Manhattan Declaration: “Perhaps Millions” Being Led Toward the New Age/New Spirituality

Manhattan Declaration: “Perhaps Millions” Being Led Toward the New Age/New Spirituality

We are seeking to build a movement – hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Catholic, Evangelical, and Eastern Orthodox Christians who will stand together.-Manhattan Declaration

On November 20th, a document called the Manhattan Declaration was released at an event at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The Declaration has received wide media coverage, and as of this writing about ¼ million people have signed the document, with a current average of about 10 people a minute adding their names (around 14,400 a day).

One of the four drafters of the Declaration is Chuck Colson who also co-authored a document in the 90s called Evangelicals and Catholics Together. The ECT is similar in nature in that it identifies both Catholicism and Evangelicalism as part of the Christian church and asks members of both groups to unite in areas that they have in common. With this new document, the emphasis is on morality: gay versus traditional marriage, abortion, stem cell research, assisted suicide,  etc. According to a Christianity Today article on the Manhattan Declaration, both prominent evangelical leaders and Catholic leaders are main signatories: The declaration has received national attention because, in addition to many American evangelical leaders, its [main] signatories include nine Catholic archbishops, the president of the Catholic League, the primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and the primate of the Orthodox Church in America. Given the fact that a large number of the main 149 signatories have directly or indirectly promoted advocates of the New Age/New Spirituality (i.e., contemplative/emerging), it is not difficult to see that (even with good intentions) the Manhattan Declaration may provide an appealing and subtle avenue into the New Spirituality  for a vast number of signers, many of whom might not otherwise have had exposure to it given the conservative tendencies of most of the signers. Some may ask, how could this introduction to the New Spirituality possibly take place just by signing the Declaration-even if some of the main signatories are promoting it? The answer, in part, has already surfaced. On the Manhattan Declaration website, it now states: Thousands of you have sent e-mails asking what’s next – a good question. The goal of those of us who drafted and signed the document is not just to get a lot of names on a manifesto, gratifying though that is. We are seeking to build a movement – hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Catholic, Evangelical, and Eastern Orthodox Christians who will stand together alongside other men and women of goodwill in defense of foundational principles of justice and the common good. These are people who could expose the lie which so many in our culture have embraced about self being the center of life; and then winsomely present, in the words of St. Paul, “a more excellent way.” (emphasis added) We are looking for people who will work in every possible arena to advance the sanctity of life, rebuild and revitalize the marriage culture, and protect religious liberty. So what’s next for you?1  In answer to their question of “what’s next,” a Worldview Resource Directory**(see note at bottom of page) is offered to signers as a place to find “excellent resources in support of these foundational truths.” The Resource Directory, located on the Manhattan Declaration’s website, has a large listing of books, DVDs, and other material compiled especially for the signers of the Declaration. But a close look at this Resource Directory should cause  believers to be quite concerned. For instance, there is a specific section titled “Spiritual Formation,” which carries recommendations to contemplative mystic advocates such as Dallas Willard, J.P. Moreland, and Kenneth Boa. The propensities of all three of these contemplative teachers are documented at Lighthouse Trails Research Project. One of the books that the Manhattan Declaration Directory recommends is J. P. Moreland and Klaus Issler’s book, The Lost Virtue of Happiness: Discovering the Disciplines of the Good Life.  This book is discussed in Roger Oakland’s hard-hitting book Faith Undone, an expose of the emerging church and the Purpose-Driven Movement. Oakland states:  Moreland and Issler believe they have rediscovered important spiritual principles that have been lost. Two of the spiritual disciplines the authors have recovered are “Solitude and Silence.”The book says that these two disciplines are “absolutely fundamental to the Christian life.” …[T]he isolation and solitude Moreland and Issler promote have definite Eastern mystical overtones.  The authors attempt to add credibility to this rediscovered spiritual discipline by quoting [the late Catholic priest and mystic] Henri Nouwen, who said: “A man or woman who has developed this solitude of heart is no longer pulled apart by the most divergent stimuli of the surrounding world but is able to perceive and understand this world from a quiet inner center (Nouwen, Reaching Out, p.38). … Continuing to develop the idea of the lost art of finding the “quiet inner center,” Moreland and Issler state:  “In our experience, Catholic retreat centers are usually ideal for solitude retreats… We also recommend that you bring photos of your loved ones and a picture of Jesus… Or gaze at a statue of Jesus. Or let some pleasant thought, feeling, or memory run through your mind over and over again.” (pp.54-55) … But that isn’t all they recommend. For example, Moreland and Issler provide tips for developing a prayer life. Here are some of the recommendations they make: [W]e recommend that you begin by saying the Jesus Prayer about three hundred times a day. (p.90 – see Matthew 6:7 on vain repetitions) When you first awaken, say the Jesus Prayer twenty to thirty times. As you do, something will begin to happen to you. God will begin to slowly occupy the center of your attention.