According to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s longtime pastor, media criticisms of his fiery sermons are really misunderstandings and attacks upon the whole Black American church. He is hoping that all the controversy will have a positive outcome and bring about a dialogue about race and religion in America.

Response: It is really hard to see how criticism of Rev. Wright’s diatribes against America can possibly be considered an attack upon the whole Black American church. I would really like to hear from other Black Pastors what they think about that possibility. Do they feel like all the criticism of Wrights controversial anti-American statements really reflect upon them also.

It is time in America for Christians to finally address the racial division in the church. If the Rev. Wright controversy begins a dialogue among Christians of all races than we agree with Rev. Wright, that would be a positive development.            *Top

Jordan is supposed to be a moderate Muslim country yet lately they have been kicking Christian ministries out and now there is an ex-Muslim man on trial for converting to Christianity. He is said to be in danger of losing his family in the process. Also, read about all the persecution that the man has received from his family and authorities.

Response: Those of us in America and in the West continue to be in denial about Muslim countries like Jordan which are considered to be ‘moderate’. They are moderate only in the sense that a Christian convert does not face death, only loss of legal rights and persecution.            *Top

Pope Benedict personally talked and prayed with a small group of victims of clergy sex abuse his first day in the US. This set a needed tone of reconciliation and humility.

  It is very well that He directly addressed this issue at the beginning of his visit since it has caused the Catholic Church to lose a great deal of respect in America due to the actions and cover-ups by the Bishops overseeing Priests.

In a service with 350 Bishops and Cardinals, the Pope stressed the importance of the church leaders to address and heal the ‘enormous pain’ caused by clergy sexual abuse in the USA:

“It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out to those so seriously wronged.”

Response: He is definitely talking to the right folks here on this issue, since it was a breakdown in the priesthood and the poor supervision and responses of the Bishops that led to this enormous church scandal.            *Top

Here is a great article on Pajamas Media by Youssef M. Ibrahim, a freelance writer and a former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times.

He winds up his editorial with the following observations:

“We should come back to reality.

Mild Islamism is an oxymoron. Sharia law, which sanctions beating of wives and stoning for adultery, is irreconcilable with human rights. The Muslim Brotherhood founded Hamas, calls suicide bombings a good thing, and is the 21st-century version of the organized fascism of Hitler and Mussolini in the last century.”

Response: No response! He says it better than I could ever hope too. A must read article.            *Top

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, known to be a ‘holocaust’ denier, has now joined the ranks of the crazies who question the terrorist destruction of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001.

On Wednesday, in the speech to the Iranian people broadcast live from the city of Qom, he said:

Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names,"

"Under this pretext, they (the U.S.) attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and since then a million people have been killed only in Iraq."

Response: Ahmadinejad never lets the truth or the facts get in the way, whether we are talking about 6 million Jews or 2,700 New Yorkers. The names of the 2,700+ victims have been published a number of times. The names of all the known victims killed in New York on 9/11/01 were read aloud as recently as the last anniversary of the attacks at a memorial ceremony.         *Top

According to recent news releases from China, modified semi-automatic weapons have been found and confiscated in a Tibetan temple.

Also, the Chinese authorities continue to claim that the Dalai Lama is behind the violence in Tibet. In addition, they imply that some radical Tibetans may have been attempting to hijack an airplane.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama says that he is supporting the Olympics in Beijing and professes to be against all the violence. Traditionally, Tibetan Buddhism has taught and supported non-violence as part of their religion.

Response: Who do you believe? The Dalai Lama or the ChiComm authorities?  The Chinese obviously have their excellent PR/propaganda machine running overtime.             *Top

While Muslims in the USA have felt increasingly isolated from mainstream America since 9/11, they have found one group, the Mormons, who have reached out with understanding and friendship according to a recent LA Times article.

According to Maher Hathout, a senior advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles:

“We are very aware of the history of Mormons as a group that was chastised in America. They can be a good model for any group that feels alienated.”

Muslims and Mormons seem to have a growing relationship on a number of different levels, often they are co-hosts of a number of educational and social programs.   <Read the rest of the article on my Apologetica Blog>

*Top

An exhibition of Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka’s version of the Last Supper as a homosexual orgy deservedly brought with it a deluge of protests. What is really surprising is that the display was sponsored by a Roman Catholic museum–Dommuseum in Vienna. Another group of protests were raised when  Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, had the painting removed. 

The artist on the other hand, Alfred Hrdlicka, did not seem to be offended:

“I’ve got nothing against the Catholic Church. But all this has nothing to do with me … I don’t really mind whether the painting is displayed or taken down.”

Response: The protests in this case on both sides were rather mild. Can you imagine what would happen if a ‘homoerotic’ painting of Muhammad was displayed in public? I wonder how many would die to maintain the honor of Islam–the ‘religion of peace’?  Events like this do illustrate the vast differences between the two major world religions–Christianity and Islam, though many Western elites seem to want to maintain that there is some kind of equivalence.            *Top

In an advertising campaign hoping to reach Latinos in the USA, Absolut Vodka has reached new heights and become the new standard for failed ad disasters. What were these folks thinking of anyway!

The Absolut ad geniuses have placed their product smack dab in the midst of the illegal immigration controversy and seemingly joined in with the radical ‘Reconquistas’ who are calling for Latinos to take back the Southwest for Mexico.

Then to add to it all, their apologies were less than genuine and have left most business observers shaking their heads in total disbelief. One thing for sure, I won’t be drinking any Absolut anytime soon!             *Top

Attacks from radical Muslim groups and/or local governments have forced the closure of 110 churches in Indonesia in the last 3 years (2004-2007).  Indonesia is the largest Muslim country with an 85% Muslim population, of its 220 million people, and only an 8.7% Christian population.

  For years, the Christian community has been under persecution and had their rights violated on numerous occasions. As Islam has become more radicalized in recent years, the religious strife has increased. In many cases the local governments themselves have become more radical and government officials have been involved in the persecution, forcing Christians to move and churches to close.

West Java, Banten, Central Java, South Sulawesi and Bengkulu are the provinces which have the highest reported incidents of discrimination and violence against Christians and churches.            *Top