Foster son taken from Christian couple because they object to homosexuality

Foster son taken from Christian couple because they object to homosexuality
posted at 9:15 pm on October 23, 2007 by Allahpundit
The boy’s been placed now with a kindly atheist family that’s promising to teach him well “the ways of teh ghey.” No no, kidding. He’s languishing in a youth hostel — after having lived with the couple for two years.
It seems they didn’t love thy neighbor quite enough to suit British law.
The devastated couple, who have three grown up children of their own, became foster parents in 2001 and have since cared for 28 children at their home in Chard, Somerset.
Earlier this year, Somerset County Council’s social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour’s new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal.
Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages.
They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings…
Mr Matherick, a 65-year-old retired travel agent and a primary school governor, said: “I simply could not agree to do it because it is against my central beliefs.
“We have never discriminated against anybody but I cannot preach the benefits of homosexuality when I believe it is against the word of God.”…
Religious campaigners say the couple are the latest victims of an equality drive which puts gay rights above religious beliefs.
Muslim groups are complaining too, so maybe Christians can ride the coattails of “Islamophobia” to eventual victory here. Exit question: With Britain needing an extra 8,000 foster parents to meet demand, is it time for Britain to do something daring and consider religious families?
Update: You can’t truly appreciate the absurdity of this story until you’ve read this, too.

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/10/23/foster-son-taken-from-christian-couple-because-they-object-to-homosexuality/

City hall accuses Christians of politics

City hall accuses Christians of politics

Honors Buddha but fights back against faithful
Posted: October 23, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
One of the religious Buddhist cloth paintings displayed in Bloomington city hall
The city attorney in Bloomington, Ind., has accused a group of Christians of using their beliefs as a “political tool” for next month’s city elections.
City attorney Kevin Robling told WRTV in Indianapolis he thought it was a “shame” for the Christians, who objected to the city’s promotion of Buddhist religious articles without any balancing Christian items, to act this way.
“We’ve got an election in 18 days,” he told the station. “I think what you’ve got is a group of people who are using their religion as a political tool.”
However, he did not explain how such beliefs could be converted into a “political tool” or create a political impact, nor did he get agreement from the Christians, who have objected to the city’s promotion of the Buddhist display as part of its publicity for a coming visit from the Dali Lama.
The group of Christians last week, as WND reported, took a stone sculpture of the 10 Commandments to city hall and placed them there in order to include Christianity with Buddhism in the religious beliefs being promoted by the city.
City officials took them down immediately, describing that act as a violation of the First Amendment, because the Christians did not have permission to place the limestone sculpture there. They also described the Buddhism display as art and culture, not religion.
Indianapolis resident Shirley Douglas told the station the Buddhist display is “totally religious in nature.” And a lawyer who has offered the group preliminary guidance said an option would be for the group to ask the city to provide the same accommodations for Christian information as it provided for Buddhism, and see the results.
Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan
A WND request for comment from Mayor Mark Kruzan wasn’t returned.
But Amy Bernitt, one of the group objecting to the Buddhist display, told WND the group would review their advice and decide soon how to proceed, because they don’t have any inclination to let the issue drop.
“We clearly feel that we’re being discriminated against. We clearly feel that the city is breaking the First Amendment promoting one religion over another,” she said.
