, the barons sought French aid in their fight against John. Prince Louis of France landed in England and captured the Tower of London.
Saul, David, & Amalekites
The Amalekite curses:
We all know the story of Saul and the Amalekites. Saul was sent to destroy the city of Amalek with these instructions.
TheLord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in the book, and rehearse it in Joshua’s hearing; for I will surely wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built an altar, and he called it “The Lord is my Banner,” for he said, “For a hand was lifted up to the throne of the Lord – that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” ~ Exodus 17:14-16
Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your way from Egypt, how they met you along the way and cut off all your stragglers in the rear of the march when you were exhausted and tired; they were unafraid of God. So when theDepending on how you date the Exodus the Amalekite curse was given either in the 1400's or the 1200's. 400-200 years later Saul is given the order to execute the Bronze Age Amalekite curse in the Iron Age 1000's.Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he is giving you as an inheritance, you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven – do not forget! ~ Deuteronomy 25:17-19
We all know the story of Saul and the Amalekites. Saul was sent to destroy the city of Amalek with these instructions.
So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare them. Put them to death – man, woman, child, [nursing] infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike. ~ 1 Samuel 15:3
However, Saul and the army spared Agag, along with the best of the flock, the cattle, the fatlings, and the lambs, as well as everything else that was of value. They were not willing to slaughter them. But they did slaughter everything that was despised and worthless. ~ 1 Samuel 15:9As we all know Saul killed the women, children, and infants. He killed all the men, but one. He spared King Agag, the oxen, sheep, and possibly the camels and the donkeys. Due to the bleating sheep this story is taught to toddlers and teenagers as a warning to what happens when you kill the nursing infants and not the sheep. God demands total obedience.
When David would attack a district, he would leave neither man nor woman alive. He would take sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing and would then go back to Achish. ~ 1 Samuel 27:9When the Amalekites raided David's home at Ziklag they spared everyone.
They took captive the women who were in it, from the youngest to the oldest, but they did not kill anyone. They simply carried them off and went on their way. When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned. Their wives, sons, and daughters had been taken captive. ~ 1 Samuel 30:2-3Notice that David kills the men, women, and presumably the children, but spares the sheep, cattle, donkeys and camels. I really had no real point here. I just found the parallels between the two stories interesting in how both seemed to execute the Amalekite curse. David receiving no prohibition freely took the livestock of the Amalekite towns that he conquered. Also, I would note that David killed more women and children than giants. A man after God's own heart, he still was a product of his age that valued enemy livestock more than human life.
1863 The Proposal to add Jesus to the Constitution
AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION.
A Number of ministers and members, representing different evangelical denominations of Christians in the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, met, pursuant to a call issued by a preliminary meeting held in the XL P. Publication Office, on the 8th of May, at 2 o'clock, P. M., in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. The Rev. John T. Pressly, D. D., was called to the chair, and Eev. John Douglas, D. D., appointed Secretary. The meeting was opened with praj'er by the Rev. Thomas Sproull, D. D.
The Chairman stated the object of the meeting to be, to recommend to the respective Supreme Judicatories of the Church, about to meet, to appoint delegates to a National Convention, to be held sometime during the summer, whose business it shall be to memorialize and urge upon Congress the importance of having the National Constitution so amended as to embody a more distinct recognition of Almighty God, the Headship of Christ over the nations of the earth, and the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures.
On motion, a committee, consisting of Rev. S. T. Stewart, Dr. Sproull and John Alexander, Esq., was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the meeting.
During the absence of the committee, remarks were made by the Chairman, Dr. Aiken, of Xenia, Ohio, and others. The committee then returned and made their report as follows:
That the committee on resolutions he requested to have the report printed, and a copy sent to each pulpit in the two cities, to be read on next Sabbath, in connection with the call for the meeting.
The meeting then adjourned to meet in the same place, Monday morning, at 10 o'clock.
The meeting re-assembled on Monday morning at 10 o'clock, and was opened with prayer by the chairman, Dr. Pressly. The Secretary, Dr. Douglas, read the minutes of the former meeting, which were approved. The chairman the stated that then question before the meeting was the adoption of the proposed amendment to the Constitution. The subject was discussed at some length by Dr. Sproull, Dr. Wilson, Dr. Douglas, Dr. Jacobus, Dr. Gracey, and others. The paragraph containing the proposed amendment was amended as follows:
“The Amendment” The Reformed Presbyterian and the Covenanter Combined Series Vol I PRINTED BT W. S. PITTSBURGH: .. HAVEN, CORNER OE WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 1863.
