Friday, March 13, 2009

John Kinsman: Nation's food system nearly broke


John Kinsman: Nation's food system nearly broke

John Kinsman — 2/26/2009 12:30 pm

As our government enacts a stimulus package and President Barack Obama announces bold initiatives to stem home mortgage foreclosures, disaster threatens family farmers and their communities.

The government's response to plummeting commodity prices and tightening credit markets leads to the basic question: Who will produce our food? This is a worldwide crisis. U.S. policy and the demand for deregulation at all levels -- from food production to financial markets -- contribute greatly to the global collapse. The solution must be grounded in food sovereignty so that all farmers and their communities can regain control over their food supply. This response makes sense here in Wisconsin and was the global message from the 500+ farmer leaders at the Via Campesina conference in Mozambique in October.

Many U.S. farmers are going out of business because they receive prices equal to about one half their cost to produce our food. How long could any enterprise receiving half the amount of its input costs stay in business? As an example, dairy farmers in the Northeast and Midwest must be paid between 30 and 35 cents per pound for their milk to pay production costs and provide basic living expenses. Until 1980, farmers received a price equal to 80 percent of parity, meaning that farmers' purchasing power kept up with the rest of the economy. Unfortunately, a 1981 political decision discontinued parity, and today the dairy farmers' share is below 40 percent.

"Free trade" and other regressive agricultural policies have decimated farms. We are now a food deficit nation dependent on food imports, often of questionable quality.

Our food system is nearly broke, which is almost as serious as our country's financial meltdown. With fair farm policies, farmers would get fair prices that would not require higher consumers prices. The Canadian dairy pricing system is the best example that proves fair farmer prices can and often do bring lower consumer prices and a healthier rural economy. In addition, excessive middleman profits are taking advantage of both consumers and producers.

As more farmers face bankruptcy, we all face a food emergency. European farmers speak from thousands of years of experience on the importance of family farms when they warn us, "Any time a country neglects its family farm base and allows it to become financially bankrupt, the entire economy of that country will soon collapse. It may take generations to rebuild the farm economy and that of the country."

Despite the magnitude of this food emergency, the "farm crisis" does not appear in headlines, so politicians are not compelled to provide political or financial assistance to something that would likely fail to bring votes. As farmers, we are now only about 1 percent of the U.S. population, and have little power to expose and prevent our demise. However, our urban and rural friends could be vital voices and advocates.

Bailing out the financial giants will not solve the financial crisis in the country, but the right policies and stimulus dollars could prevent a severe food crisis by saving farmers and workers. Furthermore, farm income dollars remain in and multiply at least two to four times in the local economy.

Family farmers have proposed fair food and farm policies that can be implemented at a fraction of the present multibillion-dollar policies destroying us. As the Treasury Department develops plans to distribute the bailout funds, the National Family Farm Coalition and others urge it to require banks receiving funds to treat their borrowers fairly by providing debt restructuring as an alternate to home or farm foreclosure or bankruptcy.

Concerned citizens can call the White House, 202-456-1111, or your members of Congress, 202-224-3121, to urge them to support policies that enable farmers to earn a fair market price; request an emergency milk price at $17.50 per hundred weight; provide price stability through government grain reserves and effective supply management; support the TRADE Act to be reintroduced in Congress; increase direct and guaranteed loans to family farmers; and ensure that the food we raise can be marketed to local schools and institutions, providing a better food supply at a fair price. We need these immediate changes in our food and farm policy.

John Kinsman, a dairy farmer from La Valle, is president of Family Farm Defenders, based in Madison.


John Kinsman — 2/26/2009 12:30 pm



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Mountain Media Ministries Upcoming Seminars


Upcoming Seminar Trip Schedule



MMM is starting another cross-country seminar trip the end of February. So for your information, here is the schedule of confirmed locations where MMM is presenting Country Living Seminars:



March 14 & 15 - Scottsdale, AZ - Thunderbird SDA Church


March 21 - Casa Grande, AZ - Casa Grande SDA Church


March 22 - Phoenix, AZ - Glendale SDA Church


March 28 & 29 - Orlando, FL - South Orlando SDA Church


April 4 & 5 - Dalton, GA - Dalton SDA Church


April 7 & 8 - Bryant, AL - Floral Crest SDA Church


April 11 & 12 - Wheaton, MD - Wheaton SDA Church


April 18 & 19 - Alexandria, VA - CPC SDA Church


April 22 & 23 - Woodbury, NJ - Woodbury SDA Church


April 25 & 26 - Baltimore, MD - Liberty SDA Church


Source: http://mountainmediaministries.org/


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Vatican Paper Supports Islamic Finance...

Vatican Paper Supports Islamic Finance. France Wants Its Share of Sharia Banking

By Tiberge
Created 2009-03-12 10:52

In yet another act of conciliation on the part of Western religions towards Islam, the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano has voiced its approval of Islamic finance. The Vatican paper wrote that banks should look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis. “The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service,” the Osservatore Romano said. “Western banks could use tools such as the Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, as collateral”. Sukuk may be used to fund the “‘car industry or the next Olympic Games in London,” the article says.The Vatican article is only one of many articles that have recently appeared on the acceptance by Western governments and bankers of an Islamic financing system. More than accepting it, they seem to be welcoming it, though they are certainly being pressured into this by unnamed forces bowing to the dictates of Islam.


Last December, the French Senate looked at ways to eliminate legal hurdles, particularly levies, for Islamic financial services and products in France and the potential for listing companies on the Paris Stock Exchange. Senate sources said that this area of the financial market is worth from 500 to 600 billion dollars and could grow by an average 11 percent a year.French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has announced France’s intention to make Paris “the capital of Islamic finance” and announced several Islamic banks would open branches in the French capital in 2009.


This hearkens back to a video from November 26, 2008 that was posted at many French websites showing Madame Lagarde announcing with (according to some bloggers) visible embarrassment the decision to allow Islamic financing in France. Whether or not this move is constitutional is apparently not even an issue, since European countries change their laws to accommodate Islam. If the “sacred” law separating Church and State can be violated, any law can. The video, with its very soft audio, shows the minister in a strange garb, and struggling to present a happy countenance. There is no way of knowing if this is merely the quality of the video, or an indication of her emotional state. An article from Le Parisien dated November 27, 2008 provides the following information, in addition to the facts presented above:


A revolution in the banking world. After London, where the first Islamic bank opened its doors in September 2004, France could authorize banks respecting sharia law to open in 2009 (...) Hervé de Charette, president of the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce emphasizes that “importing Islamic banking into France would help the integration process”. The main obstacle: “Islamic banking arouses fear because it is associated, wrongly, with religious fundamentalism, even with the financing of terrorism,” deplores Elyès Jouini, professor of economics at the University of Paris. (...)

The world economic crisis has changed the ball game. From New York to Hong Kong, all the financial centers on the planet are grabbing the billions of dollars amassed by the oil-rich monarchies of the Gulf. To tap into this manna (...) is the stated goal of Christine Lagarde. “We are determined to make of Paris a great center for Islamic finance,” declared the Finance Minister as she inaugurated the second French forum on Islamic banking.