The lawyer, who is affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund, told WND that while she is not formally representing the group at this time, her advice has been to make a request for the same public display of Christian items as that given to Buddhism.
“Something in keeping with what the city allowed the Tibetan Cultural Center to do,” she said, noting that with the display, it appears the city has opened a “limited public forum” and now is not allowed to discriminate against any religion.
A city official told the Christians that she had decided the items were art, not religious, as part of the city’s rejection last week of the request for equal time for Christian symbols and representations.
The dispute arose over a display of Buddhist items in Bloomington city hall. The 10 Commandments tablets were delivered and set up by a volunteer team of Christians after city officials refused to respond to the group’s multiple telephone and e-mail requests about the procedure used to erect the Buddhist display.
At the installation of the Christian symbol, according to the local Herald Times newspaper, Jim Billingsley read a statement explaining what was going on.
“These commandments are our symbol of peace, and we want to include them with the city’s display to promote religious enlightenment. We want to be clear that we do not agree with the ideology of the Dalai Lama or Buddhist beliefs – we are Christians and believe in one God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” he said.
Deputy Mayor James McNamara was in attendance, but declined to participate, telling Bernitt he had been assigned to observe the situation.
He denied the city promotes one religion over another, saying instead the display of the statues of Buddha and the other religious artifacts are, in fact, “cultural.”
Bernitt said the Ten Commandments also are cultural, and artistic, since they were carved from limestone, for which the Bloomington area is famous.
Kruzan earlier told the newspaper the Ten Commandments weren’t being allowed because the installation “followed no process and does not constitute a work of art.”
In his announcement promoting the Buddhist display, Kruzan said there would be a ceremony “with His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama” at the Tibetan Cultural Center.
“We look forward to His Holiness’ visit and this special ribbon cutting event, which will be open to the public,” he said.
The display, according to the city, features photographs and craftwork of Tibet. “Also on exhibit are religious cloth paintings or thangkas and photographic scrolls featuring images of Tibet,” the city said.
There also is a “Peace Tree” in city hall, where the public “is invited to write their ‘peace wishes’ on the paper strips and tie them to the tree branches,” the city announcement said.
The Christians simply said that those actions opened the door to all religious materials, and their beliefs have just as much right to space in city hall as the Dalai Lama’s.
Michael Douglas, a pastor at Pentecostal Faith Assembly, told the newspaper he wants an equal voice for his beliefs. “He (Dalai Lama) lost his voice in his country, (we) don’t want to lose our voice in our country,” he said.
In an e-mail, Billingsley told WND that in addition to the promotional display about Buddhism, the city is placing Dalai Lama banners on city street poles and publishing articles about the philosophy of Buddhism in a city funded magazine.
He said the installation ceremony for the Ten Commandments was brief.
“I read a brief statement on the importance of the Ten Commandments being the bedrock on which our city and nation’s cultural and legal foundations stand,” he wrote. “We then proceeded to take two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments (each about 2 ft. tall and 1 ft. wide) and a table inside city hall and placed them right in front of the city’s religious display of Buddhism.”
“Shortly after we left, the city had the Ten Commandments removed. There is an obvious endorsement of one religion, and the deliberate exclusion of another going on here by Bloomington’s city government,” he said.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58285