[Retrieved via Google Books. (The easiest way to find a 147 year old journal on a Friday night.)][1]
The Chairman stated the object of the meeting to be, to recommend to the respective Supreme Judicatories of the Church, about to meet, to appoint delegates to a National Convention, to be held sometime during the summer, whose business it shall be to memorialize and urge upon Congress the importance of having the National Constitution so amended as to embody a more distinct recognition of Almighty God, the Headship of Christ over the nations of the earth, and the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures.
On motion, a committee, consisting of Rev. S. T. Stewart, Dr. Sproull and John Alexander, Esq., was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the meeting.
During the absence of the committee, remarks were made by the Chairman, Dr. Aiken, of Xenia, Ohio, and others. The committee then returned and made their report as follows:
Now, that God is pouring forth the vials of his wrath upon us as a nation, it seems highly proper that the different tribes of his people should assemble and inquire,
"Wherefore hidest thou thyselfThe patriots of the nation have nobly laid aside party distinctions, and shoulder to shoulder they stand together, and together pour out their heart's blood for the salvation of our Government.
When times so troublous are?"
The wealth of the nation is offered with a generosity that commands the admiration of the world, for the preservation of the glorious Union. The political element, also, appears to be making hopeful progress.
Is it not, then, proper that the religious element of the nation should put forth more direct effort to promote the glory of God and the good of the nation ?
The signal favor of Almighty God to our nation was fully acknowledged by our fathers in many public acts, and the notable declaration of " reliance on the aid of Divine Providence," uttered in our immortal "Declaration of Independence," proves the existence of a religious sentiment in the nation when in adversity.
But alas! for human frailty and ingratitude! When the National Independence had, by the blessing of God, been secured, and it might reasonably have been expected that, by common consent, "Glory to God" and "Equal rights to man" would have been indelibly stamped upon our Constitution, a blow was struck at the nation's peace by the omission, in that otherwise noble instrument, of any direct recognition of God or his authority, and by the toleration of human slavery.
From that day the nation has been demoralized by the promulgation of an instrument, as the paramount law, far beneath the Christian sentiment of the nation.
These two defects, in our otherwise inimitable constitution, we believe to be the plague spots on the heart of our nation, corrupting its vital fountains and threatening its dissolution.
The enlightened Christian patriot has long deplored these defects, knowing thatthe forbearance of God could not endure forever, but being early schooled toabhor any contact between Church and State, the Christian element of our nation has stood aloof until the sentiment has become too common both in the Church and in the State, that "religion has nothing to do with politics;" and the sentiment that the law of God is of higher authority than the constitution, has been scoffed at and repudiated in the higher places of our nation.
It has been well said, that all bonds designed to bind mankind together without recognizing the claims of God on the conscience, are but "ropes.of sand." We, as a nation, have, in a good, degree, been without this common bond; and hence the seeds of insubordination and disunion which have grown and culminated in this wicked rebellion.
This, and the disregard of God's command—"Kiss ye the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little" —have left us to reap the fruits of our own doings, and God has risen in his anger and threatens to glorify his justice by our destruction as a nation.
Nothing remains for us but to repent and forsake our national sins, that we may, as a nation, live.
The emancipation policy of our government is an important step toward this; but the all important step—to amend the constitution—yet remains to be taken.On motion of Dr. Gracey, the report was received. Its consideration was postponed with the view of securing a larger meeting, some misunderstanding having arisen in regard to the time.
With the view of presenting the subject definitely before the Council, we suggest the following as a sample of what seems to us to be needed to be inserted in the preamble. The proposed amendments are in brackets :
We, the people of the United States, [recognizing the being and attributes of Almighty God, the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, the law of God as the paramount rule, and Jesus the Messiah, the Saviour and the Lord of all,] in order to form a more perfect union, &c. &c.1. We suggest that, the National Religious Council be held on the 4th of July next, in the city of ________ to adopt a proposed amendment.
2. We suggest that all evangelical denominations be invested to send
delegates to said Council.