See also: Islamic Banking in Britain, 12 February 2007
First Sharia Bank in Switzerland, 8 October 2006
The Netherlands Want to Become Centre of Sharia Banking, 17 July 2007
Swiss Risk Losing Islamic Goldmine, 6 April 2008

Source URL:http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3819

New South Wales Bible Society's "Jesus. All about life" campaign Goes Statewide



From Christian B. Schäffler
Date Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:07:19 +0100


[APD] N.S.W. Bible Society's "Jesus. All about life" campaign Goes Statewide

New South Wales Bible Society's "Jesus. All about life" campaign Goes
Statewide

Macquarie Park, NSW/Australia, 11.03.2009/APD The Bible Society of New
South Wales campaign "Jesus. All about life" will now cover all of New South
Wales (NSW). It has already run successfully in Adelaide, Canberra and
Tasmania.

"Jesus. All about life" is a non-denominational, advertising-based,
mass-media campaign which aims to increase the general public's awareness of the person of Jesus, and what he said about life.

So far, it has the support of all the major denominations including the
Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Seventh-day Adventist Church, the
Australian Christian Churches including Hillsong and the Baptist Church of
NSW. This campaign is supported by local churches, who will run community,
cultural, and arts events that connect with the message of the campaign.

The crusade is to run during September and October this year and was to
include Sydney and surrounds, however it's now been decided to take it to
the whole of the state.

More than 330 churches across Sydney have already committed their support to the Bible Society's 'Jesus. All about life' campaign. In an amazing show of
denominational unity, 83 Seventh Day Adventist churches have registered,
alongside all of the other major denominations.

We are very enthusiastic about the Jesus All About Life Campaign and have
signed up all our congregations and schools," says President of the Greater
Sydney Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Pastor David Blanch.

"We love the message this campaign promotes in the community and are keen to do what we can as a denomination to promote the relevance of Jesus to
everyday life.

"We have a high regard for the work of the Bible Society and know that
working with them will be a positive experience for our congregations while
delivering an important message to the people of Sydney.

"As a denomination this campaign gives us a concerted focus on Jesus and
promotes synergy within our congregations and schools as we work together to lift Jesus up in our city."

All of Sydney's Christian churches are being urged to register their
interest now for the Bible Society's non-denominational multi-media
campaign.

Bible Society NSW CEO Daniel Willis says it will be a better use of
resources to have the campaign cover a wider area. "We have been working on plans for the Sydney campaign for over two years," Daniel said.

"Jesus. All about life" committees are already in place in the Hunter,
Wollongong and Central Coast regions, and we have spoken with churches in
both the north west and central west of NSW, so it makes sense to all work
together.

"The Sydney campaign is progressing well and has the support of the major
churches and denominations," said Daniel. "Whilst expanding the campaign
will be a challenge, we're confident "Jesus. All about life" will receive
the support of regional leaders and churches."

"I have seen how country churches sometimes struggle to make an impact in
their community. Being a part of the "Jesus. All about life" campaign, means
they will join with hundreds of other churches and thousands of Christians
as together we present the person of Jesus and what he said into our
society," said Daniel.

One of the most visible elements of the campaign so far has been the "Jesus.
All about life" V8 Ute and V8 Supercar driven by Andrew Fisher. "Andrew and
the Jesus Racing team are a major part of the Bible campaign," Daniel says.
"Jesus Racing has already made a major impact at cultural and community
programs across Australia."

Bible Society NSW, founded in 1817, is part of the worldwide fellowship of
the United Bible Societies (UBS). There are currently 135 Bible Societies
working in over 200 countries in the world.

>More information on the campaign in the Web:

>http://www.jesusallaboutlife.com.au/

>*********************

This article is also available on the Internet at:

>http://www.stanet.ch/APD/news/2094.html

>*********************

>Publisher/Editor:

>Adventist Press Service APD, P.O. Box 136,

>CH-4003 Basel/Switzerland

Fax 0041-61-261 61 18; E-Mail: APD@stanet.ch

Web Site: http://www.stanet.ch/APD


Source: http://www.wfn.org/2009/03/msg00099.html

The LORD also will be a refuge in times of trouble


Psalm 9


1I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

2I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

3When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

4For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

5Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.

6O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

7But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

8And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

9The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

10And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

11Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.

12When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.

13Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:

14That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.

15The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

16The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

17The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

19Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.

20Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

16 missing as helicopter ditches off Newfoundland


From Times Online
March 13, 2009
16 missing as helicopter ditches off Newfoundland


Times Online
Canadian rescuers are searching freezing Atlantic waters for 16 people missing after a helicopter heading to an oil platform ditched in the sea off Newfoundland.

Of the 18 people on board the Sikorsky-92 helicopter, one man was rescued and a body was recovered. The other 16 were missing 30 miles (48 km) out to sea, officials said.

Two empty life rafts were spotted in the water amid debris from the helicopter that was spread over a six mile area. Although there were no signs of survivors eight hours after the accident, which happened at 8 am local time on Thursday, rescuers said they still held out hope as the missing people were believed to be wearnig survival suits, which retain body warmth in frigid seas as well as acting as life vests.

"We'll continue to search until there is absolutely no chance that any survivors may be located," said Major Denis McGuire of Halifax's Rescue Coordination Center.

The heliocpter had reported mechanical problems and had turned around to return to its base in St Johns, Newfoundland, when it was forced to dtich, according to local media.Officials withCanada's Transportation Safety Board have begun an investigation into the incident.

The survival window is about 24 hours with the suits and water-activated locator beacons, he said.


Survivor Robert Dekcer was last night in critical but stable condition at St John's hospital.

Premier Danny Williams issued a statement today expressing condolences to the family and friends of the person who died in the tragic accident.

“I cannot begin to imagine the sorrow and despair of those who are left to mourn this incredible tragedy,” he said.

The crash came less than a month after a helicopter ferrying oil workers crashed into the North Sea off Scotland. All 18 on board were rescued after the aircraft landed upright a few hundred yards from the oil platform and was kept afloat by inflatable bags that deploy when the craft lands on water.
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Heed Wilkerson's warning



Heed Wilkerson's warning

Posted: March 10, 2009
3:02 pm Eastern

© 2009

Editor's note: The story in this column about Times Square Church making thousands of sandwiches just prior to 9/11 is false. Janet Porter confirmed the story with a church staff member as she wrote the column, but was given incorrect information. WorldNetDaily regrets the error.

When I was a kid, I read about David Wilkerson who took to Gospel to the gangs of New York. I even saw the movie "The Cross and the Switchblade" that was made about him. Many know about that, but most don't know what happened in his church just eight years ago.

In the fall of 2001, Pastor David Wilkerson, of Times Square Church in New York City, was warned by God that a calamity was coming. For six weeks they felt an intense burden and enormous heaviness. A critical need for intercession was so profound that Pastor Wilkerson canceled everything on the church calendar – mission's conferences, youth events and every guest speaker.