Nativity to be allowed in Washington State Capitol rotunda after lawsuit

Nativity to be allowed in Capitol rotunda

Lawsuit settlement calls for fair treatment for Christian beliefs
Posted: October 23, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
A Nativity scene will be allowed in the Capitol rotunda in Olympia, Wash., this year, as the result of a lawsuit brought against the state a year ago when officials put up a “holiday” tree and allowed a menorah to be displayed, but refused permission for the Nativity.
The word comes just days after the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport announced it not only would not have any Nativity, menorah or other religious symbol, it wouldn’t even have “holiday” trees.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport installing “winter trees” this Christmas season (Courtesy Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
It’s now a simple notation that it’s “winter.”
The airport unceremoniously removed all of its Christmas trees in the middle of the night last year rather than allow a rabbi to put up a menorah near the largest tree display. Commissioners said they feared that one display would open the door for other religious displays, so this year they will have a grove of birches in Dacron snow.
The rotunda decision, however, went the opposite direction.
“It’s incredible to think that Americans have to think twice about whether it is okay to celebrate Christmas in public,” said Byron Babione, a senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which took up the legal battle.

“Just as it is constitutional for officials to display a menorah and a holiday tree, it is also constitutional to include a Nativity scene. We are pleased that the settlement will allow for a Nativity scene in the rotunda this year,” he said.
The issue was raised by Ron Wesselius, who sought permission in 2006 to erect the display. State officials denied permission, but Gov. Chris Gregoire did light a menorah and a allowed a “holiday tree,” formerly called a Christmas tree, which was sponsored by the Association of Washington Business.
“Ninety-five percent of Americans celebrate Christmas,” Babione said. “In light of that fact, the inclusion of a Nativity scene by a private citizen is entirely appropriate. More importantly, it does not violate any facet of the law.”
Babione continued, “In fact, the state capitol rotunda is open for displays and exhibits during the holiday season. The state cannot bar a Christmas Nativity because of its religious viewpoint and allow other displays like a menorah and ‘holiday tree,’” he said.
Proposed Nativity scene
Steve Valandra, a spokesman for the Washington Department of General Administration, said now all requests for displays will be considered. “If they meet the guidelines and people go through the process, it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.
The agreement affirms that all applicants will be treated similarly “in all respects, including access to the areas in the Capitol Rotunda … to display a Nativity Scene during the 2007 traditional holiday season.
It also will include a sign saying:
This Nativity holiday display was provided and erected by private citizens of the State of Washington to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, which is celebrated by Christians around the world
The avoidance of the word “Christmas” in referring to the Christmas season, and specifically the Christmas tree, sometimes can be extreme.
When Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., avoided using the word “Christmas” while addressing those who watched the 2006 lighting of the 65-foot Pacific Silver Fir as the “Capitol Christmas Tree,” WND questioned her spokesman about the action.
“She was speaking to a crowd, and she said what she said. This is the holiday season, we’re just thrilled that the tree is from Washington state. It’s just a time to bring everybody together to celebrate the season,” Alex Glass, Murray’s communications director, told WND.
When asked if there was any objection to calling the tree a “Christmas tree,” Glass said the senator doesn’t have a policy.
“I think, you know, whatever people want to call it, we are accepting of all of it,” Glass said. “It’s a time to remember what the season is about.”
And that is? Celebrating, of course.
And what are we celebrating?
“The season,” Glass said.
And what is the season?
“I’m not going to get into semantics with you guys,” Glass said.
WND also has reported on the launch of “The Nativity Project,” a campaign to encourage the display of Nativity scenes throughout the United States at Christmas.
Faith and Action made the announcement along with Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, of the Christian Defense Coalition, who said there is an “erosion” of religious freedoms in America.
“This is especially true during the Christmas season where there is an open hostility toward public expressions of faith. We must constantly remind our public officials that the Constitution promises freedom ‘of’ religion not freedom ‘from’ religion,” he said.
For others, including lawyers at the Thomas More Law Center, their Christmas season work already has begun.
They are working in Berkley, Mich., where last winter the city council was “cowed” by a threat of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, and removed a decades-old Nativity display from city property.
But the action rejected the will of the people, who assembled behind resident Georgia Halloran as the “Berkley Citizens Vote YES to Christmas Holiday Display” and mounted a successful petition drive to overrule the city decision.
The law firm said enough signatures were gathered to put a proposed charter amendment on the Nov. 6, 2007, general election that would require the city to display a Nativity scene from the Monday following Thanksgiving to Jan. 6.
Another organization, The Rutherford Institute, also is in the middle of its Christmas campaign already. It has been busy addressing attacks on Christmas celebrations at public schools.
The Institute reports that its legal hotline already has been getting calls from parents and teachers with complaints their schools’ traditional Christmas concerts now are “winter holiday programs” and Christmas itself now is a “winter festival.”
The Rutherford Institute said it has published “The Twelve Rules of Christmas” about what can and cannot be done to celebrate the holiday.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58274

Christian group apologizes for pro-life message

Christian group apologizes for pro-life message’

We respect the separation educators need to have from the church world’
Posted: October 16, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Tina Marie
A Christian organization that provides motivational speakers to high schools has apologized to a school after one speaker made comments that could have been interpreted as opposing abortion and support heterosexual relationships.
The speaker is Tina Marie, an actress who is available for such events through Premiere Speakers. She spoke recently in several Minnesota schools under the auspices of Youth for Christ.
“The issue … was that the speaker indicated a pro-life stance when it came to the abortion issue, and when it came to homosexuality and/or the gay issue, she could have been interpreted as an anti-gay stance,” Bob Poe, a spokesman for the YFC office, told WND.
“Although she did not say directly either one of those statements, by her examples and inference that would have been logical,” he said.
Poe said he wrote to the school to address the concerns, while Willmar High School Principal Rob Anderson was writing to parents to apologize for Marie’s comments, which he defined as having “crossed the line.”

