Monday 30 May 2011

30/5/11 - O no! USA Today challenges Oprah on Jesus Christ

'Absolutely contrary to the true teaching of Scripture and historic Christianity'

As Oprah Winfrey's television show comes to a conclusion this week, USA Today is challenging the queen of daytime TV's spirituality, quoting authors who say Oprah's beliefs are "absolutely contrary to the true teaching of Scripture and historic Christianity."

The report by Cathy Lynn Grossman opens by asking to whom will Oprah turn now that she's leaving the TV talk circuit.

"God?" the report asks. "Not likely. Many Americans no longer believe in a mighty judge who sets the rules for life now and forever. Instead, many of us sing Oprah's song of self-redemption."
Oprah told Piers Morgan on the CNN host's opening show: "I am the messenger to deliver the message of hope and redemption."

USA Today says to a vast extent, American culture has bought the message: We're all good, we should not judge each other and morality is relative.

It quotes Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay who said Oprah draws on multiple religious traditions to "create a hodgepodge personalized faith."

USA Today explains: "This is, of course, a message that horrifies traditional believers who decry it, like Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett in their book, "'O' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality."
In the book, the authors state: "The danger is that while appearing to use Christian and inclusive language that at first seems similar to that of Christianity, Oprah teaches a message that is radically different and absolutely contrary to the true teaching of Scripture and historic Christianity."

On "Good Morning America" on the day of her final show, Oprah noted, "I often say, 'Nobody but Jesus could have made this happen for me. I had no stylist, I had no publicist, I [was not] marketing-savvy, I was the most naive in terms of how the business operated."

Though brought up as a Baptist, Oprah has since embraced and promoted a New Age-style philosophy promoted by Eckhart Tolle of "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth."

She explained how she reconciled her Christian roots with Tolle's let-go-and-breathe counseling on peace through silence and stillness: "What I believe is that Jesus came to show us Christ consciousness. That Jesus came to show us the way of the heart and that what Jesus was saying that to show us the higher consciousness that we're all talking about here ... ."

Winfrey's television and print empire was stained in October 2009 by the tragic deaths of three people who were following the spiritual teaching of one of Winfrey's celebrated and promoted self-help gurus, James Arthur Ray.

Winfrey's philosophy of spirituality is embraced by many in her audience, especially those, like the TV host, who have grown disillusioned with organized religion and traditional Christianity.
But after 19 people were hospitalized and three killed during one of Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" seminars at a sweat lodge near Sedona, Ariz., some are questioning whether Winfrey's brand of spiritual wisdom is leading people closer to or further from the truth.

Best-selling author and Christian apologist Josh McDowell and fellow apologist Dave Sterrett of Probe Ministries released a new book – "'O' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality" – asking that very question just two days before the sweat-lodge tragedy.

"[Oprah's] popularity is so huge," says Sterrett in a videotaped discussion about his new book, "that when people are getting turned off by organized religion and they think the church is full of hypocrites, they're turning to Oprah; and we need to respond in love and truth."

"The danger is that while appearing to use Christian and inclusive language that at first seems similar to that of Christianity," the authors explain, "Oprah teaches a message that is radically different and absolutely contrary to the true teaching of Scripture and historic Christianity."
Video of the authors discussing their book can be seen below:

A statement from the authors describes the unusual, dialogue style of "'O' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality" this way:

"O" God follows conversations of two girlfriends representing the multitudes of Oprah fans, who unwittingly place their faith in the hodgepodge of spirituality embedded in her popular TV talk show, magazine and webinars. In the end, a life-altering crisis helps crystallize the truth from counterfeit teachings. Like classic Christian author C.S. Lewis, McDowell and Sterrett decided to employ fictional narrative to disarm and entertain readers, while refusing to shy away from biblical truths, and expose Oprah's errant teachings.

"What we want to do is to get people thinking about what they're saying and what they're believing, and I mean Christians," McDowell explains in the video discussion. "I would say the average Christian would not be able to answer the basic issues that Oprah brings up. What they could is be dogmatic and quote Scripture, and that's it."