For six weeks, there wasn't a sermon. Instead, there was intercession for our nation with weeping and repentance. They knew something was coming and that something was bad. And that something was soon. So they prayed. And prayed … and prayed.

Then Wilkerson felt God telling him something that seemed rather bizarre. He felt God telling him to make sandwiches – lots of sandwiches. What were they for? Who would eat them? That part wasn't clear, but his church did what they believed God was telling them anyway.

And on the 10th of September they stayed up all night making hundreds and hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. By morning they had about 2,000 sandwiches. At 8:46 a.m. the first plane hit the World Trade Center and Times Square Church was ready to feed and minister to rescue workers and victims of our nation's worst attack.


Making sandwiches all night is a strange thing to do. If someone told me to stay up all night making sandwiches, I'd probably tell them they were crazy. But if David Wilkerson says he's heard something from God today, I think we'd be crazy not to listen.

He now says he feels the same thing he felt leading up to the attack by radical Islam. In an "URGENT MESSAGE" dated March 7, 2009, Wilkerson said:

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE – EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.
For 10 years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God's wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written:

… God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.

The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, "God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds. But they will say, It's hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart" (Jeremiah 18:11-12).

In Psalm 11:6, David warns, "Upon the wicked he will rain snares (coals of fire) … fire … burning wind … will be the portion of their cup." Why? David answered, "Because the Lord is righteous" (v. 7). This is a righteous judgment – just as in the judgments of Sodom and in Noah's generation.

WHAT SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS DO? WHAT ABOUT GOD'S PEOPLE?

First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a 30-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.

… I will behold our Lord on his throne, with his eye of tender, loving kindness watching over every step I take – trusting that he will deliver his people even through floods, fires, calamities, tests, trials of all kinds.

Note: I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off. I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.

Warren Buffett has said that our economy has "fallen off a cliff." With the election of the most pro-abortion president (and Congress) in history, there's no question that we deserve God's judgment.

Just yesterday, Barack Obama signed an executive order to use children for spare parts. So much for defending the "least of these," as he so often quoted during his campaign. Cannibalizing the weak to help the strong. And by the way, don't believe everything you hear in the news – Obama didn't say he was against cloning. He said he was against "reproductive" cloning. Killing a new life after cloning one is another matter entirely: the cowardice of Obama's "Brave New World."

The bottom line is that we are economically and morally bankrupt. And it's reported that Iran now has all they need to build nukes.

So, when the guy who made the 2,000 sandwiches on Sept. 10 warns us: "AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN," I think we would do well to heed it. And follow the words Wilkerson quotes from the prophet Jeremiah and "turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds."

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Cohen withdraws from Treasury consideration-source


Cohen withdraws from Treasury consideration-source
Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:23am IST

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - Prominent Wall Street lawyer H. Rodgin Cohen has withdrawn from consideration to become deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary, a Democratic source said on Thursday, dealing another setback to the department's efforts fill critical positions.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said vetting issues came up in the final stages of considering Cohen for the job.

Cohen, a partner at New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, has counseled nearly every major Wall Street financial institution during his career on mergers and acquisitions, regulatory matters and bank rescues and failures. (Reporting by Caren Bohan)

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Grieve not the Holy Spirit


And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption......Ephesians 4:30.

Grieving the Spirit of God


Grieving the Spirit of God

God never forsakes people or individuals until they forsake Him. Outward opposition will not cause the faith of God's people, who are keeping His commandments, to become dim. The neglect to bring purity and truth into practice will grieve the Spirit of God and weaken them because God is not in their midst to bless. Internal corruption will bring the denunciations of God upon this people as it did upon Jerusalem. Oh, let pleading voices, let earnest prayer be heard, that those who preach to others shall not themselves be castaways. My brethren, we know not what is before us, and our only safety is in following the Light of the world. God will work with us and for us if the sins which brought His wrath upon the old world, upon Sodom and Gomorrah and upon ancient Jerusalem, do not become our crime.

The least transgression of God's law brings guilt upon the transgressor, and without earnest repentance and forsaking of sin he will surely become an apostate.... Let us as a people, as far as possible, cleanse the camp of moral defilement and aggravating sins. When sin is making its march upon the people who claim to be elevating the moral standard of righteousness, how can we expect God to turn His power in our behalf and save us as a people that did righteousness? . . . If as a people we do not keep ourselves in the faith and not only advocate with pen and voice the commandments of God, but keep them every one, not violating a single precept knowingly, then weakness and ruin will come upon us. It is a work that we must attend to in every one of our churches. Each man must be a Christian. {2SM 378-379}

People Search Engines: They Know Your Dark Secrets…And Tell Anyone (PC World)



- Pandora on August 13, 2006; found that I had looked into purchasing a 4-foot iPod-compatible 3.5mm audio cable in October of 2007; and sleuthed out what my StumbleUpon user name is.Though only my musical taste was mildly incriminating, it was freaky to see what details popped up. (Do I want my hipster friends to know that I like Chris Martin and his melodic cohorts?) Read on to find out how deep these searches can go.]

People Search Engines: They Know Your Dark Secrets…And Tell Anyone (PC World)
Posted on Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:30PM EDT


I know things about my lawyer I absolutely should not know. He's 55 years old, listens to the music of the band Creed, and screams like a little girl when riding roller coasters. He also relaxes with New Age spa treatments and is thinking about getting an electronic nose hair trimmer. And that's just the start.

Now, let me be clear: I've never spent a single moment outside the office with this guy (and for what it's worth, I'd just as soon not be privy to his personal grooming habits). I learned all of these details by tracking his social footprint across the Web--and he probably has no idea that he has left such a vivid trail behind.

In our age of social sharing, we expect some of our thoughts to be public. But as we slowly put more and more pieces of ourselves online, specialized search engines are making it easier than ever to pull them together into a highly detailed (and potentially invasive) profile of our virtual lives (read "Online Stalking Made Easy").

I'll let you in on a little secret: The picture isn't always pretty. And even if no rap sheet turns up, do you really want the world to know that you look at bad breath cures online or post awful Star Trek fan fiction?

The Depths of the Deep Web

You hear a lot of terms bounced around when you talk about this growing breed of search engines. Some services like to be called "social search" utilities, while others prefer the phrase "people search." Many boast of their ability to delve through the "Deep Web" that even Google doesn't touch.

"Even though most people think the size of the Web is basically the Google crawl index, there's actually a lot of information that Google doesn't crawl," says Harrison Tang, founder and CEO of Spokeo--which, taking a mash-up approach to its identification, describes itself as a "social people search engine" service.

Pipl and CVGadget, is designed to let you dig up information on friends, foes, and anyone in between. Spokeo goes a step farther than many of the other services, though, by importing your entire e-mail address book.