3. We suggest that a committee be appointed to publish an address to the nation on this subject as soon as possible; and also to prepare a form of memorial to the Ecclesiastical Courts, to meet this spring, and to have the same presented to all such meetings throughout the nation.
That the committee on resolutions he requested to have the report printed, and a copy sent to each pulpit in the two cities, to be read on next Sabbath, in connection with the call for the meeting.
The meeting then adjourned to meet in the same place, Monday morning, at 10 o'clock.
The meeting re-assembled on Monday morning at 10 o'clock, and was opened with prayer by the chairman, Dr. Pressly. The Secretary, Dr. Douglas, read the minutes of the former meeting, which were approved. The chairman the stated that then question before the meeting was the adoption of the proposed amendment to the Constitution. The subject was discussed at some length by Dr. Sproull, Dr. Wilson, Dr. Douglas, Dr. Jacobus, Dr. Gracey, and others. The paragraph containing the proposed amendment was amended as follows:
Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that an Amendment be adopted in substance as follows: We, the people of the United States [recognizing the being and attributes of Almighty God, the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, the law of God as the paramount rule, and Jesus the Messiah, the Saviour and the Lord of all,] in order to form, &c.The meeting recommended that a National Council be held in Pittsburgh on the 4th of July next, for the purpose of considering a proposed amendment; that all evangelical denominations send four delegates to the Council; and that a committee of five be appointed to extend an invitation to the various bodies of Christians throughout the land to attend said Council. The chairman appointed the following committee; Eev. Dr. Gracey, Rev. Dr. Douglas, Rev. Dr. Wilson, Rev. S. T. Stewart and Rev. W. J. Reid, after which the meeting adjourned.
“The Amendment” The Reformed Presbyterian and the Covenanter Combined Series Vol I PRINTED BT W. S. PITTSBURGH: .. HAVEN, CORNER OE WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 1863.
[Retrieved via Google Books. (The easiest way to find a 147 year old journal on a Friday night.)][1]
Pig Bladder Hormone Causes Soldier to Regrow Leg Muscle
Marine Isaias Hernandez lost 70 per cent of his right thigh muscles when an enemy mortar exploded as he tried to carry out repairs to a truck in Afghanistan.
With such severe muscle damage Hernandez would ordinarily have had his leg amputated.
But a re-think in the way soldiers are treated led to the wounded warrior being injected with a growth promoting substance extracted from pig bladders...
....The wounded Marine's recovery is particularly exciting for scientists as it involves the regeneration of skeletal muscle which ordinarily does not grow back.
The new treatment could in theory revolutionise how not just how soldiers are treated, but all potential amputees.
In preparation for the operation, corporal Hernandez was made to build up the remaining 30 per cent of muscle left on the damaged thigh.
Surgeons then sliced into the thigh, placing a thin slice of a substance called extracellular matrix.
The surgery is the result of a $70 million investment by the U.S. military into regenerative medicine research.
[Daily Mail]
Monday, September 26, 2011
OC Couple Threatened With $500-Per-Meeting Fines For Home Bible Study
An Orange County couple has been ordered to stop holding a Bible study in their home on the grounds that the meeting violates a city ordinance as a “church” and not as a private gathering.OK the issue
- The Fromms hold a Bible Study that meets regularly on Sunday Mornings and Thursday Nights.
- The Bible Study can include as many as 50 people.
- The Fromms do not think this is a "church", " just to be able to have friends over to read the Bible” (with folding chairs and traffic cones)
- The city defines a "church" as “a regular gathering of more than three people”.
- The city is requiring that this "church" according to local law get a conditional use permit which would require some if not all of the requirements on all local churches. Handicap access, environmental reports, and traffic reports are some of these requirements. I suspect that they also have regulations relating to fire codes.[1]
Honestly I think that this Bible Study is being a little disingenuous. When I have friends over I don't have folding chairs and traffic cones on hand. I do not have as many as fifty people over regularly twice a week, including Sunday mornings. This sounds like a church to me, but it does not matter what it sounds like to me. The city of San Juan Capistrano has given a definition albeit a strict one. A minimum quota of three people would stamp out a home bible study that did not involve meeting twice a week with folding chairs.