He continues, "I pray with this book there's going to be more, informed Christians who are able to think through what they believe and how to make it relevant in their culture and society."
As WND reported, in addition to being an occasional guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Ray appeared in a DVD version of "The Secret," a New Age book authored by Rhonda Byrne that was heavily promoted by Winfrey.

Ray's website advertises that now is the perfect time to "once and for all enjoy total abundance and true wealth: financial, relationally, mentally, physically and spiritually."
The site proclaims, "You really do have the power within you (regardless of what everyone else does) to create the life you desire and deserve."
Following the sweat-lodge deaths, Ray has faced potential criminal investigation and vowed to hire his own investigative team to look into the tragedy.
"This is the most difficult time I've ever faced," he told about 200 people at a subsequent seminar. "I don't know how to deal with it really."

Sunday 29 May 2011

29/5/11 - Crystal Cathedral to file bankruptcy exit plan

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press – Fri May 27, 10:33 pm ET

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – The Southern California megachurch founded by one of the nation's pioneering televangelists, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, on Friday filed a bankruptcy plan that would pull the Crystal Cathedral out of crushing debt by selling its sprawling campus and famous, glass-spired sanctuary to a local real estate investment group for $47 million.

The church would lease back most of its core buildings under the plan, which must be approved by a bankruptcy judge, so worshippers and visitors won't notice any changes in services or outreach. The church's popular, decades-old televangelist program "Hour of Power" broadcasts would also continue, the church said.

The plan would allow the ministry to lease the church buildings back for a guaranteed 15-year period, with the additional option of buying the core campus back at a fixed price within four years, said Marc Winthrop, the church's bankruptcy attorney.

The deal would erase the cathedral's $36 million mortgage and wipe out almost all of the $10 million in unsecured debt — including $7.5 million owed to vendors — that has plagued the Crystal Cathedral for several years after a disastrous leadership transition and a devastating slump in donations.
The ministry must be out of the Family Life Center, which houses administrative offices and a private school, within two years, the attorney said.

"The ministry is going to continue in the same place, in the same buildings," said Winthrop said. "It's just that we had to go through a financing transition to get rid of the debt."
A court hearing is set for July 13.

The plan specifies that the ministry will sell the property to the Orange County-based real estate investment firm Greenlaw Partners LLC, according to disclosures filed with the bankruptcy court. The property will be divided into up to five parcels and multi-family housing will be built on two parcels, with a parking lot on a third parcel.

The buyer has agreed to pay $46 million with an additional $900,000 set aside in escrow, according to court papers.

The charismatic Schuller got his start in Southern California preaching about the "power of positive thinking" from the roof of a concession stand at a drive-in theater as the car culture began to boom in the post-World War II era. He was considered a theological radical at the time, but people were soon driving from all over the Los Angeles area to sit in their cars and listen to Schuller preach through the movie loudspeakers that hooked to their windows.

Schuller, now 84, soon turned his humble pulpit into one of the nation's first megachurches, beaming his weekly Sunday service into 1 million homes worldwide through the "Hour of Power" TV show, which went on the air in 1970. Schuller became a familiar presence on television, a smiling figure in flowing robes, with snowy white hair and wire-rimmed aviator glasses.

In 1980, he opened the Crystal Cathedral, a 2,900-seat see-through church made of 10,664 panes of glass. A $20 million architectural marvel designed by the acclaimed Philip Johnson, it became a major Southern California landmark and a tourist attraction that drew people from all over the world. Schuller soon added a K-12 school and a tourist center.
But his religious empire began to collapse after a disastrous attempt in 2006 to hand over the leadership to his son, Robert A. Schuller.
The much-heralded changeover alienated older "Hour of Power" viewers and ended in a bitter and very public family spat, with the younger Schuller disappearing from the broadcasts and abruptly leaving the church altogether in 2008, less than three years after he assumed his father's mantle. The elder Schuller's daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman, was eventually named senior pastor, a position she continues to hold.
A plummeting economy also took its toll, and viewer donations declined by as much as 24 percent in 2009, the year before the church declared bankruptcy. Its local congregation now stands at fewer than 5,000 people, although new Spanish-language and Arabic-language services draw about 2,000 and 400 worshippers respectively.