Then, for a few bucks a month, it continually monitors your contacts and lets you know whenever anyone has done anything new, anywhere online. (The site's home page promises to help you "uncover personal photos, videos, and secrets," including "juicy" and "mouth-watering news about friends and coworkers.") [Editor's note: Pipl reports that my former boss donated $500 during the 2004 presidential election--candidate not named.]

Each individual bit of information may seem insignificant, but the cumulative effect of seeing it assembled in a neatly packaged portfolio is enough to give almost anyone pause. [Editor's note: According to CVGadget's quick search, my college roommate researched the game of bocce ball recently for a children's book she's writing. And a former boyfriend I haven't spoken to since the 1980s appears to be an actor in Santa Barbara. Who knew?]

"Aggregated identity is actually a new type of identity," Tang says, theorizing about why so many people seem to use the word "spooky" when describing his service. "A lot of people know that they have a public MySpace page, a lot of people know that they have a public Twitter album. But, when combined together, it's not one plus one equals two--you actually create a new identity."

Next: Your Info for Sale

How Spokeo Works

Spokeo's system uses your contacts' e-mail addresses to track their activity on a few dozen services, ranging from basic blogs and social networks to a slew of photo- and video-sharing sites. That means the random photos of your kids you shared on Flickr two years ago (or perhaps those less innocent images from your spring break trip a decade earlier) will pop up right under your name, seconds after someone searches for you.

Less obvious sources such as Amazon Wish Lists, Pandora playlists, and movie rating sites fill in the colorful details that you may not have realized were out there at all--things like (in my lawyer's case) an affinity for New Age jams and nasal maintenance.

I found Mr. Attorney's age on an old MySpace profile and his roller coaster behavior on a personal YouTube video, but Pandora divulged his cravings for Creed and his suggested usages for the "Spa Radio" station he had created. As for the nose hair trimmer, he can thank his Amazon Wish List for sending that factoid my way.

For Sale: Your Information

Rapleaf, a company that describes its services as "data and people lookup." Clients pay thousands of dollars to have detailed social profiles compiled of individuals in their own customer databases. As is the case with the data that Spokeo assembles, the information is all publicly available--Rapleaf just brings it together. "Things that people have posted are out there for anyone to come and see," says Joel Jewitt, Rapleaf's vice president of business development. "As long as you're not going beyond that, that's within the privacy norms today."

Most of Rapleaf's clients, Jewitt says, are simply trying to understand how to use social media more effectively for marketing. An auto manufacturer, for example, might want to know which car models its customers are checking out and discussing on social Internet services. Armed with the company's list of customer e-mail addresses, Rapleaf would crawl the Web and track down the information, person by person.

"It's pretty standard Web spidering," Jewitt says. "We re-create in an automatic way what someone from the general public would be able to do if they were looking."

Electronic Exposure

Whether they target businesses or individuals, the services have one thing in common: Unlike the public record-driven search tools of the past, the new people-tracking utilities build a highly detailed dossier about you solely from information that you yourself published--a circumstance that may give you a distinct feeling of discomfort.

"What it does is make the ubiquity of the Internet and the sheer openness of the world tangible," says Internet privacy expert Kevin B. McDonald, executive vice president of Alvaka Networks, a network management firm. "It makes the whole concept of the world sharing of information and the 'no-walls' approach that the Internet was designed for very real to people."

The reality can be chilling if the information is going to certain interested individuals: a curious client, a boss big on background checks, or an obsessive ex, say. A recent study reported that half of all British Internet users surveyed admitted to having used the Internet to look up information on a former flame. The ease with which someone can arrange to monitor your every electronic move certainly adds a new dimension to the idea of fixation.

"It is a little 'stalkery,'" says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "If the information is distributed, that's actually a form of privacy. When it's gathered up in one place, it creates some new risks."

Rotenberg is no fan of companies that assemble nuggets of personal but public information to turn a profit. "The fact that someone's made something public doesn't mean that someone else can sell it," he contends. "I would say even with affirmative consent, if there's going to be a market for personal data, the user should get some percentage of whatever value the data has."

Taking Control

The thing to remember, of course, is that these services aren't doing anything illegal. The information they gather is information that anyone who knew where to look--and had the time to do it--could find. So rather than ignoring the king-size file that may have been collected on you, McDonald suggests, you should try to use it as a tool to understand and control your online identity.

"I've come to the point where rather than be driven by the Internet, I intend to drive it to the degree that I can," he says.

"All you can do is learn to live with it," McDonald says. "That's the confines of the world that we live in."
For suggestions on concrete steps you can take to reduce your online exposure, see "People Search Engines: Slam the Door on What Info They Can Collect."

The coming evangelical collapse


The coming evangelical collapse

An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.

By Michael Spencer
from the March 10, 2009 edition


Oneida, Ky. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Why is this going to happen?

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

7. The money will dry up.

What will be left?

•Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.

•Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

•A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.

•The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision.

•Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.

•Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.

•Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more vital form of Christianity?

•Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.

Is all of this a bad thing?

Evangelicalism doesn't need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what about what remains?

Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches.

Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.

The ascendency of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.

Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity.
Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I expect the landscape of megachurch vacuity to be around for a very long time.

Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.
The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider the wisdom of trying to create a "godly society." That doesn't mean they'll focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. The integrity of the church as a countercultural movement with a message of "empire subversion" will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.

Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one commenter has already said, "Christianity loves a crumbling empire."
We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.
We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.

I'm not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?

• Michael Spencer is a writer and communicator living and working in a Christian community in Kentucky. He describes himself as "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality." This essay is adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com .

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The United Nations: Our Children’s New Parents?


The United Nations: Our Children’s New Parents?

By Dana Gabriel http://www.borderfirereport.net/dana-gabriel/the-united-nations-our-childrens-new-parents.php

Through its various agencies and treaties, the United Nations seeks to undermine individual, as well as national sovereignty. It has been almost 15 years since President Clinton signed on to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The U.S. remains one of the last holdouts as the treaty lies dormant, yet to be ratified. The UNCRC grants children new civil, social, cultural and economic rights that could override parental decisions. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), is pushing for a vote as there is a real sense that under an Obama presidency, the UNCRC could finally be ratified.


If the UNCRC is ratified, parents could be prohibited from homeschooling and spanking their children. It undermines parental authority and gives more power to the state to further dictate how children are raised. It grants children dangerous new rights thus encouraging more rebellious behavior. The truth is that in many cases, children do not have the wisdom and maturity to make sound decisions. The treaty also gives children the mechanism by which they could dispute any parental judgment. The UNCRC transfers more parental authority to the state while granting children radical new rights.


Under the UNCRC, an 18-member committee has been established to review children’s rights and any other disputes that might arise. In many cases, we are already bound by international treaties and the UNCRC gives unaccountable UN bureaucrats the power to make decisions concerning our children’s well-being. Parents are being demoted to simple caregivers, while the state assumes the role of the prime authoritative figure. The UNCRC is an assault on parental authority and is essentially a blank check for governmental interference in family matters. It is meant to further promote child autonomy and freedom from parental guidance.