(p. 92) (from Faith Undone, pp. 117-118).  Another book that the Manhattan Declaration Resource Directory recommends is Moreland’s Kingdom Triangle. In this book, Moreland makes his case for contemplative spirituality (Dallas Willard writes the foreword), encouraging readers to practice the exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Catholic order, the Jesuits (p. 156). It is essential to understand that by the Manhattan Declaration pointing signers to contemplative proponents like Issler, Moreland, and Willard, they are giving their signers the spirituality of Henri Nouwen, who at the end of  his life (having adhered to mysticism for many years) said:  “Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.”2 You see, Nouwen emulated the “fruit” of Catholic contemplative mysticism, which is interspirituality (thus negating the Gospel of Jesus Christ) (For a documented expose on the spirituality of Henri Nouwen and the spiritual formation movement, see A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen). Ironically, Nouwen probably wouldn’t have signed the Declaration. In his book, In the Name of Jesus (a book highly valued by many of today’s Christian leaders, including Rick and Kay Warren), he emphasized the need for “Christian leadership” to move from “the moral to the mystical.” In other words, the emphasis of the Christian life should be more on the mystical (i.e., contemplative) rather than on traditional taboos of Christianity, such as those that the Declaration defends. The Resource Directory for the Manhattan Declaration signers has far more than just Willard, Moreland, and Issler. They are also recommending Brian McLaren, an emergent leader who has publicly denounced the atonement doctrine of the Bible, calling it “false advertising” for God. McLaren is also a major proponent of eastern-style mysticism (i.e., mantric), which can be clearly seen in his book, Finding Our Way Again. In this book, McLaren twists Scripture by suggesting that the Old Testament priest Melchizedek was of a different religion than Abraham, and Abraham used a mystical practice to connect with Melchizedek. Thus McLaren draws this conclusion: “[W]e discover practices for our own faith in an encounter with someone of another faith” (p. 25). This is what occultists believe. Occultist Aldous Huxley said that mysticism is the “highest common factor” that “links the world’s religious traditions” and leads man to recognize the divinity within all things (see As Above, So Below, p. 2). Even though Brian McLaren rejects some of the basic tenets of biblical Christianity and clings to mystical beliefs of other religions, the Manhattan Declaration recommends him (p. 16).   Other troublesome names that the Manhattan Declaration is calling “excellent resources”  and “like-minded worldview organizations and leaders working together for cultural transformation” (p. 7) are Buddhist-sympathizer Peter Kreeft, emerging church figure, Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz), the contemplative-promoting Teen Mania, and Ken Boa. The book the Declaration recommends by Boa, Conformed to His Image, is a primer in contemplative spirituality. In his book, Boa favorably references practices like lectio divina and figures like Richard Foster (Renovare), Thomas Merton, and Thomas Keating (Merton and Keating are two of the primary pioneers of the current contemplative prayer movement). Boa also references mystic Jean Pierre de Caussade’s book Abandonment to Divine Providence, referring to the “sacrament of the present moment,” a concept often used to encourage people to enter the silence. And here is an interesting note: Boa tells readers: “The spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola incorporate these and other meditative techniques.” Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Jesuits (an order in the Catholic church), whose purpose was mainly to bring “rebelling” Protestants back to the mother church. The barbarity and cruelness of the Jesuits was unspeakable.  Another Jesuit priest, one who has indirect connections to the evangelical church today and one who is in line with the Aquarian Conspiracy [New Age christ-consciousness], is the late Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In Chardin’s book, Christianity and Evolution, he makes these  comments: [T]he Cross still stands … But this on one condition, and one only: that it expand itself to the dimensions of a New Age, and cease to present itself to us as primarily (or even exclusively) the sign of a victory over sin. (p. 219-220). I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await, is the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution (p. 95). What I am proposing to do is to narrow that gap between pantheism and Christianity by bringing out what one might call the Christian soul of Pantheism of the pantheist aspect of Christianity (p. 56). In Warren B. Smith’s book, A “Wonderful” Deception, Smith reveals that Rick Warren colleague Leonard Sweet calls Chardin “Twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice” (AWD, p. 111 ). But Chardin does not represent biblical Christianity-on the contrary, he falls in a spiritual camp that embraces the “cosmic Christ,” which is the I AM (God) in every creature. Even though this christ-consciousness-in-all-people belief rejects the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, Sweet has openly aligned himself with Chardin. In Sweet’s book, Aqua Church, he favorably quotes Chardin saying: “Christ is in the Church in the same way as the sun is before our eyes. We see the same sun as our fathers saw, and yet we