The church laid off 250 of its roughly 450 employees, sold its beloved retreat center, cut salaries and canceled contracts with more than 100 TV stations nationwide. It also canceled its world-famous Christmas and Easter pageants and racked up unpaid bills to 550 creditors, including vendors who provided live animals, costumes and other props and services for the epic holiday shows.
A week after declaring bankruptcy, the elder Schuller went on the "Hour of Power" with an emotional plea to viewers to donate more to help his ministry survive.

"If you are a tither, become a double-tither. If you are not a tither, become a tither," he said at the time. "This ministry has earned your trust. This ministry has earned your help."
Schuller Coleman said in a statement posted on the church's website that the church had picked this restructuring plan from among several because it allowed vendors to be repaid immediately and put the church on solid financial footing to pursue a new vision, including global outreach to the poor.
"We need to rise up and be the hands of Christ to help a hurting world one neighborhood at a time. Reaching future generations with the positive message of Jesus Christ requires an outreach of love," she said in the statement. "I'm excited about what God is doing now and will be doing in the future through the Crystal Cathedral

On Friday, worshippers and tourists at the church's Garden Grove campus said they were cautiously optimistic and continued to support the cathedral and its new vision.
"It sounds to me like it's a good thing," said Mike Amaneck, who has attended church at the cathedral every Sunday for 13 years. "It's a wonderful positive place and I was really inspired by the news ... because it's better for the church to go through this to be in a position where they'll come out stronger — and they will come out stronger, there's no doubt about it.

As Amaneck spoke, tourists from as far away as Germany wandered the 40-acre grounds in the sunshine, snapping pictures and lingering outside the sanctuary, where a private funeral was being held.
"I think the news today is an opportunity of hope," said Amaneck's wife, Sarah. "There are times in life when things look kind of dark and gloomy, but God will have the last word."

Monday 23 May 2011

23/5/11 - Harold Camping 'flabbergasted'; rapture a no-show

ALAMEDA -- The man who said the world was going to end appeared at his front door in Alameda a day later, very much alive but not so well.

"It has been a really tough weekend," said Harold Camping, the 89-year-old fundamentalist radio preacher who convinced hundreds of his followers that the rapture would occur on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Massive earthquakes would strike, he said. Believers would ascend to heaven and the rest would be left to wander a godforsaken planet until Oct. 21, when Camping promised a fiery end to the world.
But on Sunday, almost 18 hours after he thought he'd be in heaven, there was Camping, "flabbergasted" in Alameda, wearing tan slacks, a tucked-in polo shirt and a light jacket.

Birds chirped. A gentle breeze blew. Across the street, neighbors focused on their yard work and the latest neighborhood gossip.

"I'm looking for answers," Camping said, adding that meant frequent prayer and consultations with friends.
"But now I have nothing else to say," he said, closing the door to his home. "I'll be back to work Monday and will say more then."

Camping's followers will surely be listening.
"I'm not as disappointed as everyone since I didn't fully believe him," said one, who asked to remain anonymous Sunday because he worried he would be shunned for admitting he was "upset" with Camping.
The middle-aged Oakland resident said he'd been listening to Camping since 1993, when he said the world would end in 1994.

That was strike one, the man said. And this is strike two. Even so, he said, that doesn't mean the message is wrong.

"I just know he's biblically sound," the man said. "I've never been one of these guys who think everything he says is true.

"I don't think I am going to stop listening to him," the man added, heaving a deep sigh before continuing: "I don't know, I gotta listen to him on Monday, see what he says on the radio."
Outside Camping's compound near the Oakland airport, which was locked and dark on Sunday, a different religious group waited for dejected believers.

"I would encourage them not to lose their faith because they listened to a wolf in sheep's clothing, and Jesus said there would be wolves in sheep's clothing," said Jackie Alnor.
Alnor, a resident of Hayward who blogs about the rapture, said Camping had twisted the word of God by trying to predict the end. Only God knows when the world will end, she said.
"He's in big trouble with God," she said.

If that isn't bad enough, she said, Camping's false prophecy could have bigger impacts on religion.
"It's given people who hate Christianity an excuse to hate it even more," she said. "People can just paint with broad brush strokes."