In the U.S., homeschooling numbers continue to rise as a growing number of parents look to better control their child’s moral instruction. Under the UNCRC, homeschooling could be interpreted as a violation of a child’s well being. Some states have tried to ban and outlaw homeschooling and the UNCRC could make it a UN-sponsored activity. Public school education is designed to correct any perceived errors in rearing and home training. The ideology of globalism and world government is at the very core of the educational system. The UN seeks to undermine parental authority, traditional values and biblical principles. They wish to gain more control over our children’s upbringing and education.


Under the guise of human rights, the UN agenda is to further breakup the family. At recent meetings held in Mexico City, United Nations Population Fund representative, Arie Hoekman, told participants that high divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births were not a social crisis, but instead a triumph for human rights. Traditional values and principles instilled by parents, are being manipulated and pushed aside. The breakdown of the family is bringing about a rise in new values. Children’s love and loyalty to their family and country is being systematically destroyed. Under a new global order, there is no room for nationalism or individuality and a strong family unit represents a threat to this system.


Being a parent is a huge responsibility and undertaking that should not be taken lightly. Parents are not always right and some may be unfit. The reality is that children thrive in an environment where there is love and structure which includes consequences for their behavior. The UNCRC infringes upon parental authority and represents a massive intrusion by the state into family affairs. It has the potential to radically alter parent-child relationships. The UN definitely has no business telling parents how to raise their children and neither does the government unless there is evidence of neglect or abuse. The UN is a morally bankrupt institution with a horrible record of protecting human rights around the world and the U.S ratifying the UNCRC will not change that.


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An Urgent Message (David Wilkerson)


Saturday, March 7, 2009
AN URGENT MESSAGE

I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message to all on our mailing list, and to friends and to bishops we have met all over the world.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE - EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.

For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting—including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written,

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (v. 3).

God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.

The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, “God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds. But they will say, It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:11-12).

In Psalm 11:6, David warns, “Upon the wicked he will rain snares (coals of fire)…fire…burning wind…will be the portion of their cup.” Why? David answered, “Because the Lord is righteous” (v. 7). This is a righteous judgment—just as in the judgments of Sodom and in Noah’s generation.

WHAT SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS DO? WHAT ABOUT GOD’S PEOPLE?

First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a thirty-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.

As for our spiritual reaction, we have but two options. This is outlined in Psalm 11. We “flee like a bird to a mountain.” Or, as David says, “He fixed his eyes on the Lord on his throne in heaven—his eyes beholding, his eyelids testing the sons of men” (v. 4). “In the Lord I take refuge” (v. 1).

I will say to my soul: No need to run...no need to hide. This is God’s righteous work. I will behold our Lord on his throne, with his eye of tender, loving kindness watching over every step I take—trusting that he will deliver his people even through floods, fires, calamities, tests, trials of all kinds.

Note: I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off. I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.

God bless and keep you,

In Christ,

DAVID WILKERSON


Posted by David Wilkerson on 3/07/2009



The name




And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.



Acts 4:18; 5:40; 15:26.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Famed pastor predicts imminent catastrophe

TESTING THE FAITH
Famed pastor predicts imminent catastrophe
Best-selling author, Teen Challenge founder, sees 'earth-shattering calamity about to happen'

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Posted: March 08, 2009
3:15 am Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily



A respected pastor, best-selling author and founder of a major ministry to teens predicts an imminent "earth-shattering calamity" centered in New York City that will spread to major urban areas across the country and around the world – part of what he sees as a judgment from God.


David Wilkerson, author of "The Cross and the Switchblade," a book about his ministry to troubled New York street kids that was later made into a movie starring Pat Boone, tells readers of his blog this weekend that he is "compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message" about his prediction.

"An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen," he writes. "It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble – even the godliest among us."

Wilkerson's vision is of fires raging through New York City.

"It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago," he explains. "There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

Autographed copies of Ray Comfort's new book, "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can't Make Him Think," are available exclusively in WND's online superstore.

Wilkerson is the founding pastor of Times Square Church in New York City, where he launched a ministry to gang members and drug addicts in 1958. He is a highly regarded mentor to other pastors in evangelical circles and travels the world holding conferences for other Christian ministers.

His work in New York in the 1950s and 1960s led to the formation of Teen Challenge – a nationwide ministry to reach out to people with life-controlling habits. Teen Challenge has grown to include 173 residential programs and numerous evangelism outreach centers in the United States, and 241 centers in 77 other countries. The program claims a recovery rate of 86 percent.

The story of Wilkerson's first five years of ministry in New York is told in "The Cross and the Switchblade," a book he co-authored in 1963. The book became a best-selling phenomenon and more than 15 million copies have been distributed in over 30 languages.

"God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations," claims Wilkerson. "He is destroying the secular foundations." Wilkerson urges everyone to stockpile a 30-day supply of food and other necessities to deal with the catastrophe he foresees.

"I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off," Wilkerson concluded in his message. "I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose."

A past vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention is hoping believers pay attention to Wilkerson's message.

"I have known David Wilkerson for more than 25 years as well as many of his friends and associates," said Pastor Wiley Drake. "He is a godly man and I believe he is listening to God. I encourage each Christian to read and heed what God is saying through our brother."


Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91097
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Jesuits Conference debates global peace, harmony


Published : March 09 2009


Jesuits Conference of South Asia (JCSA), presided over by Fr Adolfo Nicolas, Vatican-based Superior General of the Society of Jesus, discussed various issues faced by the global community at a seven-day session that concluded in Pune.

The Indian visit of the head of the Jesuits, the largest and most powerful male religious order in Roman Catholic Church, was kept a closely guarded secret.

There were no public functions during his visit. This is Fr Nicolas’ first visit to India since he took over the post in January last year.

The father general told Pune-based Sakaal Times said that he did not want the media limelight on the deliberation of the conference or his current visit. Like his legendary predecessors Fr Pedro Arrupe and Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Fr Nicolas too likes to maintain a low profile.

After the conclusion of the marathon conference, the Jesuit chief will fly to Goa on Saturday and will later leave for Mumbai. He will return to the Jesuit headquarters, the Curia in Rome, on March 9.

The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is the largest and the most powerful male religious order in the Roman Catholic Church. The head of the organisation gets his nickname Black Pope due to his black attire in contrast to the white robes of the Pope and also due to his influential position in the Catholic Church.

The conference held at Sanjeevan, headquarters of the Pune province Jesuits was attended by 20 Jesuit provincials and heads of four regions from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

The conference had four sessions daily and the main thrust of the conference was to establish collaboration with all at the world-level to establish a global society based on the principles of peace, love and justice, Provincial Fr Rosario said. It meant joining hands with various forces regardless of their religion, country, gender or race, he said.

The 72-year-old Spain-born Fr Nicolas' visit to India began on February 20. After arriving in the city on February 26, he visited Ahmednagar, Shevgaon, Shrirampur and Sangamner in neighbouring Ahmednagar district where the Jesuits have been working since 1878.