The actress, who has experience as an international speaker, host, reporter, author and emcee, has appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Young and the Restless,” “Lizzie McQuire” and others. She worked for eight years in feature films and television shows and realized during that time how the media “twists the truth.”
Now as a National Speakers Association member, she wants to share the truth with teens and their parents.
During her visit to Willmar, she asked students to listen to song lyrics, and consider their message. She also said actors and musicians often won’t let their own children watch or listen to the things they are trying to sell to others’ children, according to a report in the Morris, Minn., newspaper.
But the report in the Sun-Tribune said Tina Marie told the students one-third of their generation has been aborted, and she suggested boys who wear low-hanging pants may be seen as homosexuals.
YFC, which has worked for 20 years bringing motivational speakers to Minnesota schools, agrees biblically with her opposition to abortion and homosexuality. But Poe said that wasn’t supposed to be the topic of the address to students.
“We have never taken speakers into the school system to deal with those issues,” he told WND. “I think we would rather that the speakers we bring to schools not deal with topics that are controversial, that the school desires to remain neutral about, although as YFC, an organization, we are pro-life and pro-heterosexual.”
Poe said he’s never before worked with a speaker who broached such subjects in the past while they give assigned talks on issues such as racism, bullying, drug abuse and alcohol abuse.
“I know these people [in the community]. I’ve lived with these people for years. They have kids’ best at heart. Unfortunately, we’re in a system that allows one individual to cause a lot of pain,” he said.
“We respect the separation the school needs to have from the church world,” he said. He said he refunded the money Willmar schools paid for the program.
Many times a companion evening event is held that does include a religious component.
“We work very hard to follow the law as it applies to separation of church and state,” Superintendent Kathy Leedom told the newspaper. “We’re also diligent in refraining from advocating for a certain viewpoint.”
Marie, calling herself a “truth catalyst,” said students must think about media messages in music and television and become proactive in attempting to make changes.
Bart Graves, a volunteer with YFC, said the organization “can help find ways to reach kids when traditional methods are not as useful as they used to be.”
Marie, who also has been on Alan Colmes National FOX radio show, also has served as commentator on issues such as “Brokeback Mountain” and South Dakota’s legislative effort to ban abortion.
Her profile describes her as a former Wisconsin farm girl who challenges her audience “to take a stand against violent, obscene entertainment.”
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58156