Now there was another case similar to this. In 2009, San Diego County tried to get a Pastor to apply for a permit for his 20 person a week bible study, because of parking issues.[4][2][3] More bullet points:
- Pastor David Jones is the Pastor of South Bay Community Church with hundreds of members.
- Pastor David Jones held a Bible Study in his home every Tuesday Night
- This Bible Study included an average of 15 people with six additional cars to the neighborhood.
- San Diego County defines a "religious assembly" as “religious services involving public assembly such as customarily occurs in synagogues, temples, and churches.”
Jones contended that his 15 people in his house did not count as a "religious assembly", after all he pastored a church. Ultimately the county agreed with him and rescinded their requirements. It did not help that their investigator asks some unconstitutional questions.
OK this is part land use issue and part religious freedom issue. As a land owner, you have a responsibility to those on your land beyond to a certain point. If you have hundreds of people, you may have a responsibility to install sprinklers. Their lives are partly your responsibility. How much is your responsibility is defined by your local, state, and federal laws. Fifty people is a lot of people for a twice a week gathering. This is the size of the congregations of most churches. The case in San Juan Capistrano is larger than the one in Bonita, San Diego County. I would tend to agree with San Juan that this family has certain responsibilities to their city and their "friends". However these laws across the country never had the house church movement in mind. Oops, I meant Home Bible Study.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
By Royal Decree Saudi Women Can Vote, but still can't drive...
By royal decree women can vote in the 2015 election, but they still cannot drive. They also still need permission from a male family member.
King Abdullah's reformist stance, especially in regard to women's rights, has been evident since he ascended the throne in 2005.
In his short speech on Sunday, interrupted by several standing ovations, he made this crystal-clear. Muslim women, he said, had given "opinions and advice since the era of Prophet Muhammad".
The king added: "Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior clerics... to involve women in the Shura Council as members."
The king said women's participation in the council would begin in the next session, in about 18 months' time.
In addition, he said women would "have the right to nominate themselves" as candidates in elections for municipal councils and to vote in those elections when they are held in four years' time.
Women, however, will not be allowed to vote in the current municipal council elections, which start on Thursday and will be held over several days. More than 5,000 men are competing as candidates in that poll.At least one Saudi woman is predicting that she will be allowed to drive in the next year.
Ms Fahad says the royal decree only brings closer the day when Saudi women will be able to drive, because it makes the ban even more untenable.
A Saudi woman, she observes, will soon be able to sit in the Shura, "but she can't drive her car?" However a royal decision on that, Ms Fahad believes, "will not take more than a year" to emerge.[BBC]
Saturday, September 24, 2011
FOX:Texas School Punishes Boy for Opposing Homosexuality
This is repugnant, but the school should be given credit for making the right decision in the end. You have free speech rights and religious rights in a classroom as long as it does not disrupt the class.
Dakota was in a German class at the high school when the conversation shifted to religion and homosexuality in Germany. At some point during the conversation, he turned to a friend and said that he was a Christian and “being a homosexual is wrong.”
“It wasn’t directed to anyone except my friend who was sitting behind me,” Dakota told Fox. “I guess [the teacher] heard me. He started yelling. He told me he was going to write me an infraction and send me to the office.”
Dakota was sentenced to one day in-school suspension – and two days of full suspension. His mother was flabbergasted, noting that her son had a spotless record, was an honor student, volunteered at his church and played on the school football team.
Officials at the high school did not return calls for comment. However, the Fort Worth Independent School District issued a statement that read:
“As a matter of course, Fort Worth ISD does not comment on specific employee or student-related issues. Suffice it to say that we are following district policy in our review of the circumstances and any resolution will likewise be in accordance with district policy.”After a meeting with Pope and her attorney, the school rescinded the two-day suspension so Dakota would be allowed to play in an upcoming football game.
“They’ve righted all the wrongs,” said Matt Krause, an attorney with the Liberty Counsel. “This should have no lasting effect on his academic or personal record going forward.”
Pope contacted the Liberty Counsel immediately after her son was punished.
“I told the school that he should never have been suspended for exercising his Constitutional rights,” Krause told Fox News Radio. “The principal is sincere in trying to do the right thing and hopefully they will tell the teacher, ‘Do not do that anymore.’ He won’t be pushing his agenda.” [FOXNews]
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