Across town, a group of atheists gathered in Oakland's Masonic Center to observe the promised rapture in their own way.

"The issue is the Bible is mythology," said Larry Hicok, state director of the American Atheists, bluntly laying out his case.

Roughly 200 people attended the hastily scheduled conference to discuss the impact of organized religion on American culture.

"Every ruler needs a religion," Hicok said. "Everybody knows that's the way you get power."
He said too many followers of religion get lost in the details of their particular belief.
"Maybe the constant is love, and the rest of it you can let go of," he said.

Saturday 21 May 2011

21/5/11 - Believers that believe the World to End May 21

Believers World to End May 21

Doomsday church: Still open for business

By Annalyn Censky @CNNMoney May 19, 2011: 3:23 PM ET

end of the world, may 21, harold camping, judgment day, rapture, times square, religion, family radio

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- By now, you've probably heard of the religious group that's predicting the end of the world starts this weekend.
Harold Camping and his devoted followers claim a massive earthquake will mark the second coming of Jesus, or so-called Judgment Day on Saturday, May 21, ushering in a five month period of catastrophes before the world comes to a complete end in October.

end of the world, harold camping, family radio, doomsday, judgment day, may 21

At the center of it all, Camping's organization, Family Radio, is perfectly happy to take your money -- and in fact, received $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009. Camping founded Family Radio, a nonprofit Christian radio network based in Oakland, Calif. with about 65 stations across the country, in 1958.
But not even all of his own employees are convinced that the world is ending on Saturday.
In fact, many still plan on showing up at work on Monday.
"I don't believe in any of this stuff that's going on, and I plan on being here next week," a receptionist at their Oakland headquarters told CNNMoney.
A program producer in Illinois told us, "We're going to continue doing what we're doing."
According to their most recent IRS filings, Family Radio is almost entirely funded by donations, and brought in $18 million in contributions in 2009 alone.

Take a look at Family Radio's IRS filings

According to those financial documents, accountants put the total worth of Family Radio (referred to as Family Stations on its official forms) at $72 million.
With those kind of financials -- and controversial beliefs -- it's no wonder skeptics have accused the group of running a scam.
Camping first inaccurately predicted the world would end in 1994. Even so, he has gathered even more followers -- some who have given up their homes, entire life savings and their jobs because they believe the world is ending.
Esther, the receptionist in the Oakland office, said some of her most extreme coworkers have recently driven up in fancy cars or taken their families on nice vacations as a last hurrah.
But overall, she estimates about 80% of her coworkers don't even agree with Camping's May 21 forecast. She has stuck to her work as usual, booking appointments and filling up calendars for her coworkers well beyond the May 21 date.
Meanwhile, some employees are questioning the meaning of Harold Camping's goodbye letter sent to the Family Radio mailing list last week. While he says farewell, he encourages employees to "steadfastly continue to stand with us to proclaim the Gospel through Family Radio."
Could that mean he plans on disappearing, but the company should still go about its business as usual?

Read Harold Camping's goodbye letter

The producer in Illinois said, "We're trying to guess what it means for the company. Our producers have programs done through the end of the month, so we're not looking at that having any effect on the work."

Also curious is why Family Radio requested an extension to file their nonprofit paperwork. The group is required to submit financial documents in many of the states where they solicit donations, and in Minnesota they requested an extension from their July 15 deadline to November 15.
July 15th was already well past their Judgment Day prediction -- when they say believers will ascend to heaven -- so why bother requesting an extension to November?
But Family Radio's financial filings otherwise look hardly unusual for a religious nonprofit.
"At first glance, it looks like they have a lot of assets, but they actually don't have a lot of cash that they're stockpiling," said Laurie Styron, analyst with the American Institute of Philanthropy.
Most of the group's net worth is tied up in FCC broadcasting licenses, valued at $56 million. Family Radio claimed it held only $1.5 million in cash on its books at the end of 2009.
The paperwork shows Camping has so far, never taken a penny for his own salary, but Family Radio has plenty of other paid employees.