Fr Nicolas, who is the ex-officio chancellor of the city-based Jnanadeep Vidyapeeth, addressed students and faculty of the internationally known institute on Nagar Road.

Incidentally, India, with its 3,900 Jesuits has surpassed the USA last year to have the largest number of Jesuits. Europe ranks the third. There are many Indian Jesuits who have been working abroad including European and African countries and also in Afghanistan.

Some of the best-known Jesuit institutions in the country include St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, St Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Loyola College in Chennai. In Pune, the Jesuits-run institutions include De Nobili College, Jnanadeep Vidyapeeth, Loyola and St Vincent schools.

There are over 20,000 Jesuits spread in over 100 countries. Known for their missionary zeal, they are active in the fields of education, human rights, inter-religious dialogue and various pioneering ministries.

Fr Nicolas who has spent over 12 years in Japan is fluent in Spanish, Japanese, English, French and Italian.



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Expanding Canadian Trade Horizons


Expanding Canadian Trade Horizons

By Dana Gabriel http://www.borderfirereport.net/dana-gabriel/expanding-canadian-trade-horizons.php

Many in the business community have criticized Canada for being too fixated on U.S. trade initiatives and not aggressively pursuing more trade and investment opportunities with other countries. As a result, its overall global competitiveness has suffered. Canada recently recorded its first trade deficit in over 30 years which was blamed on falling oil prices and also directly linked to the struggling U.S. economy. In a recent visit to Canada, President Barack Obama gave assurances that he is committed to free trade and open borders. He reaffirmed his pledge to rework NAFTA, but stressed that the current economic crisis may delay such matters. If anything, the trade deficit that Canada posted, illustrates the need to lessen its dependency on the U.S. and further expand its trade portfolio.

On January 26, 2008, Canada signed a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) which consists of the countries of Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Iceland. The Canada-EFTA trade agreement is basic in nature and is not as comprehensive as NAFTA. It does not include any new substantial commitments in areas of investment, services or intellectual property. There are concerns about the negative impact the trade agreement could have on Canada’s shipbuilding and agricultural sectors. The NDP is calling on the government to exclude the shipbuilding industry from the trade agreement. These concerns could delay ratification of the trade accord. The Conservative government is emphasizing the importance of expanding and not restricting trade, especially considering the current economic climate. A Canada-EFTA free trade agreement would give Canadian businesses a foothold in the heart of Europe, thus setting the stage for a proposed Canada-European Union (EU) economic trade deal.

Canada and the EU have engaged in preliminary discussions that could lead to deeper economic integration. There are reports that negotiations on a Canada-EU trade agreement, which would exceed NAFTA, could begin in May of this year. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams recently withdrew his support for upcoming negotiations, believing that the federal government would not act in his province’s best interests. According to Williams, assurances that a Canada-EU trade agreement would include protection for measures such as the Atlantic Accords and the Fish Inspection Act, have not been adequately met. He is also concerned about high fish tariffs, foreign overfishing and the EU’s plan to ban seal products. These issues would have to be resolved before full-scale negotiations could begin, as the EU has stressed that any such trade agreement with Canada would require full provincial governmental participation.

Canada is in the midst of playing catch-up and is attempting to secure a greater share of growing economic markets in India and China. The Canadian government has been working towards closer trade and investment cooperation with India. They have signed an agreement that will create the framework to further expand agricultural trade between the two countries. Canada is also waiting on India to finalize the text on a bilateral Foreign Investment Promotion Agreement, with hopes of a more comprehensive trade deal in the future. Many feel that Canada needs to further engage trade and investment opportunities with China as well; otherwise it risks further falling behind other nations who are also competing for a share of the Chinese market. In 2007, 2% of Canadian exports were sent to China and its direct foreign investment in the country accounted for only 0.3%. China and India represent vast potential trade and investment opportunities for Canada which can no longer be overlooked.

Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, bilateral trade initiatives have accelerated. He has promised to place more focus on the Americas and further strengthen bilateral cooperation in the hemisphere. Trade deals with Peru and Colombia have been signed and need to be ratified. Canada is attempting to establish a greater presence in Brazil as the two countries have signed an Agreement for Cooperation on Science, Technology and Innovation. Canada is due to begin a third round of negotiations with Dominican Republic on a bilateral free trade agreement. There are also discussions underway with Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. With all the bilateral and regional trade agreements that have been signed or are being pursued in the hemisphere, all these deals combined could eventually be used to facilitate a larger multilateral agreement such as the FTAA.

It is clear that Canada must lessen its dependency on the U.S., but if future free trade deals are based on the failed NAFTA model, they could prove costly. A steady diet of globalization is being offered as a solution to Canada’s economic woes. While there is a need to expand Canadian trade horizons, at the same time there is a push for further North American economic integration. Former Minister of International Trade, David Emerson, is calling for closer Canada-U.S. ties in the form of a customs union, further integration on regulatory matters, along with updating NAFTA to include labour mobility. He is also recommending that Canada advocate a North American security perimeter. Although under its current structure the Security and Prosperity Partnership might be dead, it appears as if plans for a North American Community or rather a North American Union, are still very much alive.

Dana Gabriel writes about trade, globalization, sovereignty, and other issues.
Contact: newworldordermustbestopped@hotmail.com

DANGERS ON CHRISTIAN RADIO


DANGERS ON CHRISTIAN RADIO


Mar/05/09 06:43

Updated March 5, 2009 (first published September 16, 2002)


(David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) –

There are many spiritual dangers involved in listening to syndicated Christian radio today. While there many things that are scriptural and helpful, the truth is intermingled indiscriminately with error. And most listeners are not equipped to discern the one from the other.

Recently a pastor friend in Michigan told me that many years ago the church members who listened to Christian radio were his strongest members, but today those who listen the most to Christian radio are among the weakest members and cause the most trouble. The difference lies in the content of the radio broadcasts. In the past, there were many strong Bible preachers on the radio who proclaimed the Word of God plainly and without compromise, but that is no longer the case.

Today the Christian radio airwaves are filled with smooth-sounding professionalism and slick compromise that largely turns a blind eye to apostasy and heresy.

On a preaching trip in 2002, I spent two days listening to nationally syndicated Christian radio programs with the objective of analyzing the content.