Conservative Ann Coulter vs. Liberal Donny Deutsch

Democrat Nancy Pelosi refuses to allow "God" on flag certificates

Pelosi defends refusal to put “God” on flag certificates
Posted by Sabrina Eaton October 09, 2007 16:28PM
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today defended the Architect of the Capitol’s refusal to permit use of the word “God” on official certificates enclosed with flags flown over the U.S. Capitol.
Dayton-area GOP Rep. Michael Turner and more than 100 of his Republican colleagues sent a letter to Pelosi last week after an Eagle Scout in his district asked that a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol be sent to his grandfather with a certificate inscribed with the message: “In honor of my grandfather Marcel Larochelle, and his dedication and love of God, country, and family.”
The boy and his father contacted Turner’s office after noticing the word “God” was left off the certificate included with the flag. Outraged upon learning that the acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, won’t allow religious expressions on flag certificates, Turner sent a protest letter to Pelosi.
“The Architect’s policy prohibiting “God” from appearing on certificates for flags flown over the U.S. Capitol puts at risk our religious freedoms and heritage,” said the letter, which also was signed by Ohio Republican Reps. Steve LaTourette of Bainbridge Township, Patrick Tiberi of Genoa, Jim Jordan of Urbana, Steve Chabot of Cincinnati and Jean Schmidt of Miami Township. “The Architect’s policy is in direct conflict with his charge, as well as the scope of his office and brings into question his ability to preserve a building containing many national religious symbols.”
Asked about the issue today at a press luncheon, Pelosi said the architect’s policy was adopted because “people were asking for statements that not only were religious, beyond using the word God, but political as well.” She said the official policy is to send a certificate that lists nothing beyond the date the flag flew over the Capitol and the name of its recipient. She said that members of Congress who request flags on behalf of constituents can “add whatever they wish” to the certificates, “whether it is a political statement or a religious statement.”
“It’s not about being anti-religion,” Pelosi said, noting that each day in the Capitol starts with a prayer. “It is just about what the architect thought was appropriate for him to proclaim in a certificate.”
Turner said Tuesday that he will continue seeking more signatures for his letter asking Pelosi to overturn the policy, and “if the speaker and the architect continue to implement their censorship program, we will drop legislation to compel the architect to return to granting inscriptions permitting the acknowledgement of God.”
He said members of Congress vet the appropriateness of messages constituents request with the flags, and their discretion should be sufficient.”We have the responsibility for these common sense issues that might arise with flag inscriptions and this one is basic,” Turner said. “The architect has decided the word ‘God’ is offensive. This rule should not be allowed to stand.”

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/10/pelosi_defends_refusal_to_put.html

As Barack Obama Talks Religion, Questions Surround His Controversial Pastor who said, "You cannot truly understand God unless you are black…."

As Obama Talks Religion, Questions Surround His Controversial Pastor
Monday , October 08, 2007
By Cristina Corbin
Barack Obama has put his religion back into the headlines, trumpeting the power and salvation of faith and asking a church audience in South Carolina to help him become “an instrument of God” and join him in creating “a Kingdom right here on Earth.”
But the Democratic contender’s talk on Sunday of breaking down religious and political differences has some critics questioning the Illinois senator’s own beliefs — and those of the man identified as his spiritual adviser — and whether his messages of spiritual inclusion and tolerance have remained consistent.
Obama has written and spoken about being inspired by the preaching of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and his calls to “spur social change.” The title of Obama’s second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” which essentially launched his presidential bid, was taken from a sermon by Wright.
Baptized in Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama has been an active member for two decades, regularly attending services with his family under Wright’s spiritual mentorship.
Some of Wright’s sermons, which often address themes of white supremacy and black repression, have come under scrutiny by those who interpret them as racially divisive. Such preaching, they believe, polarizes Americans rather than unites them.
“Wright’s preaching does promote a sort of racial exclusivity,” said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.
“Statements that suggest you cannot truly understand God unless you are black or poor are exclusive.”
Remarks attributed to Wright that were posted on audio files on the Internet and cited in press accounts earlier this year may have prompted the criticism.
“Fact number one: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college.
“Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run.
“We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional killers. … We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. … We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. … We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means.
“And … And … And! God! Has got! To be sick! Of this s***!”
Click here to hear an audio clip of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
Wright had been scheduled to speak at Obama’s Feb. 10 presidential announcement. But after news of the remarks were published, the senator apparently changed his mind the night before and chose the Rev. Otis Moss III, Wright’s successor at Trinity United Church of Christ. Moss declined the invitation.
A request for an interview with Wright was not granted. All requests for an interview were referred to the Obama campaign.
An Obama spokesman referred to Wright as “media shy,” although Wright has routinely posted live webcasts of his sermons on Trinity United’s Web site.
Obama met Wright after college while working with local churches in Chicago to tackle problems of drug abuse and unemployment in inner-city neighborhoods. Wright preached an Afrocentric theology that interpreted the Bible through shared suffering of African Americans.
For Obama, this experience was a spiritual turning point. He had been exposed to various faiths during his life but never formally adopted one until after meeting Wright.
“Inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones,” he wrote in his memoir, “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”
“Those stories — of survival, and freedom, and hope — became our story, my story.”
Wright’s defenders say his theology has been misunderstood and taken out of context. They say Wright seeks only to give blacks a sense of dignity and identity, and that his philosphy and sermons are not racist.
“The idea that this preaching is divisive is absolutely ridiculous,” said the Rev. Dr. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church in Chicago, who has known Obama for more than 20 years.
“The job of pastor is to shepherd his or her congregation, and that requires speaking to your congregants in the language and context they understand.”
For his part, Obama has said he does not agree with Wright on every issue, religious or political. But that doesn’t sit well with some.
“If Barack Obama has really submitted himself to his church like he’s claimed, why does he have a different expression of faith from his own pastor?” asks Anthony Bradley, theologian and research fellow at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Meanwhile, in a statement on his church’s Web site, Wright defends the principles of his theology:
“To have a church whose theological perspective starts from the vantage point of Black liberation theology being its center, is not to say that African or African American people are superior to any one else. …There is more than one center from which to view the world. In the words of Dr. Janice Hale, ‘Difference does not mean deficience’ [sic]. It is from this vantage point that Black liberation theology speaks.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300135,00.html