understand it in a much more magnificent way” (p. 39, Aqua Church). While it is true that Leonard Sweet is not a signer of the Manhattan Declaration, this IS the direction that evangelical Christianity is heading. Please understand that this “vintage” Christianity (i.e. contemplative and/or emerging) is moving relentlessly toward the Catholic mystical tradition. So for Christian leaders, who already are nearly void of understanding the dangers of the contemplative/emerging movement, to stand together in solidarity with leaders of the Catholic church is only going to further remove the barriers in people’s minds that these two approaches to God are radically different, and even actually oppose each other (see Council of Trent anathemas). Finally, we want to point out one more resource that the Manhattan Declaration is recommending: Renovare, which is the organization founded by contemplative pioneer Richard Foster. An entire book could be written on Foster alone, but in this article we are going to draw your attention to just one aspect. Those who understand the dynamics of the New Age/New Spirituality (i.e., contemplative) can research the Renovare website to gain further insight. One of the people whom Foster has used extensively for both his Spiritual Formation Study “Bible” and his  Life With God “Bible” is Walter Brueggemann. Brueggemann helped to edit these Renovare “Bibles.” Yet, Brueggemann, who could actually be considered a pioneer of the emerging church movement, resonates with atonement denier Alan Jones and actually endorsed the back cover of Jones’ book, Reimagining Christianity. In that book, Jones says that the doctrine of the Cross is a “vile” doctrine and that: The Church’s fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end, and the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why? Because of the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it” (p. 132).  It is THIS spirituality that the Manhattan Declaration is handing over to potentially millions of conservative Christians. And it is THIS spirituality of which we are compelled to warn against. What is puzzling is that if these Evangelical leaders want to raise up morality in America, why have so many of them openly endorsed the emerging/contemplative spirituality in one aspect or another, which overall ignores or downplays a stand against homosexual marriage, abortion, and other moral issues that the Manhattan Declaration speaks of? Are they repenting? No mention of that. Many of them STILL are promoting the contemplative/emerging spirituality that will continue to remove traditional morality from our society. It seems rather distorted when these leaders are being seen as taking a stand for morality when all along they are promoting a spirituality that ultimately undermines it. We could give you example after example of the New Spirituality’s move away from morality (and we have in many articles these past seven years), and we could give you example after example of Christian leaders’ promotion of the New Spirituality and its cohorts (and we have also done that over and over again). Are these signers of the Manhattan Declaration truly concerned about the present moral condition of the United States? Probably most of them are. But it’s going to take a lot more than their signatures on a document-God will require much more.  For one, he is going to want them to renounce the heretical teachings of the New Age/New Spirituality. Some media reports on the Declaration have suggested that these evangelical leaders are risking their very ministries by signing this document. This is hardly enough to be called a martyr for the faith. Those martyred in the past were often those believers who would not stand with the papacy and false gospel of Rome-hundreds of thousands of them were murdered for this. For those who have any doubts as to the deceptive all-out efforts by Satan to destroy God’s truth by introducing “another gospel” (II Corinthians 11:4), especially in today’s world where the last days birth pangs are increasing (Matthew 24), we recommend you view a new film documentary titled A Lamp in the Dark (see link below). If you think there hasn’t been an ongoing move to destroy God’s Word and the true Gospel message, then this is a must-see film.  Before signing the ecumenical Manhattan Declaration, thinking that this kind of joint declaration is going to “save” America, get all the facts and ask the Lord for His wisdom (James 1:5-6),  not the dubious “wisdom” of Christian leaders today. Lighthouse Trails is certainly not against standing up for morality. On the contrary. But one must look at the spiritual undertones that have found their way into Christianity today, including the endeavor addressed in this article. We must always keep in mind what Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner said, that the Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will be nothing at all. His vision is becoming more and more a reality. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:5-6 More Information: Five Opposing Responses to the Manhattan Declaration (John MacArthur (Grace to You), Jacob Prasch, (Moriel Ministries), Mike Gendron (Proclaiming the Gospel), Alistair Begg, Pastor Claude Stauffe (Calvary Chapel, North Amityville, NY) “Evangelicals and New Agers Together” by Warren B. Smith Should Christians Sign The Manhattan Declaration? by Pastor Adam Gislason The Manhattan Declaration: Why faithful Christians SHOULD NOT sign it.-Cecil Andrews, Take Heed Ministries, Northern Ireland New Documentary Release: A Lamp in the Dark: The Untold History of the Bible **Note: In the event that you cannot access the Resource Directory from the Manhattan Declaration website (if for some reason it is removed or becomes disabled),  you may view the exact same Resource Directory on Chuck Colson’s website. Click here.