The nonprofit employed about 350 people and paid them a collective $8.3 million -- or roughly $23,000 per person -- in 2009.
What the 2009 IRS filings don't show, is how the organization's donations and expenses may have changed during 2010 and leading up to the May 21 Judgment Day prediction.
In the last few months, Family Radio billboards have popped up across the country. And the group purchased RVs to drive around the country on its evangelizing missions.
Those expenses could have changed their financial picture, but since Family Radio doesn't have to turn in their next IRS filing until November, it may not even matter.
"If people donating to this group think the world is ending on Saturday, then I'm not sure that they care," Styron said.

First Published: May 19, 2011: 10:57 AM ET

Friday 20 May 2011

Deception

They’re Coming Back!

Read Genesis 6 KJV & the Book of Enoch

Project Bluebeam & New World Order Alien Agenda 21

Oprah, Obama and the Occult

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED BEFORE HAND.

DO NOT FALL INTO THE ENEMY’S PIT.

DO NOT FALL TO ALL OF HIS LIES & DECEPTIONS.

FLEE! RUN AWAY FROM EVERYONE RELATED TO THEM!

SEEK THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, YAHUSHUA HAMASHIACH.

HE’S THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN PROTECT YOU IN THIS DARKEST HOUR.

HELPFUL ARTICLES WHICH THE LORD ALLOWED ME TO SHARE.

http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/2781111

PLEASE PROTECT YOURSELVES

WITH GOD’S WORD OF TRUTH.

The GREAT Maitreya DECEPTION

Maitreya “Miracle Star”

UFO Jerusalem & Horseman Egypt 2011

Rare Footage: Voice of Maitreya

Raj Patel, The Prince Who Shall Come

“Allah” IS NOT The GOD of ISRAEL

New Age “Lord Maitreya” part1

New Age “Lord Maitreya” part2

Explanation: Maitreya UN Commercial

UN Lucis Trust One World Order

More Dangers: Flee From the Evil One

Age of Aquarius (Luciferian)

Evil New Age Deception

Ascended Masters “Fallen Angels”

Aliens “Fallen Angels”

UFO Alien Deception

Fake UFO Rapture

Bloody Mary Maitreya “Miracle”

Vatican, the Church of Satan

Masters of Deception

Obama, Pope & Maitreya

Death & Judgment

Make Your Decision Today.

Eternal Life or Eternal Death.

Choose Wisely.

People Live Once. Die Once.

Then Judgment of the Mighty One.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

19/5/11 - By the Numbers: How May 21, 2011, Was Calculated to Be Judgment Day

By: Nick Carbone (2 days ago)
Topics: 2011, doomsday, end of days, End of the World, end of the world 2011, end of the world may

Debra Schaper of Maryland, holding a placard on the streets of Manila, spreads the prediction that the world will end on May 21, 2011

Debra Schaper of Maryland, holding a placard on the streets of Manila, spreads the prediction that the world will end on May 21, 2011

Romeo Ranoco / Reuters

A radical Christian group has determined that the beginning of the end of the world will occur this week. But is the math correct?

Most of us roll our eyes when we stumble across an apocalypse theory. But Family Radio has been proclaiming May 21, 2011, as the veritable Judgment Day, and the prediction has been getting a lot of attention. How could the network come up with such a specific date? NewsFeed crunched the numbers to see if the calculations could indeed signal the second coming of Christ, using passages from the New International Version of the Bible.

The Bible lists very few specific dates for events, so calculating Judgment Day is a daunting task. It takes a healthy leap of faith to take the Family Radio summation as fact, but if the numbers are correct — and biblical evidence stands true — Judgment Day could indeed be upon us on Saturday.

(PHOTOS: See a cinematic view of the apocalypse.)

The Great Flood Struck in 4990 B.C.
Family Radio president Howard Camping determined the date of the flood by cobbling together information from the Bible. Starting with the exodus of the Jews out of Egypt, commonly thought to have occurred in 1447 B.C., he counted back through each generation to form a timeline, reaching the year 4990 B.C. for the flood.

The accuracy of this date is paramount to Camping's argument, but he seems to be one of a minority group in arriving at this number. Other biblical scholars say the flood happened around 2000 B.C.