Following are a few examples of the subtle dangers that lurk in Christian radio:

BACK TO THE BIBLE on September 11, 2002, talked about Ninevah’s repentance and rightly observed that true repentance produces a changed life. But there was no Jonah-like preaching by the Back to the Bible speaker. In other words, they talk about repentance but did not plainly preach repentance to their listeners. This is so typical. THE CHIEF ERROR OF NEW EVANGELICALISM IS NOT THE ERROR THAT IT PREACHES, BUT THE TRUTH THAT IT NEGLECTS TO PREACH.
When Back to the Bible reprinted a book on cults by Harold Berry in 1992, it dropped the sections on Roman Catholicism and Seventh-day Adventism that had been included in earlier editions. More and more, these ministries are toning down and paring down their message. To offend listeners means loss of income and influence. Back to the Bible Director Woodrow Kroll is a committed New Evangelical who is at home in places such as the Billy Graham Training Center in North Carolina. The Back to the Bible director prior to Kroll was Warren Wiersbe. When Wiersbe left Back to the Bible and took a position with Youth for Christ, it was a natural and easy progression. Both organizations are ecumenical and deeply compromised. Since the early 1970s, Youth for Christ has joined Roman Catholics in ecumenical meetings throughout the world. Sam Wolgemuth represented Youth For Christ International on the Central Committee of the ecumenical Key ‘73, which had strong participation by Roman Catholic leaders and laymen. Together with the Roman Catholic diocese of San Diego, the Salvation Army, and other organizations, the San Diego Youth for Christ co-sponsored the Evangelical and Ecumenical Conference for Clergy and Laity in 1983. It is the working policy of Youth for Christ to send “converts” to the churches of their choice. At a workshop on “Follow Up” for new converts at Billy Graham’s Amsterdam ‘86, the national director of Youth for Christ in New Zealand, Ian Grant, stated, “WE MAKE NO JUDGMENT OF CHURCHES—that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. Young Christians can be more led into Bible reading and faith in a Catholic Charismatic church than in some conservative Evangelical churches” (Foundation, Jul.-Aug. 1986). Wiersbe’s journey farther and farther into ecumenism and compromise parallels that of Back to the Bible.

DISCOVER THE WORD (Radio Bible Class) on September 11, 2002, featured a forum discussing the issue of how to avoid provoking our children to wrath. The three participants were Haddon Robinson, Art De Haan, and Ann Mathews. The statement was made that “legalism is a rule without the principle,” and this was illustrated in two ways. Ann gave the example of how she once created a problem by forbidding her teenage daughter to wear jeans to school. She said that she later realized that the only reason she made the rule was to avoid the possible disfavor of her adult friends who (apparently) would not have been pleased by the jeans. She eventually apologized to her daughter and allowed her to wear the jeans. There was no word about the modesty or unisex factor. One of the men on the forum told how that he once forbade his daughter to go to parties because he found out that drinking and such things were going on. When his daughter reproached him for not “trusting” her, he apologized and allowed her to continue to participate. Nothing was said about the spiritual danger of such worldly environments even for mature Christian adults. The Bible warns that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” To forbid our young people to go to worldly parties is not a matter of trust or lack thereof but of wisdom and obedience to God’s Word. For every teen who has been allowed to attend such things and who has not messed up his or her life with licentiousness there are hundreds who have. The Radio Bible Class forum ignored such things and focused instead on a psychobabble approach to Christian living. The participants worried more about the bugaboo of “legalism” than simple obedience to God’s Word.

STEVE BROWN of KEY LIFE ministries promoted his book “Discovering Hope in the Aftermath of Tragedy,” which features testimonies by Chuck Colson, Anne Graham Lotz, and other prominent New Evangelical compromisers. Colson promotes unity with Roman Catholicism and Lotz thinks women preachers are glorifying God. For his text on September 11, 2002, Brown chose Hosea 11 and titled his message “Love’s Hurt.” He completely overlooked the judgment of God and focused almost exclusively on God’s love. There was no call to repentance, no warning of judgment.

FOR FAITH AND FAMILY, September 11, 2002, featured an interview by RICHARD LAND WITH JIM CYMBALA, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Cymbala said God does not want us to have a message of blame for Americans. He said that we shouldn’t have an Old Testament prophet-type ministry but an “apostolic” ministry like Paul’s, implying wrongly that Paul did not speak prophetically and directly rebuke sin. Paul preached the same thing as John the Baptist, “that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance” (Acts 26:20). Paul plainly rebuked the idolatry of the Athenians in his sermon on Mars Hill (Acts 17). Paul continually warned about sin and error. Cymbala also said that God is using 9-11 to cause American Christians to “get rid of denominational prejudices,” and he had no word of warning about ecumenism and rank denominational heresies such as infant baptism and sacramentalism.

JAMES DOBSON on September 11, 2002, featured a report on Mission New York, which was described as “ecumenical.” The people of New York are being told simply to “have faith,” but that faith is not clearly defined as repentance from sin and faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. On September 12, the Moms in Touch ministry was featured by Dobson. It is a radically ecumenical outreach that brings mothers of all denominational faiths together to pray for public schools. There was no word of warning about this flagrant disobedience to the Bible (Romans 16:17).

Another great problem with Dobson is his unholy mixture of psychology with the Bible. He deals much more with “self-esteem” than he does with sin and repentance.

DICK BOTT (owner of the Bott Radio Network, which advertises itself as “Christian Information for Your Life”) on his THE COMPLETE STORY program on September 13, 2002, interviewed a Roman Catholic lady on the subject of abortion. Bott said that Catholics, Baptists, Protestants all need to act like consistent Christians and followers of Christ. He treated Roman Catholics as genuine New Testament Christians. He called Catholics “the faithful.” He mentioned the Catholic mass with no warning about its blasphemous nature (e.g., claiming to turn a piece of bread into the very Christ). He implied that the mass is a Christian institution. The Catholic lady called anti-abortion “the gospel of life,” and Bott said nothing to correct this error. In fact, there is only one true gospel and all others are false (2 Corinthians 11:1-4; Galatians 1:6-8). In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul summarized the gospel and said nothing about anti-abortion.

BOTT RADIO features many dangerous teachers, including Jack Hayford (who believes in speaking “baby tongues” in order to learn how to speak adult tongues), Stephen Olford (who says he loves theological liberals more than fundamentalists), R.C. Sproul (who promotes infant baptism and who teaches that a person must be born again before he can have faith in Christ), Joseph Stowell (who ate dinner in December 1998 with Catholic Cardinal Francis George to lay a foundation for “potential mutual efforts in areas of societal issues”), Roman Catholic Phyllis Schlafly, and female preacher Kay Arthur.

Bott Radio also features GREG LAURIE’S NEW BEGINNING PROGRAM. Laurie is a charismatic pastor who conducts ecumenical evangelistic crusades that bring together Church of Christ, Baptist, Assemblies of God, Vineyard, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, and other denominations in an unholy mixture that is forbidden by Scripture (e.g., Romans 16:17; 2 Timothy 3:5; etc.). Laurie is a popular speaker for radically ecumenical organizations such as Promise Keepers.