Lighthouse Trails Research Project Editors – Lighthouse Trails Publishing

THE “TESTIMONY” OF THE BOOK OF MORMON

THE “TESTIMONY” OF THE BOOK OF MORMON

[TBC: At the October 2009 Latter Day Saint (Mormon) General Conference LDS "apostle" Jeffrey Holland gave a "testimony" of the Book of Mormon. He said, "I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this Latter-day work and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these our times until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text, teeming with literary and Semitic complexity, without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages somehow-especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers-if that's the case then such persons, elect or otherwise, have been deceived. And if they leave this Church, they must do so by crawling over, or under, or around the Book of Mormon to make their exit." (Jeffrey R. Holland, Oct. 4, 2009, reported in Salt Lake Tribune.)
This same Jeffrey Holland, back in 1994, had also said, "I am suggesting that we make exactly the same kind of do-or-die bold assertion about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ [as we do of] the divine origins of the Book of Mormon. We have to. Reason and rightness require it. Accept Joseph Smith as a prophet and the book [of Mormon] as miraculously revealed and revered word of the Lord it is or else consign both man and book to Hades for the devastating deception of it all, but let’s not have any bizarre middle ground about the wonderful contours of a young boy’s imagination or his remarkable facility for turning a literary phrase. That is an unacceptable position to take…” (New Era, June 1995, p. 64).

Apostle Holland does not list actual doctrinal teachings from the BoM that would make the BoM important to the Church. He cannot, for none of the important Mormon doctrines are found in the Book of Mormon. He is just saying that it is Joseph Smith’s credibility that is in question, that if the book is not true, then Joseph Smith is a deceiver and his church a hoax.

I can you tell from my personal experience that if the missionaries can get people to accept the Book of Mormon as what the Church says it is, then they will accept all the rest and convert to Mormonism. The missionaries did not even ask me to read the entire book, just sample it and believe that it is what the Church says it is. Potential converts, as I was then, are only asked to pray about it, and if they “ask with a sincere heart” they will receive confirmation that it is true. If no positive confirmation is coming, then it must be that they were not sincere – and they must keep praying until they receive such an answer! Suggestions for actually testing the Book of Mormon and its authenticity, receive disapproval and a reply that it is only “an evil and adulterous generation that seeks for a sign”. They say that believing the BoM is a matter of faith, not of proof, contrasting biblical command to “prove all things” (1 Thes. 5:21; 1 John 4:1), so that, as Jesus said, “no man deceive you” (Matt. 24:4). We must remember: “Faith that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.”

(Higley, H.I.S. Ministries Newsletter, November 1, 2009).

Tomado de www.thebereancall.org

CLIMATE CHANGE DATA DUMPED

CLIMATE CHANGE DATA DUMPED  [Excerpts]

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.
It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

The UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss following requests for the data under Freedom of Information legislation.