Seven Days' Warning of the Great Flood

“Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” (Genesis 7: 4)

People had seven days to prepare for the great flood — an apocalyptic event in that time. This number serves as a benchmark.

Seven Days Equals 7,000 Years

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

Using the seven-day warning as a benchmark, Camping's calculations take this passage to heart. He added 7,000 years to the great flood date of 4990 B.C. (accounting for the fact that Year Zero doesn't officially exist in the Gregorian calendar we use today) to determine the date of the next destruction of humanity. But isn't this number a bit contrived? After all, no other biblical event used a multiplier of 1,000. So why this one?

Month 2, Day 17

“In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” (Genesis 7: 11)

The great flood occurred on 17 Iyar of the then standard Hebrew calendar, which 7,000 years later corresponds to May 21 in 2011.

Taking this evidence into account, Camping and his crew predict that earthquakes will shake the world at 6 p.m. on May 21. But many nonbelievers of the prediction, particularly religious ones, refute Family Radio's claims using other biblical evidence. After all, would God truly reveal his plans in a calculated manner?

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24: 36)

And it appears that not even Camping truly knows. After all, he predicted the same situation before — in 1994 — and 17 years later, we're still here. He later blamed that failed prediction on a miscalculation. Will he have to draft a similar excuse after Saturday?

Friday 13 May 2011

11/5/11 - Presbyterians to allow gays to be ordained ministers

Article by: ROSE FRENCH , Star Tribune
Updated: May 11, 2011 - 5:54 AM

Twin Cities vote tips balance in denomination's national balloting.

Twin Cities Presbyterians cast a historic vote on Tuesday to allow openly gay and lesbian members to be ordained ministers.

Presbyterian leaders say the Twin Cities vote of 205 to 56 was the action needed to end the 2.1 million-member denomination's national ban on gay clergy. A majority of the 173 U.S. presbyteries had to vote in favor of the new policy adopted last summer at the group's national assembly. The Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area happened to cast the 87th, and deciding, vote.

"It's very exciting," said the Rev. Timothy Hart-Andersen, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian in downtown Minneapolis and founder of advocacy group Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which supports the ordination of openly gay clergy. "I found myself welling up with tears. Up until now they've had to be closeted. Now they'll be able to come out. It will honor them as individuals and as full human beings like anyone else serving the church."
Hart-Andersen was among the 264 elders and ministers within the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area who cast votes at Peace Presbyterian Church in St. Louis Park Tuesday evening. Three voters abstained.
During the meeting, supporters and opponents of the change spoke to the assembled voters. Those against it said the change is not in line with Biblical teaching.

"It's very unfortunate we have to have this discussion today," said Peter Hwang, a member of the Korean Presbyterian Church. "I think we should be ashamed of ourselves. This homosexual issue is breaking our church. We need to abide by Scripture."

The denomination, based in Louisville, Ky., is the latest mainline Protestant group to move toward accepting same-gender relationships.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran group in the country, liberalized its policy toward gay clergy two years ago. The United Church of Christ started ordaining openly gay clergy in 1972, and more recently endorsed same-sex marriage. In 2003, the Episcopal Church caused an uproar in the global Anglican fellowship by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
The nation's largest mainline group, the United Methodist Church, which has just under 8 million U.S. members, has moved in the opposite direction on gay issues and is expected to retain its celibacy mandate for unmarried clergy.

Cynthia Bolbach, an elder and spokeswoman for Presbyterian Church USA, who was present at Tuesday's vote, said she hopes congregations which might be considering leaving the denomination "would not act rashly but instead live with it awhile."

"This doesn't mean that discussion ends," she said. "We hope this brings us more together than we were before." She added that the new policy would officially take effect on July 10, after all presbyteries complete their voting. In addition to the Twin Cities Presbytery, 86 others have voted to support the new policy while 62 have disapproved, she said.

The new policy overrides language in the Presbyterian Church USA's constitution that limited clergy roles to people "living in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness."