Many SOUTHERN BAPTIST PREACHERS are also prominent on nationally syndicated Christian radio. For example, ADRIAN ROGERS of the LOVE WORTH FINDING broadcast is very popular. He was a dynamic preacher and usually had a fine Bible message. The problem, again, is not so much the error that he preached, but the truth that he neglected and also his dangerous associations. For example, on September 14, 2002, Rogers appeared on the deeply heretical Trinity Broadcasting Network with Paul Crouch. During Rogers’ appearance on TBN, Sandi Patty sang a hard rock contemporary song, and Rogers complimented her on it! (Sandi Patty performed for Pope John Paul II at a papal mass in Los Angeles in September 1987.) In early 2001, Rogers was honored by Paul Crouch in commemoration of 15 years of television ministry on TBN. The TBN web site had a photo of Rogers shaking hands with Crouch, who said, “We salute Dr. Rogers, and honor our friend and brother! He is truly ONE OF THE GREAT BRIDGE BUILDERS IN THE BODY OF CHRIST.” Rogers said nothing to correct this statement. Crouch has promoted practically every weird and unscriptural Charismatic doctrine and practice, including Word-faith, healing in the atonement, gibberish “tongues,” spirit slaying, holy laughter, and prosperity giving. By appearing on TBN, Rogers was putting his stamp of approval upon the apostate confusion that is represented there and was leaving his listeners with the impression that it is safe to watch TBN.

Sadly, this is the type of unscriptural compromise that permeates even the most conservative elements of the Southern Baptist Convention. None of them practice biblical separation.

We must understand that these radio programs are not friends to biblical fundamentalists. In fact, they are not even neutral in that regard; they are avowed enemies to a fundamentalist church and position, and those who listen to them day in and day out will certainly be affected by the neutralist, anti-separation philosophy that permeates them.

I didn’t hear even one nationally syndicated Christian radio speaker plainly address the heart of America’s problem, which is apostasy and compromise in the churches and cowardice in the pulpit. Rarely this might be HINTED at, but it is not dealt with in a plain manner in which names are named and listeners are given clear information about the spiritual dangers that are on every hand today and exhorted to separate themselves from them.

None of this should surprise us. God described it long ago:

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).




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The Pope Kissing the Koran


The Pope Kissing the Koran

Here is a photo of the pope at the end of an audience with Patriarch Raphael I of Iraq, where the pope "bowed" to the Muslim holy book, The Koran, presented to him by the delegation.


Did the pope, who in fact is the supposed "infallible" voice of the Roman Catholic Church not remember what The Koran has to say about Jesus and the nature of God? Does he not know how The Koran demotes Jesus the Messiah to "only a messenger of Allah" status?

"O people of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which he conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit [sic.] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers and say not 'Three' - Cease! (it is better for you! - Allah is only one God. Far is it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son...The Messiah will never scorn to be a slave unto Allah."

Of Jesus Christ The Koran also states:
"And when the son of Mary is quoted as an example, behold! The folk laugh out, and say: Are our gods better, or is he? They raise not the objection save for argument. Nay! but they are a contentious folk. He is nothing but a slave on whom we bestowed favor, and we made him a pattern for the Children of Israel. And had we willed it we would have set among you angels to be viceroys in the earth".

Regarding Christ's death on the Cross, The Koran says:
"That they rejected Faith; That they uttered against Mary a grave false charge; That they said (in boast): We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, The Messenger of Allah. But they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjunction to follow, for of a surety they killed him not. ... And on the Day of Judgment He (Jesus) will be a witness against them (Christians)." (Koran, 4:156-159)
The Koran even has Jesus Himself saying:
"Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel! Lo! I am the messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was (revealed) before me in the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose name is the Praised One."
The above picture is simply further evidence, along with the his receiving the mark of Shiva, organizing "prayer meetings" with occult religious leaders, and allowing the worship of a false god on the altar of the Roman Catholic Church at Assisi, of his interfaith agenda.

This is the man who was picked as "the Man of the Century" by various religious leaders who signed the Evangelicals and Catholics Together document (that claims that Evangelicals and Catholics are preaching the same gospel).

-It is important for us to realize that most of America's six million Muslims are not terrorists. A majority, I believe, are peace-loving and decent citizens who love this country. Although we as Bible-believing Christians disagree with many of their religious beliefs and practices, and must not support them, it would be wrong to persecute Muslims for their faith. Rather, we must go out of our way to show them the love of Jesus Christ, hoping they will receive His gift of forgiveness and eternal life.
-Having said this, we must nevertheless be aware of the fact that Islam has historically been a bloody religion. This is partly due to the strong influence of violent secret societies in Islamic culture and the wide acceptance of peripheral religious writings that promise a better place in paradise – including a harem of 72 virgins – for those men who die while taking the lives of "unbelievers." It is also due to Islam's holiest book, The Koran, which is militant in its views toward Christians and Jews.

Consider the following quotes taken directly from The Koran:

p. 2 of introduction (Islamic view of Jews & Christians) "The Koran accuses the Jews of corrupting the Scriptures and the Christians of worshipping Jesus as the son of God, although He had expressly commanded them to worship none but Him."

Surah 5:51 (No friendship with Jews or Christians) "Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number. God does not guide the wrongdoers."

Surah 9:73 (Make war on unbelievers) "Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate."

Surah 9:5 (Slay the idolators/unbelievers) "When the sacred months are over slay the idolators wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush
everywhere for them."

Surah 5:33-34 (Enemies should be slain or crucified) "Those that make war against God (Allah) and His apostle (Muhammad) and spread disorder in the land shall be slain or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the land."

Surah 47:3-6 (Behead the enemy) "This, because the unbelievers follow falsehood, while the faithful follow the truth from their Lord. Thus God lays down for mankind their rules of conduct. When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take a ransom from them, until War shall lay down her burdens. Thus shall you do. Had God willed, He could Himself have punished them; [but He has ordained it thus] that He may test you, the one by the other."

Surah 4:99 (Special reward for aggressive martyrs) "He that leaves his home in the cause of God shall find many a refuge in the land and great abundance. He that leaves his dwelling to fight for God and His apostle and is then overtaken by death shall be recompensed by God. Surely God is forgiving and merciful."

Surah 22:57 (Eternal punishment for unbelievers) "Those that have embraced the true Faith and done good works shall enter the gardens of delight; but the unbelievers who have denied Our revelations shall receive an ignominious punishment."

(Source: The Koran, Translated by N. J. Dawood, Penquin Books, London, 1999)

-Many Muslims in the United States have probably never read all of The Koran or, at least, do not take all of its decrees literally. The problem is, if they keep their innermost beliefs to themselves, how do we distinguish those Muslims who accept all of The Koran's teachings from those who do not. If only one in a thousand were willing to kill for their faith we could be in serious trouble. I would not be surprised if there are hundreds, if not thousands, of potential Islamic terrorists in this country at this very moment…not a pleasant thought!

-Our leaders will need great wisdom and discernment to deal with this delicate situation. How does one protect peace-loving Muslims while punishing those who approve of terrorism, if one cannot tell the difference?
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SOURCE: Fides (Rome) news Interview with Patriarch of Babylon, distinguished Church source of Report:
http://www.fides.org/English/1999/e19990604.html - June 4th 1999 - No 4151 - NE 312
See also Zenit/Rome News Report Patriarch Raphael I: "A Visit by John Paul II to Iraq Would be A Gift from Heaven"
Remnant Resistance web Page 2, ZENIT News Agency (Rome) report