The data were gathered from weather stations around the world and then adjusted to take account of variables in the way they were collected. The revised figures were kept, but the originals – stored on paper and magnetic tape – were dumped to save space when the CRU moved to a new building.

The admission follows the leaking of a thousand private emails sent and received by Professor Phil Jones, the CRU’s director. In them he discusses thwarting climate sceptics seeking access to such data.

In a statement on its website, the CRU said: “We do not hold the original raw data but only the value-added (quality controlled and homogenised) data.”

The CRU is the world’s leading centre for reconstructing past climate and temperatures. Climate change sceptics have long been keen to examine exactly how its data were compiled. That is now impossible.

(Leake, “Climate change data dumped,” The Sunday Times Online, November 29, 2009)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece

Today is World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day

I Am Free From Homosexuality While Homosexual Activists Continue To Glorify The Sin That is Leading Cause of AIDS in U. S.

by James Hartline

The James Hartline Report

Today is World AIDS Day – I have been fighting a twelve year battle with the AIDS virus, a disease that I acquired in my former life of promiscuity, drug abuse and homosexuality. For ten years now, I have been making my stand for the Lord Jesus Christ to declare to America that there is a way out of the destruction of homosexuality and its many diabolical consequences.

On this World AIDS Day, I announce once again, the power of God to heal, deliver and correct the soul bound up in sin and sickness. I am living proof that God’s word is true and His power to transform the most wicked prisoner of sin is still available to all who will humble themselves and receive Jesus Christ as Messiah, Savior, Deliverer and Healer. As the world is reminded of the millions of men, women, children and babies who have died of AIDS, gay activists will be using the December 1, 2009 World AIDS Day to glorify homosexuality and the gay lifestyle which is still, by a wide margin, the leading cause of HIV transmissions in the United States. The Center for Disease Control recently released a report that shows men who have sex with other men is the only group in America that shows a rise in the rate of HIV transmissions. Promiscuity, fueled by self-destructive lusts, perpetuates the catastrophic spread of AIDS in homosexual communities throughout America, Canada and Europe. In America, 46% of all black male homosexuals living in urban areas are infected with the AIDS virus. Often, without telling their wives or girlfriends, black men living on the “down low” will be engaging in secret risky homosexual behavior and become infected with HIV. They then spread the disease to their unsuspecting female partners.

America’s taxpayers have given billions of dollars to homosexual activists under the naive and wasted ideas of HIV prevention, education and condom use. This disastrous appeal to appease the aggressive gay political agenda has been orchestrated without any consideration for the spiritual components of repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ. The results of this approach have been devastating. These same gay activists have pilfered the billions of tax dollars and used them to promote homosexuality, gay marriage and their radicalized vision of enshrining gay activism as a cultural stepping stone to an antichristian government. AIDS continues to spread like wildfire in gay communities, not because of a lack of scientific education, condoms and resources. The wildfire of AIDS continues to burn in gay communities because in the radicalized gay agenda sin is glorified and the wages of sin is death.

Did I make the right decision to renounce homosexuality after spending thirty years in that sin? I know I did. While the Center for Disease Control reports that men who engage in homosexuality will die 20 years earlier than their heterosexual counterparts, the average life expectancy of a homosexual male with AIDS is reduced to 39 years. After suffering with AIDS for 12 years, I am about to celebrate my 52nd birthday. If I had continued to engage in homosexuality I would surely be dead by now — and burning in hell. Following Jesus Christ is not just an eternal matter. It is also a matter of better health and longevity. I know. I am living proof.

You can watch my life story on http://jameshartlinereport.blogspot.com/2009/12/today-is-world-aids-day-i-am-free-from.html

MYSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY

MYSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY

It is characteristic of mysticism that it makes its appeal to the feelings as the sole, or at least as the normative, source of knowledge of divine things. That is to say, it is the religious sentiment which constitutes for it the source of religious knowledge. Of course mystics differ with one another in the consistency with which they apply their principle. And of course they differ with one another in the account they give of this religious sentiment to which they make their appeal. There are, therefore, many varieties of mystics, pure and impure, consistent and inconsistent, naturalistic and supernaturalistic, pantheistic and theistic – even Christian. What is common to them all, and what makes them all mystics, is that they all rest on the religious sentiment as the source of knowledge of divine things.