Again! 10 Christians slaughtered over alleged Muhammad cartoon

Again! 10 Christians slaughtered over alleged Muhammad cartoon

61 injured, 9 churches burned, hundreds displaced after rumored ‘insult’ to Islam Posted: October 5, 20077:53 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others, destroyed nine churches and displaced more than 500 people in northern Nigeria, according to eyewitnesses – all because Muslim high school students claimed a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, on the wall of the school’s mosque.
The rampage occurred Sept. 28 in the town of Tudun Wada Dankadai, in Nigeria’s northern state of Kano.
According to Compass Direct News, which specializes in reporting on Christian persecution worldwide, there are 1,500 students at the high school, called Government College-Tudun Wada Dankadai, of which only 14 are Christians, and only seven of those actually live on campus. The Christian students at the school insist no one ever saw the alleged cartoon, and furthermore that no one in the tiny minority group of Christians would have dared such a feat, especially during Ramadan.
“How can we take such a risk when we know that we are a minority and cannot stand [against] them?” Christian student Shehu Bawa told Compass. “This is a lie created to have a reason to attack us.”
Eighteen-year-old student Iliya Adamu told Compass he was getting ready to go to class when a group of Muslim students stormed into his dorm and began to beat him.

“I was surprised that they were beating me without telling what I did,” Adamu said. “I asked to know what was happening, and they claimed that one Christian student had gone to their mosque to draw a cartoon of Muhammad. In spite of my denying the act, they kept beating me.”
Seeing the Muslim mob beating a Christian classmate named Sule La’azaru, Adamu ran to the principal’s office for refuge, soon to be joined by the remaining Christian students there, according to the report.
Despite the attempts by the Muslim teachers to stop the rampage, Muslim students began throwing stones at the Christian students through the window of the principal’s office, wounding student Ayuba Wada in the head.
“I was inside the office of our principal, with the others, when suddenly the Muslim students began throwing stones at us,” Wada told Compass. “It was through this way that my head was broken. I was bleeding, and no help came as the situation became more riotous.”
Eventually, the rampaging Muslim students broke into the principal’s office, but the principal’s arrival saved Wada’s life, while the other Christians holed up there managed to escape the mob.
One of the Christian students, Shehu Bawa, told Compass his arrival on campus that morning was punctuated by shouts of “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is Great) “all over the school.” In fact, he said, “The Muslim students were now attacking every Christian student on sight. Four of us ran into the office of the vice principal, but when it was finally broken into by the Muslim students, we ran out and escaped.”
What about the alleged cartoon of Muhammad, rumors of which instigated the attacks?
“We suspect that either one of the Muslim students in the school did this to create an excuse for us to be attacked, or that a Muslim fanatic from the town might have done this to spark off a fight among Muslims and Christians,” said Bawa. “How could we have done this when Muslim students are always around the mosque day and night because of the Ramadan?”
The rampage spreads far and wide
After attacking the few Christian students in their school, the rampaging Muslim students poured into the streets of Tudun Wada, joined now by other Muslims. For the next four hours, reports Compass, the growing mob burned down Christian churches, vandalized Christian property and murdered innocents.
Among the churches burned were: St. Mary’s Catholic Church; St. George’s Anglican Church; Evangelical Church of West Africa; Assemblies of God Church; First Baptist Church; a Pentecostal church called the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church; an African independent church, the Cherubim and Seraphim Church; and two other Pentecostal churches, The Chosen Bible Church and Deeper Life Bible Church.
Children of murdered Christian (Courtesy Compass Direct)