The new policy opens the clergy to those "joyfully submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ." That language was approved last summer at the national Presbyterian convention held in Minneapolis.
"We've been an epicenter of the movement," Hart-Anderson said. The Twin Cities Presbytery represents about 25,000 members and there are upwards of 75,000 Presbyterians in Minnesota.
The Rev. Chaz Ruark, executive presbyter for the Twin Cities Area, said the group had no idea when it scheduled its meeting it would end up becoming the presbytery to cast the deciding vote: "We thought it would already be decided," he said.

Ruark stressed also that the vote "does not enact any new requirements; neither a Presbytery nor a congregation is required to grant or consider ordination for anyone they feel is not qualified."
"Good members of sincere faith view this issue quite differently, yet we are committed to honor one another in the unity of our common beliefs, in the midst of this area of disagreement," he said.

The vote also could possibly resolve the controversy over an ordained minister who was charged with violating the church constitution when he legally married his gay partner in 2008. The Rev. Erwin Barron, who was associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in the 1990s, was acquitted on a 3-3 vote by a panel in Bloomington in March but that ruling was expected to be appealed. Barron is now a college professor in San Francisco whose church credentials remained with the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area.

Sunday 8 May 2011

The Great Christian College Compromise:

The Great Christian College Compromise:

New survey shows America’s Christian colleges abandoning their biblical foundations

PETERSBURG, Ky., May 2, 2011 – Ken Ham , Warner University president Dr. Greg Hall, and renowned researcher Britt Beemer take a penetrating look at how Christian colleges have compromised their beliefs in an eye-opening book releasing May 2 from Master Books, “Already Compromised: Christian Colleges Took a Test on the State of Their Faith and The Final Exam is In.”

Surveys have consistently shown that many Christian colleges are compromising on biblical principles by their answers to basic questions about the authority of the Bible. Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and the acclaimed Creation Museum , issues a clarion call to parents everywhere who are contemplating sending their teenager to a Christian college:
“Knowing that compromise (to one degree or another) awaits our kids, we had to contend with where to send them and try to prepare them for battle and encourage them to keep their guard up,” states the book.

Beemer’s America’s Research Group (ARG) surveyed schools associated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), a group of more than 90 colleges that require all of their professors to sign a personal statement of faith. Other respondents were from schools that were “religiously affiliated” through an association with a religious denomination. Over 300 leaders at Christian colleges participated in the survey.

“We are not questioning anyone’s faith or Christian commitment at these colleges. We are examining what is being taught on important issues like biblical inerrancy, especially when it comes to Genesis,” Ham says. “Many of these schools claim to teach the ‘inerrant Word of God,’ yet gloss over the first book of the Bible as mere allegory.”

In conducting the survey, the authors used open-ended and close-ended questions so answers could be compared. They also looked at various statements of faith from churches, Christian colleges, etc., through an internet search, and found that most statements of faith had a very general statement (if any) on creation.

“Such general statements can sadly lead to the door of compromise being opened and eventually lead a college, church, etc., down the liberal path,” the book says.
While the survey did bring out some surprising results, “24 percent of the 312 people surveyed answered every question correctly … and these are the ‘good guys!’ These are the institutions that require testimonies of faith from their professors or have strong religious affiliations,” the book says.

Many Christian parents mistakenly assume that if they send their children to a self-described Christian college, they are protecting their children’s faith from non-biblical ideas such as evolution, and providing their children with a more morally nurturing environment, the book states.

Hall explains that parents are sending their students into the schools assuming that they are going to be faith-nurturing and truth-affirming institutions. He says that in reality many of the schools discredit faith, discredit the Bible, and break kids down rather than build them up. Many young people who have attended such Christian colleges leave the Christian faith as a result. Just as the previous book by Ham and Beemer (“Already Gone”) explored, young people are leaving the church in droves (many over biblical authority issues), and Christian colleges are contributing to this exodus.

“There are good Christian schools out there and we feel they are better than secular alternatives by far. But these issues of compromise have to be addressed,” the book concludes.
In the end, Ham and Hall call for students and parents to get involved and become aware of what is being taught on campus and to ask probing questions of school officials and professors about biblical inerrancy. The newly launched companion website for “Already Compromised”—www.CreationColleges.org—can help as well.