 

The great variety of the accounts which mystics give of the feeling to which they make their appeal arises from the very nature of the case. There is a deeper reason for a mystic being “mute” – that is what the name imports – than that he wishes to make a mystery of his discoveries. He is “mute” because, as a mystic, he has nothing to say. When he sinks within himself he finds feelings, not conceptions; his is an emotional, not a conceptional, religion; and feelings, emotions, though not inaudible, are not articulate. As a mystic, he has no conceptional language in which to express what he feels. If he attempts to describe it he must make use of terms derived from the religious or philosophical thought in vogue about him, that is to say, of non-mystical language. His hands may be the hands of Esau, but his voice is the voice of Jacob. The language in which he describes the reality which he finds within him does not in the least indicate, then, what it is; it is merely a concession to the necessity of communicating with the external world or with his own more external self. What he finds within him is just to his apprehension an “unutterable abyss.” And Synesius does himself and his fellow mystics no injustice when he declares that “the mystic mind says this and that, gyrating around the unutterable abyss.”
 
(The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, Volume IX, p. 651-652).

Tomado de www.thebereancall.org

 

Ateos hacen oír su voz en recintos universitarios

Ateos hacen oír su voz en recintos universitarios

 

AMES, IOWA. Anastasia Bodnar, una estudiante de doctorado de la Universidad Estatal de Iowa (ISU), se ha dado a la tarea de llevar una fuerte campaña ateísta en su recinto universitario. Una vez por semana, la joven se sienta en un quiosco en un centro comunitario del recinto universitario, para responder preguntas y recibir insultos ocasionales mientras trata de llamar la atención sobre el escepticismo religioso. En una silla de madera, para llamar la atención coloca un cartel que dice: “Pregúntale a un ateo”.

Bodnar preside la Sociedad de Ateísmo y Agnosticismo de ISU, pero admite que muchos en la universidad no saben que existe dicha organización, y los que lo saben o les temen o los odian y piensan que son unos agitadores.

A medida que disminuye el estigma relacionado con el ateísmo, los ateos y agnósticos en las universidades están saliendo del clóset, fomentando clubes como el grupo de la ISU, que tiene 10 años de fundado.

Según Associated Press, Las afiliadas universitarias de la Alianza Secular de Estudiantes, una especie de Cruzada Universitaria Sin Dios, se han multiplicado de 80 en el 2007 a 100 en el 2008 y 174 este otoño, facilitando al movimiento ateísta nuevos campos de entrenamiento para sus futuros líderes. Otra señal de su creciente aceptación es que al menos tres universidades, entre ellas Harvard, cuentan con capellanes humanistas para llenar las necesidades de los menos espirituales.

En la Universidad del Sur de la Florida, por ejemplo, hay dos clubes activos: uno de librepensadores que hacen asados en la escuela y otro de ateos que protestan ante una visita de un grupo antiaborto.

Con el crecimiento ha ocurrido una gran introspección espiritual –o su equivalente ateo– sobre lo que deben ser los grupos seculares universitarios, parte de una mayor autoexaminación en el movimiento ateísta suscitada por el alza de los llamados “nuevos ateos”, autores de libros que figuran en la lista de éxito, y que denigran la religión y la culpan de los males del mundo.

¿Deberían los grupos ateos mantenerse independientes o crear puentes con los grupos cristianos? ¿Organizar protestas políticas o discretos grupos de discusión?

En ISU, la mayoría de los miembros del club, unos 30, son “ex” algo, cristianos en su mayor parte. Muchos subrayan que su vida no está guiada por la antirreligiosidad, sino por la creencia en la ciencia, la lógica y la razón.

“El objetivo”, dijo Andrew Severin, investigador post-doctoral de bioinformática, “debería ser conseguir la paz interior para uno mismo y ser bondadosos con desconocidos al azar”.

Cuando el club de ISU comenzó en 1999, era fundamentalmente un grupo de discusión. Pero pronto se puso en claro que los jóvenes que abandonan la religión organizada extrañan algo: el sentimiento de comunidad. Así que el grupo añadió al calendario noches de cine y de juegos de mesa, y, más recientemente, brunches dominicales dos veces al mes.