The 10 Christians murdered included: Augustine Odoh and his younger brother Cosmos Odoh, both members of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Another Catholic, Joseph Eze, was also killed. When Compass filed its initial report, the corpses of the three Catholics were lying at the City Hospital in Kano city. Seven other Christians murdered were buried in a common grave Wednesday, but government workers did not allow relatives or church leaders to identify the corpses.
The dozens of injured are being treated at the Assumpta Clinic, Nomansland in Sabon Gari area of Kano city.
According to Musa Ahmadu Haruna, the priest of St. George’s Anglican Church, Tudun Wada Dankadai, whose church was burned, no Christian student in the school could have drawn an image of Muhammad.
“None of these students is capable of drawing a cartoon on a mosque,” he told Compass Direct. “That is a frame-up to find a reason to attack us.”
Another pastor, Rabiu Danbawa of the Evangelical Church of West Africa, said that upon hearing of the waves of attacks on Christians, he moved toward the town’s center to see for himself what was transpiring.
“I stood as they set fire on our churches one by one,” he told Compas Direct. “There was nothing I could do,” he said, adding, “I did not know the fate of my wife and my children.” When he went to the local police station for help, Danbawa found the police turning away Christians who had run there to escape the attack. “We were told to leave, as our safety could not be guaranteed,” he said, in tears, according to Compass Direct. “Women and children all scampered to the bush, only to be attacked by the Muslims who had already hid themselves in the bush awaiting their Christian prey.”
It wasn’t until several days later that Danbawa found his wife and children safe.
Accoroding to reports from Compass, Danbawa and his family are now refugees in Dogon Kawo village, along with other Christian victims. None have food or shelter, he said.
Even Christian policemen were not immune, with about 30 officers and their families being attacked and their homes looted and set on fire.
Last week’s massacre comes in respose to a call in July by the Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar III, to Muslims in northern Nigeria to rise against Christianity. Kano’s state government has led the way in northern Nigeria for the implementation of sharia Islamic law.
Mark Lipdo, director of the Stefanos Foundation, which ministers to persecuted Christians in Nigeria, told Compass he’s shocked that the Nigerian government has done nothing to help the injured and displaced.
“It is surprising that an overwhelming thing like this that has displaced thousands of Christians is not known to the Nigerian government,” he said, noting that the government initially downplayed the mass rampage. “The government must act to check such unprovoked attacks against Christians.”
And Haruna of St. George’s Anglican Church said, “We are living under persecution in Kano state, and yet, we are being told that we are under a democratic government. Do Muslims really want us to co-exist together as a nation? I doubt so.”
As WND reported in May, Christians in Nigeria, who make up about half the population, fears the imposition of Islamic law throughout that nation.
Indeed, as WND has reported, Muslim rioters in Nigeria in 2006 were incensed over cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark, and more than 130 Christians in the Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Onitsha were slaughtered.
The reports documented six children burned to ashes in front of their father, according to Voice of the Martyrs.
WND also has reported nearly 1,000 homes of Christians and many churches have been destroyed in these regions.
“If you go around villages, you will see people missing one hand or one foot,” explained Rev. Obiora Ike. “Do you think that’s the result of an illness? That is the result of sharia law.”
More than 10,000 Christians have been martyred in the region since the Islamic law was imposed in the region in 1999, and Voice of the Martyrs has helped surviving family members through its Families of Martyrs Fund with Care Packs, Village Outreach packs and words of encouragement to believers who stand for their faith “amidst volatile, uncertain conditions.”