Los miembros se proponen asimismo interactuar con sus compañeros de estudio en ISU, una escuela de ciencia y tecnología de 28,000 estudiantes con tendencias conservadoras. Ellos han organizado una velada de “Infusiones y opiniones” en un café y charlas con invitados como en cualquier recinto universitario.

El quiosco de “Pregúntale a un ateo” es el intento más visible de llegar a la comunidad. Un viernes reciente, un puñado de miembros se dispone a interceptar a estudiantes en camino a almorzar o a sacar dinero de un cajero automático.

Son pocos los que pasan. Scott Moseley, estudiante de último año oriundo de Bettendorf, Iowa, se detiene para conversar cortésmente.

El explica que se crió como metodista, tiene un amigo budista y está saliendo con una practicante de la Wicca.

Bodnar, que es ex católica y está casada con un budista, le recomienda la congregación unitaria universalista local, que sirve de refugio a una plétora de gente de diversos orígenes religiosos y a algunos miembros de la Sociedad de Ateísmo y Agnosticismo de ISU.

Lo más cercano a una confrontación ocurre cuando otro estudiante, con una gorra de béisbol hundida hasta las cejas, les dice en un susurro: “Yo a ustedes no puedo escucharlos”, y se va.

En ISU, lo que un miembro del club describe como una pandilla de inadaptados y marginados está tratando de crear un espacio en el cual los ateos puedan coexistir pacíficamente.

 

http://cristianos.com/2009/11/ateos-hacen-oir-su-voz-en-recintos-universitarios/

 

Nota Álex: Un mito creado por los ateos, agnósticos y escépticos es que los cristianos no usamos (o estamos en contra de) la ciencia, la lógica y la razón. De hecho, el Cristianismo (el verdadero, no las imitaciones religiosas) va de la mano con la ciencia, la lógica y la razón.

Two somali pastor shot

Pastor shot, killed on way home from worship [Excerpts]

 

Two masked members of the al-Shabaab Muslim militia shot and killed a pastor in Somalia as he drove home from a worship service, according to reports.

Mogadishu pastor Ali Hussein Weheliye was killed in the attack in October, but reports of the incident didn’t come out until this week.

Experts at the missions think-tank the Joshua Project estimate Somalia is 99 percent Muslim. International Christian Concern’s Jonathan Racho agrees with that statistic and says the overwhelming numbers make it difficult to be a Christian in Somalia.

“A vast majority of Somalis are Muslims, but there are hundreds of Christians in Somalia. This pastor was the pastor of an underground church,” Racho said.

“Christians in Somalia have to go underground and they don’t give away their identities because once al-Shabaab knows someone is a Christian, that is a death sentence for that person,” he said.

Racho makes the death sentence claim because al-Shabaab is a jihadist militia with close ties to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorist group.

Intelligence sources say most al-Shabaab fighters receive training at al-Qaida or Taliban training camps in Pakistan before being sent to Somalia for the declared anti-Christian jihad in that eastern African nation.

Racho said these facts are evidence Weheliye’s murder is not an isolated incident.

“Al-Shabaab has gone on a campaign of killing Christians. One of its official policies is to eradicate Christians from Somalia,” Racho said.

“This year alone, Pastor Ali is the fifteenth Christian to be killed in Somalia. The killing has been going on for the past several years. The church in Somalia is going through a difficult time. If this trend continues many more Christians will be killed and many will be forced to leave Somalia,” Racho explained.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116390

 

The More They Know Darwin

The More They Know Darwin, The Less They Want Darwin-Only Indoctrination

 

According to an international poll released by the British Council, the majority of Americans – 60% – support teaching alternatives to evolution in the science classroom. The percentage is the same for Britons….Of course, the British media reporting this are chagrined. Britain is the birthplace of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, and the official-sounding British Council, the UK group behind the “Darwin Now” campaign that commissioned the Ipsos MORI poll, have spent precious resources educating the world about Darwin. Now some believe the poll shows that efforts by Darwinist organizations aren’t working.

Head of the British Council’s Darwin Now program Fern Elsdon-Baker said, “Overall these results may reflect the need for a more sophisticated approach to teaching and communicating how science works as a process.”

While Darwin’s apologists might try to explain the poll numbers as an example of ignorance influencing people’s beliefs, the numbers themselves suggest a different picture.

Across the board, most respondents from the ten countries polled thought that “other perspectives on the origins of species” “such as intelligent design and creationism” should be taught in science class*. When the poll is weighted to include only those respondents who have heard of Charles Darwin and know something about his theory of evolution, the percentage supporting alternate theories increases, from 60% to 66% in Britain and 60% to 64% in the U.S.

The correlation appears again when we consider which countries have more knowledge of Darwin’s theory. The highest numbers of those in support of alternative theories in the classroom correspond to the highest numbers of those familiar with Charles Darwin – 60% in Britain, 65% in Mexico, 61% in China, 66% in Russia, and 60% in the U.S. It appears that the more people know about Darwin’s theory, the more they want to see alternatives in science class.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/10/the_more_they_know_darwin_the.htm

 

Estalla bomba frente a iglesia evangélica que apoyó golpe en Honduras

Estalla bomba frente a iglesia evangélica que apoyó golpe en Honduras

Un artefacto explosivo estalló el pasado domingo por la mañana en las inmediaciones de la iglesia evangélica Vida Abundante, que dirige el pastor Evelio Reyes.

 

Un artefacto explosivo estalló el pasado domingo por la mañana en las inmediaciones de la iglesia evangélica Vida Abundante, que dirige el pastor Evelio Reyes, quien apoyó el golpe de Estado contra el derrocado presidente Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

El explosivo de fabricación casera estalló en un vehículo que estaba a pocos metros de la iglesia, ubicada en la colonia Las Colinas de esta capital, sin causar víctimas, informaron a emisoras locales miembros del Escuadrón Anti Bombas de la Policía Nacional.

Varios artefactos explosivos han estallado en los últimos días en diversos sectores del país, a las puertas de las elecciones generales del próximo domingo 29 para elegir al presidente, miembros del Congreso Nacional y alcaldes.

La Policía Nacional inició el lunes un desarme general en todo el país.

Las armas serán decomisadas incluso a las personas que tengan permiso para portarlas y luego, pasadas las elecciones, podrán reclamarlas.

 

Fuente: NoticiaCristiana.com

 

CAIR speaker to Muslims: OK to attack Fort Bragg

COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS: “IT’S OKAY TO ATTACK FORT HOOD”

CAIR speaker to Muslims: OK to attack Fort Bragg [Excerpts]

 

A Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] adviser and regular speaker at its events has suggested Islamic law permits Muslims to attack C-130 military transport planes carrying the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, NC. Radical Islamic cleric Zaid Shakir, a frequent guest speaker at CAIR events, tells his Muslim audiences: “Jihad is physically fighting the enemies of Islam to protect and advance the religion of Islam. This is jihad.” Acceptable targets of jihad, he says, include U.S. military aircraft. “Islam doesn’t permit us to hijack airplanes filled with civilian people,” Shakir once told a Muslim audience. However, “If you hijack an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne, that’s something else.” The 82nd Airborne Division’s elite paratroopers fly out of Fort Bragg, N.C., which is part of North Carolina state Sen. Larry Shaw’s district. Shaw is CAIR’s new chairman. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly gunned down in cold blood more than 50 of his fellow soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan from Fort Hood, Texas. Eyewitnesses say before opening fire, Hasan jumped up on a desk and screamed, “Allahu akbar!” like the 9/11 hijackers. The suspect fatally shot 13, including a security guard. The death toll is actually 14 when a slain unborn child is counted. Imam Shakir also gives his blessing to the use of bombs as a weapon of jihad, as long as the explosives hit “select” targets and are not indiscriminate in their destruction. Civilians can be a legitimate target, he says, if “there’s a benefit in that,” according to “Muslim Mafia,” co-authored by former federal agent P. David Gaubatz and investigative journalist Paul Sperry, author of “Infiltration.” Even “old elderly men” and “women who are conscripted” – including Israeli and American women in uniform – are eligible enemy combatants in jihad. “This is Shariah,” Shakir asserts in a CD recording of one of his lectures in 2001, which the authors obtained from a radical mosque bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115687