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58015

HOLY OBAMA: ‘WE CAN CREATE KINGDOM ON EARTH’

October 8, 2007
Obama: GOP doesn’t own faith and values
Obama told an evangelical church in South Carolina: “I am confident we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth.”
GREENVILLE, South Carolina (CNN) — After speaking to an evangelical church on Sunday in this traditionally conservative South Carolina city, Sen. Barack Obama said that Republicans no longer have a firm grip on religion in political discourse.
“I think its important particularly for those of us in the Democratic Party to not cede values and faith to any one party,” Obama told reporters outside the Redemption World Outreach Center where he attended services.
“I think that what you’re seeing is a breaking down of the sharp divisions that existed maybe during the nineties, when at least in politics the perception was that the Democrats were fearful of talking about faith, and on the other hand you had the Republicans who had a particular brand of faith that often times seemed intolerant or pushed people away,” he said.
Obama noted that he was pleased leaders in the evangelical community like T.D. Jakes and Rick Warren were beginning to discuss social justice issues like AIDS and poverty in ways evangelicals were not doing before.
“I think that’s a healthy thing, that we’re not putting people in boxes, that everybody is out there trying to figure out how do we live right and how do we create a stronger America,” Obama said.
During the nearly two hour service that featured a rock band and hip-hop dancers, Obama shared the floor with the church’s pastor, Ron Carpenter. The senator from Illinois asked the multiracial crowd of nearly 4,000 people to keep him and his family in their prayers, and said he hoped to be “an instrument of God.”
“Sometimes this is a difficult road being in politics,” Obama said. “Sometimes you can become fearful, sometimes you can become vain, sometimes you can seek power just for power’s sake instead of because you want to do service to God. I just want all of you to pray that I can be an instrument of God in the same way that Pastor Ron and all of you are instruments of God.”
He finished his brief remarks by saying, “We’re going to keep on praising together. I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth.”
Asked by CNN if he talks about faith more in churchgoing South Carolina than he does in the other early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Obama said: “I don’t talk about it all the time, but when I’m in church I talk about it.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/08/obama-gop-doesnt-own-faith-and-values/

Republican lawmaker protests government censorship of ‘God’

Lawmaker protests censorship of ‘God’
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago
An Ohio lawmaker on Thursday demanded that Capitol officials change a policy that resulted in the word “God” being removed from a certificate accompanying a flag being sent to one of his constituents.
Republican Rep. Michael Turner urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to review and reverse a rule followed by the Architect of the Capitol that bans the use of religious expressions on flag certificates.
That policy, Turner said in a letter to Pelosi signed by other Republicans, “puts at risk our religious freedoms and heritage.”
Turner said the constituent, Paul Larochelle, and his son Andrew had requested a flag flown over the Capitol on Sept. 11 which Andrew, 17, was to give to his grandfather after being inducted into the Eagle Scouts.
They asked that the certificate of authenticity accompanying the flag read: “this flag was flown in honor of Marcel Larochelle, my grandfather, for his dedication and love of God, country and family.” The Architect’s office, citing its own rules, returned the certificate with the word “God” excised.
“The word ‘God’ is carved into the walls of both chambers of Congress,” Turner said in a statement. “The Architect is the custodian of the Capitol and currently maintains several religious symbols in the building. If permitted, removing ‘God’ from the Capitol flag ceremonies will be the precedent for removing ‘God’ from the Capitol, and this cannot be permitted.”
Under the flag program, begun in 1937, people may request through senators and House members one of the many flags raised and lowered over the Capitol every day. Currently, the Architect of the Capitol fulfills more than 100,000 flag requests from members every year.
Kyle Anderson, spokesman for House Administration Committee chairman Robert Brady, D-Pa., said there was concern that members had received inconsistent responses over the years on the rules governing the contents of certificates.
He said the committee was being asked to come up with a solution allowing members to send constituents the messages they wished while still providing a certificate of authenticity from the Architect.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071004/ap_on_go_co/flag_dispute_2